ECOWEEK 2012 in the Middle East
WORKSHOP Leaders: Alberto Alcalde (Architect, ARCo Group Architects & Engineers, Italy) Alessio Battistella (Architect, ARCo Group Architects & Engineers, Italy) Dan Price (Architect, Tel Aviv University Azrieli School of Architecture, Israel) WORKSHOP Team: Magdalena Malska, Polina Prentou, Jeremy Aranoff, Nadav Gan, Tal Regev, Kati Bolle, Diya Al-Rajabi, Elvire Thouvenot-Nitzan, Alad Meirom, Michael Rosio, and Diego Selesner.
Shorouq Women Center
Located in Al-Azariya is the Shorouq Women’s Center, where the Director, Fatima Faroun, and the women team dedicate themselves to work in their community. The ‘wall’ has separated the town from Jerusalem, the city it was once tied to economically and culturally, forcing the stifled residents to seek alternative means of subsistence and socialization. Shorouq offers local women educational, civic, and economic support, in the form of sewing and computing workshops, education sessions, as well as an outlet for the sale of their arts and crafts.
In 2010, Shorouq’s small rented headquarters were expanded in the context of the ECOWEEK 2010 workshops to provide it with office space, a space for workshops, a fully equipped kitchen and bathrooms, as well as a pleasant patio and small garden.
In preparation for this second phase, the client outlined the Center current needs. The Center needs to make the roof inhabitable as a space to organize larger events. By hosting more people within its Center, Shorouq could extend its reach in the community and provide local women with an additional source of income, be it through the sale of meals or of goods produced at the Center. The requirements were thus twofold: roof access and shelter. The covering could also be used to grow vines, for the production of vine leaves used for stuffed vine leaves. Another request involved giving the Center a more recognizable identity within the community.
Al-Wallajeh Village Park
Al-Wallajeh is an Arab village in the West Bank located SW of Jerusalem along the ‘wall’ separating Israel from the West Bank. Certain members of the community are taking steps to build a park in a land belonging legally to the Cremisan’s Compound (the Church).
The team proposed to build an identity of “Place” and to integrate the park functions with the existing and new-planned surroundings, including to maintain the existing natural terraces thereby highlighting the landscape; organizing the public space and adapting it for public functions (play areas, vegetable gardens, trash collecting, and energy production); and creating a landmark for the park and the village.
Vines of memory:
The proposed design honors the local memory by planting along the ‘wall’ vines.
The ‘Wall’:
The team proposed to utilize the existing structure and surface of the ‘wall’ to transform it into an art gallery, aiming to educate and also raise awareness for the current political situation.
A landmark of environmental ecology:
The team proposed, as a means of producing methane gas and fertilizer for garden space, to transform the park entrance into an iconic Center for Environmental Ecology, including a recycling facility and an organic waste fuel production unit – addressing thus the vital issue of waste collection and proper disposal.
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