Mountains reclaiming the stone
AREEJ ASHHAB - Architecture Final Project - 2018/2019
Civic Architecture Unit - Arch. Liat Brix and Arch. Ytav Bouhsira
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Mountains reclaiming The Stone addresses the immediate footprint of the stone industry on the landscape and the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territories overshadowed by Jerusalem's glittering "white" stone. The project, therefore, disputes the stone cladding regulations introduced by the British Mandate in 1918 and adopted by Israel since 1948 as an instrument to preserve the city's cultural heritage.
The project proposes different scales and tactics of architectural intervention to reclaim Palestinians’ historic relationship with the stone and its cultural landscape.
The quarry keeper walks by a bulldozer. Taffuh, Hebron Governate
In 1918, the British Mandate enacted stone-cladding regulations in Jerusalem, freezing it in time as a precious rock. These regulations are still implemented today within “Greater Jerusalem” - Jerusalem and the surrounding Israeli settlements - driving a huge Palestinian stone industry in the occupied territories, dubbed “White Oil”. The industry produces about 22% of all Palestinian exports on the one hand, and carries massive averse landscape, health, and economic repercussions on the other hand.
WHITE OIL SECTION - informative cross-section of an open pit quarry in Taffuh, Hebron, 2018
WHITE OIL MAP - a map of the stone in the Central Mountains
GREATER JERUSALEM - context of intervention
PART 1: RECLAIMING SLAYYIB
Slayyib is an area belonging to Beit Jala town where the reddish Mizzi Yahudi stone had been extracted for hundreds of years. Until the 1990s, the stone crafts constituted the main source of income for the people of Beit Jala. Thanks to its quality stones, Slayyib constituted a connection point between Jerusalem and Beit Jala. Its stones are known for their exotic red colour and their hardness well-described in the name slayyib. These stones not only erect the houses and churches of Beit Jala but also envelop the beautiful castles in Talbiya, Baq’a and Qatamon neighbourhoods in Jerusalem.
The construction of Gilo settlement after the Israeli occupation in 1967 interrupted the quarrying activities in Slayyib and covered a large area of the quarries. Following the Oslo accords in 1993, Slayyib was separated from Beit Jala by the Israeli segregation wall and the tunnels highway connecting Gush Etzion settlements with Jerusalem. Two abandoned quarries which were active until the mid-90s act today as a shred of evidence to what used to be there.
Inactive Quarry in Slayyib- Gilo. The quarry was closed in 1995 and developed into a shelter for informal dwellers later on. Taken by Daniel Kovalenko
A recent Israeli master plan proposes an expansion of Gilo settlement towards the South. The project called “The Olive Trees Complex" proposes 2000 housing units for Israeli settlers. Another plan is to expand the width of 60 tunnels highway by adding a tunnel (track) to ease traffic for settlers who move between Gush 'Etzion and Jerusalem.
As a response to these plans, my initial proposal reclaiming Slayyib reactivates quarrying as a planning tool first to prepare for a future extension of Beit Jala towards its lands in Slayyib, and second to reclaim the landscape fragmented by the multiple geopolitical boundaries through digging them and in between them.
The proposal allows us to think of the quarry not as an activity ravaging the landscape somewhere behind the scenes, rather as a public urban activity that participates in planning the city. The project proposes a route for quarrying that starts parallelly in different land plots between Beit Jala and the abandoned quarries inside Gilo settlements. The gradually-sculpted holes of the quarries redraw the visible and invisible borders and set the ground for an urban extension constituting of a series of open public spaces.
RECLAIMING SLAYYIB - Analysis of the site and initial intervention in Slayyib quarries, between Beit Jala and Gilo
PART 2: RECLAIMING BEIT FAJJAR
An intervention in Beit Fajjar, a town south of Bethlehem largely dependent on the stone industry, proposes an infiltration approach towards economic and cultural renewal in an ongoing destructive economic activity in the town.
FACTORY IN VILLAGE SCALE - a collage of Beit Fajjar town, Southern of Bethlehem
With 160 dispersed stone factories and about 40 active quarries, the stone industry in the town is degrading the landscape and the health of the local community due to lack of appropriate planning methods and land use regulations. This situation result from systematic policies and restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupying authorities, together with the misuse and exploitation of land and natural resources by Palestinian investors involved in the industry.
Informative map of Beit Fajjar showing the stone factories and quarries
Al-burj (the tower)- a leftover of the mountain standing in the middle of a quarry. Beit Fajjar, Bethelehem Governate
With an aspiration to reclaim Palestinians’ historic integral relationship with their landscape, the proposal suggests land use and ownership regulations that aim at creating new possibilities for more communal economic and cultural activity in the town.
The project proposes to gradually move the stone factories away from the residential area to the quarries zone by exchanging land ownerships. This allows residential and public programs to occur near the houses while a new industrial zone is created in the abandoned quarries.
Proposed Strategic planning in Beit Fajjar - timeline schemes and diagrams
Hand-carved y-tong model of a fragment of Beit Fajjar quarries, scale 1:1000
The stone terraces overlooking the stone dumping site. Beit Fajjar, Bethlehem Governate
The project presents a 10-years scenario to reclaim an abandoned quarry in Beit Fajjar by implementing the new land regulations. The existing technologies and knowledge are employed and rephrased as a starting point towards the change.
The scenario proposes a common stone factory that can be divided after several years of operation. In the centre, the extracted stone blocks are arranged to create temporary small spaces for the workers to work on their crafts besides their conventional tasks in the factory. The factory includes areas for recycling stone waste and a research centre for material development.
The project also proposes to alter the quarrying practices. It suggests underground digging to extract stone as an alternative method to open-pit quarrying. Stone extraction starts from the sidewall of the cliff and holes on the upper surface. Quarrying occurs only in the solid rock strata suitable for the construction industry. Three different techniques are involved in underground digging: creating tunnels, large pillar rooms, and room and pillar mining. The surface is preserved for agriculture while the underground voids are repurposed after quarrying is over. The agricultural lands on the top involve stone waste in their activity. The underground void lit by the skylights is used for alternative education on the stone industry where stone waste is experimented to create new building materials.
RECLAIMING THE STONE - Cross-section of a quarry in Beit Fajjar as proposed in 2030
Stone shelter for workers in the quarry, Beit Fajjar, Bethlehem Governate
PART 3: FROM STONE TO STONE
The project also addresses the cultural role of the stone facade today by using stone waste as a new raw material for construction. The waste is casted with other materials to create alternative stones more relevant today, turning it from an environmental burden to an economic opportunity for Palestinians.
Waste water filteration pools next to a stone factory seperating water from stone slurry Beit Fajjar, Bethlehem Governate
Stone slurry and broken stone pieces collected from stone factories in the West Bank
raw material for casting stones
Experiment of mixing broken stone pieces from stone factories with cement to create concrete block
Graduation exhibition, Photo by Abid Kadri
Photographs booklet at the graduation exhibition, Photo by Abid Kadri