RIBA Awards Shortlist 2021

Ethical implications of experimental design on affected communities in the Gaza Strip, Palestine by Dr Salem Al Qudwa, School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes, UK (and respected member of our editorial board ) has been shortlisted for the RIBA President’s Awards for Research 2021 *Congratulations Salem!

Winners will be announced this week.

Salem's work at Yale and Oxford Brooks continues to inspire and inform our practice.

Annihilation in Gaza has become so frequent that houses are being built, destroyed and reconstructed all at the same time. The inconsistencies between how the home is viewed as an ideal and as a lived experience affect how people in conflictual surroundings define it. Regarding housing, Gaza’s ongoing emergency situation has attracted more experimental structures, built by international aid organisations. The combination of Israeli military events and the construction of temporary makeshift shelters have resulted in substantial demographic and social changes, especially for low-income extended families..

Image: Partially damaged housing units in a four-storey apartment building that is still inhabited by an extended family despite being targeted in the Gaza Strip. © Salem Al Qudwa