The project focuses on how to generate spaces motivated by interpretation of love as a resource for design. Ideally it goes beyond ideology and political statements as it looks at the place itself as the main actor.
South elevation complex 6  

Image by M.H.K.N

The ancient village Lifta, Israel which is the area I chose to work with, is a contested territory which unfolds a symbolical richness where acting upon love allows for greater possibilities. I want to draw a vision for a place of tolerance, a place to negotiate.

I argue that futility of function is one of the architectural qualities of the remains in Lifta. The spaces were
made for a specific purpose, yet they have changed over time, what has not changed is the spatial qualities they host.
Section 5-5 complex 6

Image by M.H.K.N

In my thesis I am working around the existing characters, trying to identify their mood and wishes. The buildings should be preserved in such a way that they are welcoming the user's imagination and desire. A floor and a roof can be a lecture hall, a museum, a cafe, a place to change to swimming clothes. Lifta has the potential to be a place for negotiation. A common place for various agents to engage.

I am doing this to mark that it is too narrow to understand the cultural and historical value of a place only in the material remains of ancient constructions. Rather, to engage spatial practice in any given place, one has to understand the complexity of context and the layers of humanity, intangible and emotional modes of ownership and belonging to a place.

One should not make a distinction between a place and its social context, as the social context cannot exist without a place and vice versa.

By gaining awareness of how identity is altered in the meeting between humans and a physical place one becomes aware of the power within the spatial. Who can be the care givers in Lifta?

Daring to explore a new laboratory for the loving universe; The effort of weaving stories of a place together with spatial interventions emerging from descriptions of emotions.

I propose tree categories; Care for the build environment, natural environment, and social environment. 

Built environment

The building, structures, roads, darnation and so on. The  buildings are identified under five building epochs. Each of them with uniqueness in building technology and appearance.

LIFTA VILLAGE - Five building stages


Many of the spaces they host are inaccessible due to pollution and piles of sand and stone that covers the floors. Also, the construction needs to be preserved and maintained. 

Concept collages

Empathizing the notion of joy in the action of curating.

The play occurs in the meeting point between layers of stories and how I, the curating architect, chose to connect them to spatial investigations.

Truths are created by principles and the principles adjust to contexts and the perspective of the author. A place exists in subjective and cultural understandings and memory, and stories give value, importance, and identity to it. Simultaneously our own identity grows and takes form. The politics of narratives and whose story is publicly acknowledged depends on the privilege of being granted a room of being heard.

EXAMPLE - Complex 6

• One would need a caretaker in charge of maintains, it would be valuable to engage someone who have a relation to Lifta. Some on who lived there or has learned from ancestors who lived there. And one organizing administerial and creat educational program, both in learning the skill of building but also to engage with the history of Jerusalem, agricultural land use, geography, geology, social science and farming, and more.

• A third gesure would be to activate spaces and making them accessible by giving them floors.

New floors inspired by old traditions of bear soil, mosaic, stone tiles and wood. Some walls might be decorated with colors as they originally were. A Curator will work together with Israel Antiquities Authority and various Universities.