Publisher

Vol 10 No 2 (2016)
Issue # 19 | Autumn / Winter 2016 | Spaces of Conflict
Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends, conditions, and discourses in the attempt to address their indicative symptoms while reflecting on their underlying causes.
Issue's editors: Marc Schoonderbeek and Malkit Shoshan

Vol 10 No 2 (2016)
Issue # 19 | Autumn / Winter 2016 | Spaces of Conflict
Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends, conditions, and discourses in the attempt to address their indicative symptoms while reflecting on their underlying causes.
Issue's editors: Marc Schoonderbeek and Malkit Shoshan
Editorial
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Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends, conditions, and discourses in the attempt to address their indicative symptoms while reflecting on their underlying causes.
Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in the physical world and in society by extrapolating, through examples, the abundance of relations that can be traced between conflict, territory and architecture. Conflict areas often prove to be fertile grounds for innovation and for the emergence of new spatial forms. The issue reports on the state of perpetual global unrest in architecture through a series of articles and case studies that highlight the consequences of conflicts in the places and spaces that we inhabit. In the introduction, these are discussed as an interlinked global reality rather than as isolated incidents. In doing so, the contemporary spaces of conflict are positioned in the context of emerging global trends,...
Footprint 19 focuses on the more recent roles of architecture in the contemporary spaces of conflict. Departing from a spatial understanding of geopolitical, climatological and economical conflicts, the various contributions highlight the large scale and phenomenal transitions in...
Marc Schoonderbeek, Malkit Shoshan1-12
Article
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West Bank Settlement and the Transformation of Zionist Housing Ethos from Shelter to Act of Violence
This paper identifies a transformation in Israel's housing ethos from civilian shelter to national and neoliberal violence. Housing, once materializing the State of Israel’s raison d’etre as shelter from Jewish persecution has transformed to offense and retaliation in struggle over the West Bank, as declared by Prime Minister Netanyahu's noted 'they kill- we build' statement. Conducting close analysis of housing and settlement history since 1967 I challenge accepted historiography of the settlement movement and identify the pivotal moment of change by which the settlement project transformed its housing ethos from civilian shelter to 'civilian occupation' to Kudumim outpost in the early 1990s. This transformation parallels the neoliberalization of the housing market in Israel-proper since the 1990s, protested as neoliberal violence by the 2011 housing protest movement. This paper contributes to our understanding of spatial violence by identifying housing as the object of agonistic violence, invoking Chantalle Mouffe's concept of the object of agonism and pointing to housing as the object of contemporary negotiations over the very terms and values of the Israeli polity.
This paper identifies a transformation in Israel's housing ethos from civilian shelter to national and neoliberal violence. Housing, once materializing the State of Israel’s raison d’etre as shelter from Jewish persecution has transformed to offense and retaliation in struggle over the West Bank, as declared by Prime Minister Netanyahu's noted 'they kill- we build' statement. Conducting close analysis of housing and settlement history since 1967 I challenge accepted historiography of the settlement movement and identify the pivotal moment of change by which the settlement project transformed its housing ethos from civilian shelter to 'civilian occupation' to Kudumim outpost in the early 1990s. This transformation parallels the neoliberalization of the housing market in Israel-proper since the 1990s, protested as neoliberal violence by the 2011 housing protest movement. This paper contributes to our understanding of spatial violence by identifying housing as the object of...
This paper identifies a transformation in Israel's housing ethos from civilian shelter to national and neoliberal violence. Housing, once materializing the State of Israel’s raison d’etre as shelter from Jewish persecution has transformed to offense and retaliation in struggle over the...
Yael Allweil13-36 -
The French Colonial War of Anti-Algerian Independence (1954–1962) is widely regarded as the precursor of civil-military counterinsurgency operations, and thereby of the rhetorical Global War on Terror of today. Its theories, known as the guerre moderne, were secretly transferred to North and South America in the sixties. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, however, the United States and other Western powers have overtly expressed their interest in French military practices in Algeria, but seldom in the fields of architecture and territorial planning.
This article examines the intrinsic relationships between the doctrines of the guerre moderne, the resultant built environments, and the socio-economic consequences of the two over the course of the French war in Algeria. It considers two major timeframes: first, the years between 1954 and 1958, which were characterised by the extraordinary fusion of civil and military authorities, and the construction of camps called centres de regroupement. Second, the period between 1958 and 1962, which brought General Charles de Gaulle back to power, divided military from civil powers, and transformed the camps into ‘rural settlements’. The two phases shared a common attitude, however, which considered the entire Algerian population as potential suspects, and that Algerians should thus be strategically and continuously overseen.
The French Colonial War of Anti-Algerian Independence (1954–1962) is widely regarded as the precursor of civil-military counterinsurgency operations, and thereby of the rhetorical Global War on Terror of today. Its theories, known as the guerre moderne, were secretly transferred to North and South America in the sixties. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, however, the United States and other Western powers have overtly expressed their interest in French military practices in Algeria, but seldom in the fields of architecture and territorial planning.
This article examines the intrinsic relationships between the doctrines of the guerre moderne, the resultant built environments, and the socio-economic consequences of the two over the course of the French war in Algeria. It considers two major timeframes: first, the years between 1954 and 1958, which were characterised by the extraordinary fusion of civil and military authorities, and the construction of...
The French Colonial War of Anti-Algerian Independence (1954–1962) is widely regarded as the precursor of civil-military counterinsurgency operations, and thereby of the rhetorical Global War on Terror of today. Its theories, known as the guerre moderne, were secretly transferred to...
Samia Henni37-56 -
The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan is a study conducted by a multi-disciplinary international team focused on the post-conflict area of Tripoli, the second largest city of Lebanon. The project includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen and the conflict zone in between where hostilities ended thanks to the implementation of a security plan in 2014. The aim of the proposal is to initiate and foster peace and reconciliation between the conflicting communities, while addressing spatial, social and economic segregations by a holistic and tactical urban approach.
The strategy results from a deep study and understanding of the actual fragile conditions in Tripoli, and derives its guidelines from the fractures and the intrinsic resources of the place. It is structured in three main layers (urban armature, functional injections and placemaking) and envisions the possibility to establish new relations and synergies inside the hugely fragmented environment.
Instead of proposing concrete solutions, the strategy aims at initially generating the necessary conditions to trigger processes of recovery and therefore development, encountering positive outcomes and opportunities as well as possible threats. Adaptability and retrofitting thus became keywords in developing a realistic strategy that can take into consideration the difficulty of programming and making decisions in the context of post-conflict reconstruction.
The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan is a study conducted by a multi-disciplinary international team focused on the post-conflict area of Tripoli, the second largest city of Lebanon. The project includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen and the conflict zone in between where hostilities ended thanks to the implementation of a security plan in 2014. The aim of the proposal is to initiate and foster peace and reconciliation between the conflicting communities, while addressing spatial, social and economic segregations by a holistic and tactical urban approach.
The strategy results from a deep study and understanding of the actual fragile conditions in Tripoli, and derives its guidelines from the fractures and the intrinsic resources of the place. It is structured in three main layers (urban armature, functional injections and placemaking) and envisions the possibility to establish new relations and synergies inside the...
The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan is a study conducted by a multi-disciplinary international team focused on the post-conflict area of Tripoli, the second largest city of Lebanon. The project includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen and the...
Fabiano Micocci57-78 -
This article fossicks through the fragments of historical understandings of the word stasis in ancient Greece – where stasis, in its extreme state, involved conflictual hostilities between kindred parties, often termed ‘civil war’ today. Through a series of readings of ancient Greek texts on topics ranging from pathology to literature and politics, stasis is revealed as a powerfully charged state of located dynamic exchange that operates through a precise temporal and spatial performance. This article teases out relevant aspects of the state of stasis – its high levels of spatial engagement, its inevitable resolution into energetic productivity, its precise restraint, its demand for full participation, and its role in the integration of change – all of which were acknowledged as part of the enactment and resolution of a stasis at that time. The intention of this article is to resurrect a more nuanced understanding of the state of stasis that can enrich current concepts of the dynamic in architectural and urban discourse. This understanding of stasis also poses new questions for the future design of spaces that can accommodate charged kindred engagement: lively spaces where contest becomes opportunity, and located spaces of kindred understanding that promise productive reconciliation as the common aim of all the parties involved.
This article fossicks through the fragments of historical understandings of the word stasis in ancient Greece – where stasis, in its extreme state, involved conflictual hostilities between kindred parties, often termed ‘civil war’ today. Through a series of readings of ancient Greek texts on topics ranging from pathology to literature and politics, stasis is revealed as a powerfully charged state of located dynamic exchange that operates through a precise temporal and spatial performance. This article teases out relevant aspects of the state of stasis – its high levels of spatial engagement, its inevitable resolution into energetic productivity, its precise restraint, its demand for full participation, and its role in the integration of change – all of which were acknowledged as part of the enactment and resolution of a stasis at that time. The intention of this article is to resurrect a more nuanced understanding of the...
This article fossicks through the fragments of historical understandings of the word stasis in ancient Greece – where stasis, in its extreme state, involved conflictual hostilities between kindred parties, often termed ‘civil war’ today. Through a series of readings of...
Sarah Riviere79-94 -
Warfare and armed conflict have evolved radically with the advent of technology and perhaps most importantly, with globalization. Unlike the West, which has come to terms with violence through constant memorialization, multidisciplinary discourse and legislature, cities in the developing world lack audible intellectual trajectories. Therefore, studies on the merits of the non-Western conditions of conflict must take into account the complex structures of organization of society, politics, religion and ethnicities, as a result of the globalization of violence. Developing and less politically stable countries like Pakistan, on the other hand, are losing urban space through attacks from the perpetrators and yet more so from the state as the literal subtraction of the public realm gets framed as security measures Whereas international law states that during times of war, civilian rights can be legally suspended - in Pakistan that suspension has shifted into a state of temporariness without prescribed limits. This paper looks at urban space in the developing world as a dual site of the threat and the threatened while questioning the effectivity of security apparatus that have become the foundations for design of the contemporary city.
Warfare and armed conflict have evolved radically with the advent of technology and perhaps most importantly, with globalization. Unlike the West, which has come to terms with violence through constant memorialization, multidisciplinary discourse and legislature, cities in the developing world lack audible intellectual trajectories. Therefore, studies on the merits of the non-Western conditions of conflict must take into account the complex structures of organization of society, politics, religion and ethnicities, as a result of the globalization of violence. Developing and less politically stable countries like Pakistan, on the other hand, are losing urban space through attacks from the perpetrators and yet more so from the state as the literal subtraction of the public realm gets framed as security measures Whereas international law states that during times of war, civilian rights can be legally suspended - in Pakistan that suspension has shifted into a state of...
Warfare and armed conflict have evolved radically with the advent of technology and perhaps most importantly, with globalization. Unlike the West, which has come to terms with violence through constant memorialization, multidisciplinary discourse and legislature, cities in the developing world...
Ayesha Sarfraz, Arsalan Rafique95-114 -
The Mexico-US borderlands have been militarised by the technology, weaponry, and policies of both the American Border Patrol agency and Mexican cartels. Upon this contested ground, border-crossers interrupt their taxing journey to build small informal works of architecture. These structures – most commonly fashioned from whatever materials are at hand like thorny mesquite branches, rocks, and grasses – become a locus of crises. Like the migrants, drug mules, or guides who build it, border-crosser architecture has overlapping and competing agendas and motivations. Drawing on the analysis of architectural form, artifacts of material culture, and interviews gathered from fieldwork in the United States and Mexico, I identify three ways architecture acts ‘anxiously’ as a spatial relationship to conflict: 1) sleep (insomnia), 2) identity (anonymity), and 3) death (haunting). In these modes, an architecture born in the borderlands both embodies and emotes anxiety as an adaptive spatial tactic to respond to conflict and trauma.
The Mexico-US borderlands have been militarised by the technology, weaponry, and policies of both the American Border Patrol agency and Mexican cartels. Upon this contested ground, border-crossers interrupt their taxing journey to build small informal works of architecture. These structures – most commonly fashioned from whatever materials are at hand like thorny mesquite branches, rocks, and grasses – become a locus of crises. Like the migrants, drug mules, or guides who build it, border-crosser architecture has overlapping and competing agendas and motivations. Drawing on the analysis of architectural form, artifacts of material culture, and interviews gathered from fieldwork in the United States and Mexico, I identify three ways architecture acts ‘anxiously’ as a spatial relationship to conflict: 1) sleep (insomnia), 2) identity (anonymity), and 3) death (haunting). In these modes, an architecture born in the borderlands both embodies and emotes anxiety as an adaptive...
The Mexico-US borderlands have been militarised by the technology, weaponry, and policies of both the American Border Patrol agency and Mexican cartels. Upon this contested ground, border-crossers interrupt their taxing journey to build small informal works of architecture. These structures...
Sam Grabowska115-136
Case Study
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In 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive outlined a goal to ‘create a ten year programme to reduce, and remove by 2023, all interface barriers’ in Northern Ireland. This unexpected statement helped to focus attention on the difficulties inherent in making this commitment a reality. Made during a period of fieldwork in Belfast between 2014 and 2016, this work of text and image frames the thirteen clusters of separation barriers that divide communities across Belfast as a single system entitled ‘The Interface’.
In 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive outlined a goal to ‘create a ten year programme to reduce, and remove by 2023, all interface barriers’ in Northern Ireland. This unexpected statement helped to focus attention on the difficulties inherent in making this commitment a reality. Made during a period of fieldwork in Belfast between 2014 and 2016, this work of text and image frames the thirteen clusters of separation barriers that divide communities across Belfast as a single system entitled ‘The Interface’.
In 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive outlined a goal to ‘create a ten year programme to reduce, and remove by 2023, all interface barriers’ in Northern Ireland. This unexpected statement helped to focus attention on the difficulties inherent in making this...
James O'Leary137-144 -
This project is about how architecture can transform a refugee camp into a child friendly city designed around existing social networks. The vision is to respond to the refugee crisis with long-term resilient solutions rather than reactionary ones.This project is about how architecture can transform a refugee camp into a child friendly city designed around existing social networks. The vision is to respond to the refugee crisis with long-term resilient solutions rather than reactionary ones.This project is about how architecture can transform a refugee camp into a child friendly city designed around existing social networks. The vision is to respond to the refugee crisis with long-term resilient solutions rather than reactionary ones.Nada Maani145-148
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In the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks that claimed 130 lives, and in response to FBI warnings about threats by the Islamic State terrorist group, stringent security measures were pre-emptively imposed on St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to deter possible attacks. The very nature of exclusion and control brought about by the securitisation corrodes the inherent nature of what the square previously symbolised: a sanctuary where all could enter and be welcome. Using the case of St. Peter’s Square, this work illuminates the three main contradictions between security and architecture apparent in practice today, as a way to understand the role of architecture in contributing to a convivial city under the conditions of terrorism.In the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks that claimed 130 lives, and in response to FBI warnings about threats by the Islamic State terrorist group, stringent security measures were pre-emptively imposed on St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to deter possible attacks. The very nature of exclusion and control brought about by the securitisation corrodes the inherent nature of what the square previously symbolised: a sanctuary where all could enter and be welcome. Using the case of St. Peter’s Square, this work illuminates the three main contradictions between security and architecture apparent in practice today, as a way to understand the role of architecture in contributing to a convivial city under the conditions of terrorism.In the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks that claimed 130 lives, and in response to FBI warnings about threats by the Islamic State terrorist group, stringent security measures were pre-emptively imposed on St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to...Daniel Tan149-150
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Much of Rwanda’s conflict can be traced to the relation between human (culture) and non-human (nature) that defined territories and ethnic divisions in pre-colonial Rwanda. These human and non-human relations, exploited by European colonialism, have become increasingly estranged through the influence of Eurocentric forms of architecture, urban and rural planning. This practice-based research explores the relations between Rwanda’s human settlements and the landscape to provide insight into emergent spaces of conflict. The hope is that where a meeting of different perspectives is articulated a form of architecture as mediation may emerge.
Much of Rwanda’s conflict can be traced to the relation between human (culture) and non-human (nature) that defined territories and ethnic divisions in pre-colonial Rwanda. These human and non-human relations, exploited by European colonialism, have become increasingly estranged through the influence of Eurocentric forms of architecture, urban and rural planning. This practice-based research explores the relations between Rwanda’s human settlements and the landscape to provide insight into emergent spaces of conflict. The hope is that where a meeting of different perspectives is articulated a form of architecture as mediation may emerge.
Much of Rwanda’s conflict can be traced to the relation between human (culture) and non-human (nature) that defined territories and ethnic divisions in pre-colonial Rwanda. These human and non-human relations, exploited by European colonialism, have become increasingly estranged through the...
Killian Doherty151-156 -
This case study is about reclaiming a political form of urbanism before the potential Cyprus reunification by enhancing, through the Hands-on Famagusta project, ‘agonistic’ collective practices across the Cypriot divide.
This case study is about reclaiming a political form of urbanism before the potential Cyprus reunification by enhancing, through the Hands-on Famagusta project, ‘agonistic’ collective practices across the Cypriot divide.
This case study is about reclaiming a political form of urbanism before the potential Cyprus reunification by enhancing, through the Hands-on Famagusta project, ‘agonistic’ collective practices across the Cypriot divide.
Socrates Stratis; Emre Akbil157-162 -
‘Urban in-betweenness’ offers a short reflection on the way conflicts on a global scale are perceived on an individual level within the urban context and how this will have spatial repercussions. Conflict is considered as an origin of urban resistance and a possible opening for innovation and intervention at a micro scale. The essay is a call to design researchers to re-codify the shattered urban elements in order to make new meaningful connections.
‘Urban in-betweenness’ offers a short reflection on the way conflicts on a global scale are perceived on an individual level within the urban context and how this will have spatial repercussions. Conflict is considered as an origin of urban resistance and a possible opening for innovation and intervention at a micro scale. The essay is a call to design researchers to re-codify the shattered urban elements in order to make new meaningful connections.
‘Urban in-betweenness’ offers a short reflection on the way conflicts on a global scale are perceived on an individual level within the urban context and how this will have spatial repercussions. Conflict is considered as an origin of urban resistance and a possible opening for innovation...
Moniek Driesse; Isaac Landeros163-168