Palestinian architect turns conservation of heritage into resistance
Nadia Habash, Director of Habash Consulting Engineers and adjunct lecturer at Birzeit University
reports in Al-Monitor:
For nearly four decades, Palestinian architect Nadia Habash has sought to preserve her country’s architectural heritage through eco-friendly renovations and rehabilitation of traditional buildings that serve the needs of the day.
“Palestinian architecture, an integral part of our cultural heritage and national identity, is subjected to systematic destruction by the Israeli occupation, which aims to eliminate evidence of the existence of our ancestors on this land,” wrote the award-winning architect in an article titled “Architecture as Resistance.”
“Preserving our cultural and natural heritage, keeping it alive, and reflecting it in our new designs is part of our national struggle,” Habash, director of Habash Consulting Engineers and adjunct lecturer at Birzeit University, wrote in the article published in 2018.
“I have never sought material gains. I believe that my work is a kind of national struggle to preserve the architectural heritage in Palestine,” Habash told Al-Monitor shortly after she was chosen by Middle East Architect magazine as one of 50 influential architects of the region for 2019.
One of the architect’s best-known works is the rehabilitation of the Old Market in Bethlehem, located in the historical center of the town, in close proximity to the Church of Nativity. Habash led the five-year project, which was completed in 2018, and gave a face-lift to the historical structure of the bazaar that provides a livelihood for small farmers and breeders.