Common Assembly
Decolonizing Architecture is an international architectural practice based outside Bethlehem in the Palestinian Territories. They analyse the role of architecture and urban planning in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Rather than proposing new buildings, they offer ingenious new propositions for future Palestinian occupants. An evacuated military compound becomes a park for families, also offering roosting for large numbers of migrating birds. An elaborate interconnecting roof structure is proposed for future Palestinian neighbourhoods in what were illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The centrepiece of the exhibition will be a life-sized installation of a section of the Palestinian parliament built in East Jerusalem after the Oslo Accord in 1993. It has remained unoccupied, isolated by the new “security” wall that Israel has built within the West Bank, and divided by the “green line” that happens to run right through it. Videos and live presentations by Palestinian politicians will act as a symbolic parliament-in-exile within one of our four galleries.