(this book's premise is that what is happening within the
context of Israel with regard to architecture and planning
is happening beyond this context, possibly an end-game
of the modernist utopia of an exclusive private planning.
highly recommended. hopefully discussed in all schools.)
[image] The private house of Israel's prime minister Ariel
Sharon in his Negev ranch is a living paradigm of Israeli
architecture: a mediterranean-style 'Wall and Tower' with
a new caravan outpost. ~photograph: Sharon Rotbard, 2002
quotes from: Rafi Segal, Eyal Weizman INTRODUCTION
A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture
Verso, NYC. ISBN 1-85984-549-5
'In an environment where architecture and planning are systematically
instrumentalized as the executive arms of the Israeli state, planning
decisions do not often follow criteria of economic sustainability,
ecology or efficiency of services, but are rather employed to serve
strategic and political agendas. Space becomes the material embodiment
of a matrix of forces, manifested across the landscape in the
construction of roads, hilltop settlements, development towns and
garden suburbs.' (p.19)
'By taking up projects in the West Bank, Israeli architects cross yet
another red line. Their planning conforms to a mode of design that
serves to oppress and disrupt local populations. Thus, beyond the mere
presence of Israeli settlements on occupied land, it is the way they
were designed- their size, form and distribution across the terrain-
that directly and negatively affects the lives and livelihoods of
Palestinians. According to the regional plans of politicians, suburban
homes, industrial zones, infrastructure and roads are designed and
built with the self-proclaimed aim of bisecting, disturbing and
squeezing out Palestinian communities. Israeli civilians are placed in
positions where they can supervise vital national interests just like
plain-clothes security personnel. This centralized, strategic and
political use of planning was voluntarily transferred onto the ground
by private architectural firms for financial gain. Planning and
building in the West Bank is effectively executing a political agenda
through spatial manipulations. The evidence is in the drawing.'
'It is by investigating the working methods and tools of architects-
the lines drawn on plans, master plans, maps and aerial photographs-
that the equation setting material organization against the abuse of
power begins to unravel. Formal manipulations and programmatic
organizations are the very stuff of architecture and planning, and it
is in the very drawings that their effects are stated. In them, the
forms produced by the processes and forces inherent within the logic of
the occupation can be traced. In both its overall logic and the
repetition of its micro-conditions, architecture and planning are used
as territorial weapons. Settlement forms and locations are manipulated
for the bisection of a Palestinian traffic artery, for surrounding a
village, for supervision of a major city or a strategic crossroad. In
this very design, the architect is engaged in the reversal of his
professional practice. That is if, despite the banality and simplicity
of the statement- and in the absence of an architectural equivalent of
the medical profession's Hippocratic oath- planning and architecture
must be carried out to the benefit of society. That is if, the
architect draws a particular angle, line or arc, or makes any other
design decision that is explicitly and practically aimed at
disturbance, suppression, aggression or racism, and when these stand,
clearly and brutally, in breach of basic human rights, a crime has been
committed.' (p.24-25)
'This statement opens up architecture to a different kind of critique.
Beyond the mere reintroduction of morality and ethics into
architectural debate, does this not also call for legal proceedings
that should be prosecuted by international law?' (p.25)
'Settlements are thus nothing but the final gesture in the
urbanization of enclaves. Perfecting the politics of separation,
seclusion and visual control, they can be seen as the end condition of
contemporary urban and architectural formations such as enclaved
suburban neighborhoods and gated communities...' (p.25)
'After all, is it not the same period of 1980s' Reaganism that has
produced the greatest number of West Bank settlements and introduced
the very terms 'gated community' and 'new urbanism'? Is the principle
of exclusive bypass roads really that different from the deliberate
carving up of poor communities with dead-end highways? Are we actually
describing a unique place whose specificity renders its study a local
curiosity, or is this not a worst-case scenario of capitalist
globalization and its spatial fallout?' (p.26)
~The Editors, ~Tel Aviv, ~November 2002
--
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context of Israel with regard to architecture and planning
is happening beyond this context, possibly an end-game
of the modernist utopia of an exclusive private planning.
highly recommended. hopefully discussed in all schools.)
[image] The private house of Israel's prime minister Ariel
Sharon in his Negev ranch is a living paradigm of Israeli
architecture: a mediterranean-style 'Wall and Tower' with
a new caravan outpost. ~photograph: Sharon Rotbard, 2002
quotes from: Rafi Segal, Eyal Weizman INTRODUCTION
A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture
Verso, NYC. ISBN 1-85984-549-5
'In an environment where architecture and planning are systematically
instrumentalized as the executive arms of the Israeli state, planning
decisions do not often follow criteria of economic sustainability,
ecology or efficiency of services, but are rather employed to serve
strategic and political agendas. Space becomes the material embodiment
of a matrix of forces, manifested across the landscape in the
construction of roads, hilltop settlements, development towns and
garden suburbs.' (p.19)
'By taking up projects in the West Bank, Israeli architects cross yet
another red line. Their planning conforms to a mode of design that
serves to oppress and disrupt local populations. Thus, beyond the mere
presence of Israeli settlements on occupied land, it is the way they
were designed- their size, form and distribution across the terrain-
that directly and negatively affects the lives and livelihoods of
Palestinians. According to the regional plans of politicians, suburban
homes, industrial zones, infrastructure and roads are designed and
built with the self-proclaimed aim of bisecting, disturbing and
squeezing out Palestinian communities. Israeli civilians are placed in
positions where they can supervise vital national interests just like
plain-clothes security personnel. This centralized, strategic and
political use of planning was voluntarily transferred onto the ground
by private architectural firms for financial gain. Planning and
building in the West Bank is effectively executing a political agenda
through spatial manipulations. The evidence is in the drawing.'
'It is by investigating the working methods and tools of architects-
the lines drawn on plans, master plans, maps and aerial photographs-
that the equation setting material organization against the abuse of
power begins to unravel. Formal manipulations and programmatic
organizations are the very stuff of architecture and planning, and it
is in the very drawings that their effects are stated. In them, the
forms produced by the processes and forces inherent within the logic of
the occupation can be traced. In both its overall logic and the
repetition of its micro-conditions, architecture and planning are used
as territorial weapons. Settlement forms and locations are manipulated
for the bisection of a Palestinian traffic artery, for surrounding a
village, for supervision of a major city or a strategic crossroad. In
this very design, the architect is engaged in the reversal of his
professional practice. That is if, despite the banality and simplicity
of the statement- and in the absence of an architectural equivalent of
the medical profession's Hippocratic oath- planning and architecture
must be carried out to the benefit of society. That is if, the
architect draws a particular angle, line or arc, or makes any other
design decision that is explicitly and practically aimed at
disturbance, suppression, aggression or racism, and when these stand,
clearly and brutally, in breach of basic human rights, a crime has been
committed.' (p.24-25)
'This statement opens up architecture to a different kind of critique.
Beyond the mere reintroduction of morality and ethics into
architectural debate, does this not also call for legal proceedings
that should be prosecuted by international law?' (p.25)
'Settlements are thus nothing but the final gesture in the
urbanization of enclaves. Perfecting the politics of separation,
seclusion and visual control, they can be seen as the end condition of
contemporary urban and architectural formations such as enclaved
suburban neighborhoods and gated communities...' (p.25)
'After all, is it not the same period of 1980s' Reaganism that has
produced the greatest number of West Bank settlements and introduced
the very terms 'gated community' and 'new urbanism'? Is the principle
of exclusive bypass roads really that different from the deliberate
carving up of poor communities with dead-end highways? Are we actually
describing a unique place whose specificity renders its study a local
curiosity, or is this not a worst-case scenario of capitalist
globalization and its spatial fallout?' (p.26)
~The Editors, ~Tel Aviv, ~November 2002
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html