Can there be a viable inner-city division of Jerusalem? How can it be done in the least harmful manner? can a solution be in line with the different urban needs of the two sides? How would separation between them look? and where should the border crossings be situated?

These are all questions that any future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is bound to raise the day after it is signed. Nevertheless, we believe that addressing them the day after would be too late. In order to maintain the two parts of Jerusalem vitally connected, one must carefully plan ahead how to dissect them, and envision not only a route for separation, but also a spine for future connection.

This conceptual design addresses several planning challenges an inner city division of Jerusalem will raise. It exemplifies them in the American Colony Junction, slightly north to the Old City. The design goes into technicalities (alternative division details; the crossing terminal layout and operation model; the nature of the bi-national road)- but not for their usual use in architectural design. Because rather than a specific design plan, this project aims to deliver principals. It seeks to make negotiation and decision-making better, by clarifying what a resolution should look for, and what it shouldn’t forget. It demonstrates implementation feasibility, and uses the image to construct an attainable and hopeful vision. It chooses to highlight principals, as at the end of the day, though negotiations happen in spoken words or written papers, resolutions to territorial conflicts would happen in real space.

This project was our first venture into “Resolution Planing”, but we believe it is still one of the clearest examples of the notion, and the role architecture can undertake in conflict resolution processes. According to the NYT, the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has presented this concept to his counterpart Abbas, during their 2008 negotiation talks.

download this project here (26.5 MB)

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note: The suggested separation route is based on  the “Geneva Accord” understandings, as well as by the recommendations of the Israeli C.P.S (Council for Peace and Security).