Sustainable urban design principles in low-cost housing, Sheikh Zayed City, Gaza, Palestine

Abstract

Principles upon which Palestinian housing policies depend should respond to the growing need for housing especially after the urban and housing genocide that have been systematically practiced by the Israeli forces invaded Gaza in October 2023 and still going on at the time of writing these lines. Providing low-cost housing for the needy and deprived is among the important policies to consider. Israel forces have been since 2000 destroying thousands of houses resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians especially during the Israeli barbaric war on Gaza in 2009. Since then, cooperation between Palestinian social organizations in Gaza has gained greater importance in applying principles of sustainable urban design. Several housing projects have been established in Gaza in the previous years by Arab and foreign donors. This research provides an analysis of sustainable urban design principles in Shaykh Zayed City project in Bait Lahya, Gaza before being destroyed by the inhumane savage Israeli invasion. It was the first low-cost housing project in Gaza after the year 2000 to provide homes for the displaced by the Israeli encroachments. It has been revealed that despite the great efforts paid in this project to apply sustainability principles, there is still a need for more requirements to provide a model for future housing projects in Gaza especially under the current disaster and the emergencies it creates for the people of Gaza.