“THE reconstruction by Gaza Municipality has officially commenced, marking a significant step toward restoring essential infrastructure and services for the citizens of Gaza.

“As we embark on this critical journey, the Municipality seeks the support of architects, engineers, and other professionals to help transform these initial ideas into tangible solutions.

“The expertise and creativity are vital in reimagining and rebuilding the city’s core, ensuring that it stands strong and sustainable for future generations. Together, we can shape a brighter and more resilient Gaza.”
 
These are the defiant words of Maher Salem of the Municipality of Gaza, where he is director of the planning and investment unit and director of the Water and Waste Water directorate. Salem has been working closely with Architects for Gaza (A4G), a team of architects from across the globe including Palestine. The workshop, currently based in Cairo, is organised by A4G in collaboration with Professor Robert Mull of the Global Free Unit and Office of Displaced Designers.
 
Working from their London office, and in daily contact with the Cairo team, Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzani are not intimidated by the US president’s fantasy about building a “Riviera of the Middle East” on the ruins of Gaza.
 
“Trump can dream on. Palestinians aren’t going anywhere,” they state. Sharif and Golzani, principals of NG Architects, set up Architects for Gaza (A4G) through their work at the University of Westminster. The estimated 300,000 (to date) displaced Palestinians returning to north Gaza from the south are returning home to whatever is left of their land, rubble or ruin.
 
“We shouldn’t normalise Trump’s rhetoric. It’s a settler colonial position which the press is supporting with images of greyness and nothingness. What is imperative is to reintroduce life and culture.”
 
Working alongside UN Habitat, A4G and the Palestine Regeneration Team, the group is focusing on rebuilding infrastructure — long-term as well as short-term — and recreating the foundations of a new Gaza city.
 
They have been working on initiatives with professionals and politicians on the ground in Gaza “even during the bombing,” with Yahya Sarraj the mayor of Gaza and with directors of the municipality to repair water supplies, drainage and power supplies.
 
More urgently, 100,000 portacabins are being sent by the UN as emergency accommodation. But the population do not want to live in another refugee camp, they want their temporary homes located precisely on the site of their own land, rubble and all. Their attachment to the site of their past homes is visceral.
 
“Small scale initiatives matter, offering hope and resilience — not rubble and helplessness,” says Sharif. One of the main hurdles is of course how to deal with the devastated buildings, which hold “memory” for families, as well as, sadly, remains of their loved ones they were not able to bury when forcibly displaced.
 
So treating this material with respect is essential. I’m reminded here of the current debate about the upcoming deconstruction of Grenfell Tower, and how some bereaved family members and survivors have a very strong attachment to the physical remains of the building. To many, their remains may have been removed, but the essence of their loved ones somehow prevails.
 
Another concern is deciding on architectural typology, which in Gaza is very different on the coast, in the city, and in rural areas; A4G is working with the municipality on how this can be approached. There are currently 18 people working on the project for the restoration of the Sheikh Radwa lagoon in the north of Gaza City, working with architects Alberto Foyo and Cezary Bednarski.
 
There must be immediate, short and long-term plans for this essential infrastructure project. The lagoon has been bombed and rebuilt four times since 2009.

The project to build a leisure and sports centre, focusing on young people and women, on the site of a previous sports arena, is now being detailed by Professor Marion Roberts and Adam Khan and is seen as essential to providing a meeting place with gardens and activities for the whole family and to reconnect communities.
 
They are in regular communication with Professor Farid Alqueeq who has the housing brief on Gaza Council. The emphasis of reconstructing community and life is to create small clusters of activity and homes, with nothing too centralised, and all the necessities of everyday life close to hand.
 
One potential breakthrough has been to get support from the Global Free Unit to work with Professor Mull and the other displaced professionals now in Cairo, for a four-week workshop to bring these projects forward. It was originally conceived to work with displaced students but is being reconfigured as many students have returned to Gaza University to complete their studies.
 
The current workshop leads teaching in Cairo are members from A4G with partners Global Free Unit and the Office of Displaced Designers: Hala Al Naji; Rana Suleiman; Alia Okasha; and Aya Musmar. The Cairo-based Palestinian support group Tabu, and heritage organisation Megawra are hosting the workshop.
 
The challenge, of course, is to recreate not just buildings and infrastructure but to rebuild community for traumatised, bereaved and homeless people. It’s the holy month of Ramadan; the pictures we have seen of the extraordinarily beautiful Iftar fast-breaking meals, tables laid out among the rubble, demonstrate the Palestinian determination to rebuild not just community, but also joy.
 
While the news shifts daily, and the US President makes ever more contrary and outrageous statements about the future of Gaza, the strength and tenacity of the Palestinian people, and those from around the world — many themselves from war-torn countries — is indefatigable. No space for fantasies and platitudes here; the serious work of reconstruction has begun.
 
This article first appeared at bdonline.co.uk.