studio malka envisions bridge city on the west bank barrier as pocket of peace & resistance

walled city by studio malka

Paris and LA-based architecture Studio Malka has designed the Walled City as a pocket of peace and active resistance located on the West Bank barrier, a lasting flashpoint of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The project envisions a 730 km social housing development composed of cantilevered modular units that provide shelter and give new life to this zone. The resulting bridge city is expected to serve as a safe zone, a space for reunification, and a link between territories and people beyond borders and religions.

the Walled City is composed of multiple cantilevered modular units

all images courtesy of Studio Malka

the Pocket of Active Resistance

Referring to the West Bank barrier, Studio Malka explains, ‘This so-called security barrier was built in 2002 in the West Bank, and declared as an illegal entity and a violation of international law by decision of the International Court of Justice in 2004.’

The architects envision the Walled City as a linear structure built along the separation wall from Hebron to Bethlehem and Jerusalem to Jenin. The project is created in response to oppression and out of a desire to create an alternative scenario to current politics. This bridge city is essentially a hub for the Pocket of Active Resistance (PRA), a spontaneous complex that offers a new system of living and contesting in a permanent state of dissidence and turmoil. Because this linear ensemble is made up of modular units, the PRA enables rapid community growth by bringing together not only local but also international activists advocating for peace. At the same time, the city creates a safe zone that provides sufficient protection to host forums and assemblies that develop alternative political scenarios.

‘The aim is (…) to inhabit this No Man’s Land that separates people.’ the team shares. ‘The separation wall becomes then a space of unified common resistance, a link between human beings, creating a self-proclaimed and self-regulated independent pacifist nation, in reaction to the extremist policies and fundamentalist ideologies that infest the whole region.’

the development runs along the separation wall from Hebron to Bethlehem and Jerusalem to Jenin