Deir El Balah, Gaza. Masterplan for a Refugee camp from the early 1960's.

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Market Street.

With the new Masterplan for Deir El Balah comes the possibility to expand the widest street in the camp and give it the continuity that is missing nowadays due to the existence of settlements that make the street very narrow as it approaches its northern limit. The strategy is to take advantage of the existing construction by dismantling it and create a consecution of public spaces where there used to be a living room. All this array of small squares create, by taking advantage of the existing walls, a new typology of urban space that can host some of the commercial activity that is present in the wider section of this major axis, but also, due to a more complex arrangement of urban elements, new possibilities to experience the public space in this city. 
 

The proposal for the new masterplan of Deir el Balah this settlements are planned to be demolished since there is an obvious potential in opening this street since it is the main connection between the centre of the camp and its northern limit. Since in this area urban legislation is not always respected the challenge was to find a proposal that created some kind of physical boundary that prevented new unwanted constructions to appear, without building an actual fence. Since the undesired row of buildings that make this street narrow is already an obstacle it is an opportunity to play with the existing by subtracting from the existing walls until they are not recognisable anymore, becoming a urban element that we can play with in various ways but that as a whole works also as an object that makes public what used to be private.

By living a trace of what used to be there we are also framing the space that has been recovered and at the same time puts into value the history of this place. This new opening is crucial to the overall urban strategy since it is the artery that connects the camp from south to north and in this context it is very important that the residents, especially the most vulnerable ones, are able to cross the camp (for example to go to school) and that they can feel safe at all times.

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There are two different sections in this proposal. The part that is closer to the Mosque and the centre is pedestrianized to ensure that this new public space doesn’t get collapsed by motorized mobility, and has the intention to have the character of a long square, made by the consecution of smaller living room scale spaces. This part is also closer to the market square, so it has the potential to become its extension, there are some lightweight structures that invite for this kind of activities, as well as shading. The second section, closer to the limit of the camp answers to the reality that is the car and transportation, but has a wide sidewalk that is in a higher level than the car so that there is total security and freedom for this new public space to flourish.