Jabel Mukaber Arab al Sawahre

Aerial Photograph |  Statutory Planning | Photos | Projects

Jabel Mukaber Arab Al-Sawahre is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem split in two by the Separation Wall. The neighborhood has over 20,000 residents in an area of approx. 4,600 dunams (1,100 acres), on land privately owned by residents, for the most part. Like other Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Jabel Mukaber Arab A-Sawahre suffers from a lack of infrastructure and vital public spaces, and a dearth of housing. The formal planning, largely determined by political and demographic considerations, has limited the possibilities of residential construction and development of public spaces in the neighborhood. The formal planning system and the governmental authorities are reluctant to address the residents’ objective as well as subjective difficulties in realizing their basic rights for housing and for needed public space. At the same time, those who seek alternative solutions, including building without a permit, are considered in breach of the law and at risk of having their houses demolished.
‏The informal construction in the neighborhood is the result of a housing shortage and is usually carried out by individuals in a frenzied and hasty way, practically ignoring communal life and the need for public structures and open spaces. Thus the role of the urban space in the neighborhood is reduced to meeting the urgent needs of the individual and his family, while sacrificing the social and political dimension of community life. The neighborhood’s residents, who are aware of the many problems arising from the lack of formal planning and public responsibility, endeavor to advance formal planning based on the informal spatial conditions—namely, planning which is attentive to the ensemble of existential, social, and cultural needs of the place, and that is carried out with the input and approval of the landowners and residents. The studio’s work takes part in this intricate planning process.

Projects: Al- Sala’a | Dir al Sune | Jumaa Family and Khalaila Family | Sheikh Saeed (The American Road)

Statutory planning:
The Jerusalem Eastern Ringroad

From the non-profit organization Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights