Phenomenology of the Palestinian village dwelling

Abstract

Palestinian villages were one of the arenas severely affected by the British occupation in 1918 and then the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The brutal occupation has been destroying villages and displacing their people to control Palestinian territories. Hundreds of villages were destroyed, and their people were expelled. Consequently, many architectural and urban records of Palestinian history and its of cultural, political, and social aspects were lost. But the worst also occurred with the separation between the Palestinians on both sides of Israel borders since 1948. Generations outside the borders grew up on what remained of the memories of their fathers and grandfathers and the images of the Palestinian villages and their houses. Palestinian students of architecture lost the ability to interact with these spaces and structures necessary for the development clear understanding of Palestinian architecture. This research presents an effort attempted by the author to use the phenomenological approach to connect students of architecture at the Islamic University of Gaza to Palestinian architecture. An important part of the exercise was directed to village dwellings remained in Israel after 1948. The phenomenological approach proved useful in helping the students understand Palestinian architecture from the available digital images and photographs available for the village dwellings. The students used their phenomenological cognition to produce architectural drawings for these dwellings which continue to represent a useful source on Palestinian architecture.