Friday, January 15, 2016 9:30 am
-
9:30 am
EST (GMT -05:00)
Of
the
thesis
entitled: States
of
Dependency
- Infrastructures of
the
Commons
Abstract:
The thesis
States
of
Dependency
is
concerned
with
exploring
architectures relationship
to
socio-political
and
ethnographic
conflict
within
Jerusalem.
As a
city
of
incredible
political
and
national
importance
to
both
Israelis
and Palestinians,
its
planning
and
urban
development
have
become
inseparably linked
to
the
multi
generational
conflict
that
has
gripped
it;
a
conflict
which is
fuelled
by
issues
of
sovereignty,
cultural
identity,
messianic
mythology, and religious
history.
Within
the
context
of
post
1967
Jerusalem,
architecture and
urban
planning
have
been
delegated
the
task
of
both
constructing
national identity,
and
in
solidifying
the
relationships,
or
lack
thereof,
between Israelis
and Palestinians.
Thus,
the
way
in
which
the
city
is
designed
and constructed
is
essential
to
the
management
the
conflict
at
an
urban
scale; engendering
an
ideology
of
‘border
making’
between
Jerusalem’s
ethnic communities.
Given
this
the image
of
the
city,
and
how
it
is
understood,
become essential
components
in
furthering
ethnically
exclusionary
practices.
This thesis
explores
the
connection
between
architectural
expression,
our perceptions
of
it,
and
the
perpetuation of
the
ethnic
conflict
in
Jerusalem.
It challenges
the
definitively
isolationist
model
of
its
ethnic
communities
by seeking
to
define
the
role
of
public
space
within
this
context,
and
speculates
on the
formation
of
a
commons
between
two segregated
communities;
firmly entrenched
in
the
idea
that
a
scenario
of
political
equality
can
only
be engendered
through
an
understanding
of
the
other.
Specifically, the work examines the districts of west and east Musrara, sites just to the north of the Old City, and reimagines the civic function of the no-mans land that runs between them. The project works to literally bridge the Israeli western half and the Palestinian eastern half of this area, and explores the educational and civic role that a truly public space may provide in this context. It asks whether architecture, and public space, can operate as mediators within complex social systems, thereby becoming mechanisms of political criticism. In this way, the work does not seek to propose an architecture which offers a solution to the Jerusalem question, but rather one that recognizes and utilizes its urban reality to become the impetus for a solution to emerge. In essence, this work is grounded firmly in the notion that within conditions of instability and imbalance lie the potentials for new urban, architectural and social conditions to emerge; it proposes an infrastructure of the commons.
The examining committee is as follows:
Specifically, the work examines the districts of west and east Musrara, sites just to the north of the Old City, and reimagines the civic function of the no-mans land that runs between them. The project works to literally bridge the Israeli western half and the Palestinian eastern half of this area, and explores the educational and civic role that a truly public space may provide in this context. It asks whether architecture, and public space, can operate as mediators within complex social systems, thereby becoming mechanisms of political criticism. In this way, the work does not seek to propose an architecture which offers a solution to the Jerusalem question, but rather one that recognizes and utilizes its urban reality to become the impetus for a solution to emerge. In essence, this work is grounded firmly in the notion that within conditions of instability and imbalance lie the potentials for new urban, architectural and social conditions to emerge; it proposes an infrastructure of the commons.
The examining committee is as follows:
Supervisor:
Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo
Committee Members:
Adrian
Blackwell,
University of
Waterloo
Robert Jan Van Pelt, University of Waterloo
Robert Jan Van Pelt, University of Waterloo
External Reader:
Scott Sorli
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
The
Defence
Examination
will
take
place:
Friday
January
15,
2016
9:30AM
ARC
2003
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.