Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Opposing the architects of the occupation
By Esther Zandberg
(This article extracted from Israeli newspaper Haaretz recounts more on APJP's petitions and their efforts to heighten awareness and consolidate support against the violations imposed by discriminating planning techniques. FAST will like to thank the APJP for their generous support for highlighting attention to the Lifta campaign.)
About 200 British and Israeli architects and academics, including people of international renown, have signed a manifesto initiated by the British organization Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, which calls on Israeli architects and planners to put an end to being "partners in social, political and economic oppression" in the occupied territories, "which violates the professional ethics acceptable to all."
The manifesto points to three representative projects currently promoted bythe planning authorities: the master plan for the E1 region between the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, which will prevent Palestinianterritorial contiguity; construction in Silwan in East Jerusalem, which involves the demolition of dozens of homes; and a plan to build a luxury neighborhood on the remains of the former Palestinian village of Lifta.
The organization considers participation in these projects, construction in the occupied territories and any planning in Israel that involves discrimination and repression, to be a blatant violation of international conventions, which require professional and ethical responsibility for the social and environmental consequences of planning and construction work. The organization has sent letters on the subject to the International Architects Association and to the Israel Association of United Architects. It has also turned to Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski and to Minister of Construction and Housing Meir Sheetrit on the matter.
The British organization has been trying for a long time to arouse international awareness on the subject. About two years ago it initiated a boycott against the Israeli architectural community, which does not forbid its members from being involved in the kind of planning and construction the organization defines as unethical. Prior to the opening of the International Architecture Biennale in Venice last September, the organization tried to prevent the presentation of the Israeli exhibition "Life Saver: Typology of Commemoration in Israel," which dealt with the architecture of commemoration, ignoring the Palestinian side. The initiatives did not result in any kind of action, and the architectural community in Israel continues to bury its head in the sand.
Among the signatories to the manifesto, which was initiated by architect Abe Hayeem, the chair of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, are architectural historian Charles Jencks; president of the Royal Institute of British Architects Jack Pringle; American sociologist Saskia Sassen; geographer Oren Yiftachel of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev; and architects Will Alsop of Britain, Zvi Hecker of Israel and Berlin, Yaron Turel of Israel, as well as Israeli Zvi Efrat, who heads the architecture department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
The manifesto was published in The Times of London and in the British architectural journal Building Design. A new book by architect Eyal Weizman, called "Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation," has recently been published in Britain. Weizman, who is among the signatories of the manifesto, was one of the first to point an accusing finger at the Israeli planning community for cooperating, through both silence and action, with a policy of repression and occupation, and placed the subject on the agenda of international architectural discourse.
By Esther Zandberg
(This article extracted from Israeli newspaper Haaretz recounts more on APJP's petitions and their efforts to heighten awareness and consolidate support against the violations imposed by discriminating planning techniques. FAST will like to thank the APJP for their generous support for highlighting attention to the Lifta campaign.)
About 200 British and Israeli architects and academics, including people of international renown, have signed a manifesto initiated by the British organization Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, which calls on Israeli architects and planners to put an end to being "partners in social, political and economic oppression" in the occupied territories, "which violates the professional ethics acceptable to all."
The manifesto points to three representative projects currently promoted bythe planning authorities: the master plan for the E1 region between the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, which will prevent Palestinianterritorial contiguity; construction in Silwan in East Jerusalem, which involves the demolition of dozens of homes; and a plan to build a luxury neighborhood on the remains of the former Palestinian village of Lifta.
The organization considers participation in these projects, construction in the occupied territories and any planning in Israel that involves discrimination and repression, to be a blatant violation of international conventions, which require professional and ethical responsibility for the social and environmental consequences of planning and construction work. The organization has sent letters on the subject to the International Architects Association and to the Israel Association of United Architects. It has also turned to Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski and to Minister of Construction and Housing Meir Sheetrit on the matter.
The British organization has been trying for a long time to arouse international awareness on the subject. About two years ago it initiated a boycott against the Israeli architectural community, which does not forbid its members from being involved in the kind of planning and construction the organization defines as unethical. Prior to the opening of the International Architecture Biennale in Venice last September, the organization tried to prevent the presentation of the Israeli exhibition "Life Saver: Typology of Commemoration in Israel," which dealt with the architecture of commemoration, ignoring the Palestinian side. The initiatives did not result in any kind of action, and the architectural community in Israel continues to bury its head in the sand.
Among the signatories to the manifesto, which was initiated by architect Abe Hayeem, the chair of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, are architectural historian Charles Jencks; president of the Royal Institute of British Architects Jack Pringle; American sociologist Saskia Sassen; geographer Oren Yiftachel of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev; and architects Will Alsop of Britain, Zvi Hecker of Israel and Berlin, Yaron Turel of Israel, as well as Israeli Zvi Efrat, who heads the architecture department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
The manifesto was published in The Times of London and in the British architectural journal Building Design. A new book by architect Eyal Weizman, called "Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation," has recently been published in Britain. Weizman, who is among the signatories of the manifesto, was one of the first to point an accusing finger at the Israeli planning community for cooperating, through both silence and action, with a policy of repression and occupation, and placed the subject on the agenda of international architectural discourse.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Big names urge Israelis to end ‘oppressive’ works
(Article extracted from British 'Building Design' magazine surrounding APJP's 3 Petitions - including support for Lifta campaign)
25 May 2007
By Helen Crump
Alsop, Farrell and MacCormac join call to stop work on schemes that oppress Palestinians.
A host of celebrated architects including Will Alsop, Terry Farrell, Richard MacCormac, Rick Mather and Ted Cullinan have waded into the politics of the Middle East with a challenge to fellow professionals in Israel to cease work that “excludes and oppresses” Palestinians.
The architects, who also include RIBA president Jack Pringle and president-elect Sunand Prasad, have signed a petition organised by Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine which accuses construction professionals working on three separate Israeli developments of “social, political and economic oppression.”
“APJP asserts that the actions of our fellow professionals working with these enterprises are clearly unethical, immoral and contravene universally recognised professional codes of conduct,” a spokesman said.
“We ask the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) to meet their professional obligations … to declare their opposition to this inhuman occupation.”
The IAUA was unavailable for comment, but the action was condemned as foolish and damaging by Michael Peters, founder and chairman of the Identica brand agency, who has worked extensively with architects in Israel.
“British architects are going to burn their bridges with a number of developers — Israeli, British and European,” he said.
Last year Richard Rogers faced stinging criticism from US clients after he hosted a meeting of APJP (News March 10, 2006).
The petition, which focuses on the village of Silwan in east Jerusalem, the E1 plan for the expansion of Israeli settlement Ma’ele Adumim, and former Palestinian village Lifta, was strongly defended by Alsop.
“I think the Palestinians are living in a prison and they deserve better than that,” he said. “I’d like fellow colleagues in Israel to feel some responsibility about this shabby treatment. Architects are a fairly humanitarian lot and perhaps they could help.”
He added: “This is not against Israel, it’s for Palestine.”
Petition organiser Abe Hayeem, a London-based architect and APJP chair, called his fellow architect supporters “pretty courageous”, and insisted architects would not be deterred from backing causes they supported.
But Peters said British architects did not understand the situation in Israel.“Getting involved in a lobby group can only do a disservice to the whole architectural profession,” he added. “To accuse [Israeli] architects of being complicit is nonsense.”
(Article extracted from British 'Building Design' magazine surrounding APJP's 3 Petitions - including support for Lifta campaign)
25 May 2007
By Helen Crump
Alsop, Farrell and MacCormac join call to stop work on schemes that oppress Palestinians.
A host of celebrated architects including Will Alsop, Terry Farrell, Richard MacCormac, Rick Mather and Ted Cullinan have waded into the politics of the Middle East with a challenge to fellow professionals in Israel to cease work that “excludes and oppresses” Palestinians.
The architects, who also include RIBA president Jack Pringle and president-elect Sunand Prasad, have signed a petition organised by Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine which accuses construction professionals working on three separate Israeli developments of “social, political and economic oppression.”
“APJP asserts that the actions of our fellow professionals working with these enterprises are clearly unethical, immoral and contravene universally recognised professional codes of conduct,” a spokesman said.
“We ask the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) to meet their professional obligations … to declare their opposition to this inhuman occupation.”
The IAUA was unavailable for comment, but the action was condemned as foolish and damaging by Michael Peters, founder and chairman of the Identica brand agency, who has worked extensively with architects in Israel.
“British architects are going to burn their bridges with a number of developers — Israeli, British and European,” he said.
Last year Richard Rogers faced stinging criticism from US clients after he hosted a meeting of APJP (News March 10, 2006).
The petition, which focuses on the village of Silwan in east Jerusalem, the E1 plan for the expansion of Israeli settlement Ma’ele Adumim, and former Palestinian village Lifta, was strongly defended by Alsop.
“I think the Palestinians are living in a prison and they deserve better than that,” he said. “I’d like fellow colleagues in Israel to feel some responsibility about this shabby treatment. Architects are a fairly humanitarian lot and perhaps they could help.”
He added: “This is not against Israel, it’s for Palestine.”
Petition organiser Abe Hayeem, a London-based architect and APJP chair, called his fellow architect supporters “pretty courageous”, and insisted architects would not be deterred from backing causes they supported.
But Peters said British architects did not understand the situation in Israel.“Getting involved in a lobby group can only do a disservice to the whole architectural profession,” he added. “To accuse [Israeli] architects of being complicit is nonsense.”
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) have advertised in The Times (24/05/2007) for support for 3 petitions including Lifta campaign.
Shortly, the APJP will be sending 3 petitions in protest to challenge the unethical actions of Israeli architects and planners. Their half-page advertisement includes a list of signatories from highly acclaimed British and International professionals and academics who have signed the petition in support to the projects. The advertisement reads as follows:
Acting against international law, Israel continues to build settlements on Palestinian territory. Israeli architects and planners have helped build settlements and towns on appropriated Palestinian land. Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) assert that the actions of Israeli architects and planners working in conjunction with this enterprise, are unethical, and contravene professional codes of conduct and UIA codes. It is time to challenge the IAUA and the Israeli government to end such projects. We have launched a petition to highlight 3 projects that typify the appropriation of Palestinian land aided by Israeli architects and other design professionals:
In Silwan 88 Palestinian homes are under threat of demolition. This is part of a development for ultra-religious Israeli settlers on illegally annexed Palestinian land. The E1 Plan expands the largest illegal settlement, Ma'ale Adumim, to link it with metropolitan Jerusalem; it will dissect the northern and southern West Bank, destroying the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. Support the campaign to save Lifta, ruins of a Palestinian village, from being converted into a development for wealthy American visitors, to the exclusion of the original inhabitants, their heritage and memory. We call on the Israeli Association of United Architects to adhere to UIA Codes of Coduct, and end the participation of their members and fellow professionals in creating 'facts on the ground' to obliterate the idea of a viable future Palestinian state. If you would like to add your name to the petition or see the complete list of signatories, please go to http://www.apjp.org or mailto:info@apjp.org
Shortly, the APJP will be sending 3 petitions in protest to challenge the unethical actions of Israeli architects and planners. Their half-page advertisement includes a list of signatories from highly acclaimed British and International professionals and academics who have signed the petition in support to the projects. The advertisement reads as follows:
Acting against international law, Israel continues to build settlements on Palestinian territory. Israeli architects and planners have helped build settlements and towns on appropriated Palestinian land. Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) assert that the actions of Israeli architects and planners working in conjunction with this enterprise, are unethical, and contravene professional codes of conduct and UIA codes. It is time to challenge the IAUA and the Israeli government to end such projects. We have launched a petition to highlight 3 projects that typify the appropriation of Palestinian land aided by Israeli architects and other design professionals:
In Silwan 88 Palestinian homes are under threat of demolition. This is part of a development for ultra-religious Israeli settlers on illegally annexed Palestinian land. The E1 Plan expands the largest illegal settlement, Ma'ale Adumim, to link it with metropolitan Jerusalem; it will dissect the northern and southern West Bank, destroying the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. Support the campaign to save Lifta, ruins of a Palestinian village, from being converted into a development for wealthy American visitors, to the exclusion of the original inhabitants, their heritage and memory. We call on the Israeli Association of United Architects to adhere to UIA Codes of Coduct, and end the participation of their members and fellow professionals in creating 'facts on the ground' to obliterate the idea of a viable future Palestinian state. If you would like to add your name to the petition or see the complete list of signatories, please go to http://www.apjp.org or mailto:info@apjp.org
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
VOLUME #11 Cities UnbuiltVolume is a project by Archis + AMO + C-LAB + MIT +...
'It seems an eternal distinction: sometimes people build, sometimes they destroy. However, since we have a concept of modernity, we also understand that building is very often based on sheer destruction. It is ‘the price of progress’. A new insight is now emerging: much destruction also has an agenda. It has a precision that reminds us of architecture. It has a formal dimension that reminds us of design. In this issue: explore the sinister creativity of Cities Unbuilt.'
FAST's articles on Lifta will also feature in this issue of Volume magazine, as well as FAST's Maps of Reconstruction and the collaboration work with Partizan Republic and DJ Visser in the South Caucasus.
You can order a copy from http://www.archis.org
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