Gaza Urban Planning Advisory Team - Building Back Better

16 Feb

Bomb damage in Gaza, a risk to safety and barrier to reconstruction

In 2015 Tapestry Director Elizabeth Reynolds participated in an Urban Planning Advisory Team in the Gaza Strip. The International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) arranged two parallel UPATs on behalf of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Habitat with the intention of undertaking a rapid, creative spatial visioning exercise. The team working within the Gaza Strip had a particular focus on building back better, as well as long term spatial planning.

Local communities were asked about their daily lives and aspirations, including how they would visualise Gaza taking shape as a place in the long term. In the absence of public transport and with extremely high fuel costs, converting a former rail corridor to a priority walking and cycling space was also proposed as a potential low cost, short term urban design intervention. As an alternative to producing a technical report as a project deliverable, a magazine titled Plan was created by ISOCARP and edited by Tapestry.

Read PLAN magazine here

“Spatial planning is an important lever for promoting sustainable development and improving the quality of life. UNDP, in cooperation with the Palestinian Government, UN Habitat, ISOCARP and other local and international partners, is providing a platform for integrated planning that will guide recovery and reconstruction and allow for economic growth and increased resilience in Gaza.”

— Roberto Valent, UNDP