Rebuilding Gaza
Needless to say, any plan for rebuilding Gaza must be predicated on the demilitarization of Hamas and its ousting. Only then can the proposed temporary governing authority – the newly named “Board of Peace”, proposed by United States, be established to oversee reconstruction, security and administration of the enclave until a permanent government is agreed upon. The oil-rich Gulf States will be among those countries contributing significantly to this complex and enormous project.
Entire cities and neighborhoods were levelled by Israeli airstrikes, winter on its way. Urgent is clearing at least part of what may be the world’s greatest heap of rubble in order to restore basic infrastructure – roads and utilities and providing temporary housing along with the essential requirements needed for surviving the coming winter season.
These important tasks attended to, the process of rebuilding Gaza would begin with the selection of a master plan team whose role it is to prepare a comprehensive three dimensional plan, comprising, inter alia, land use, roads, housing of economic density, public buildings and a public open space and pedestrian system, all systems continuous and interrelated.
Early stages of the master plan team’s work will require understanding the way of life and culture of those who will reside here along with the detailed documentation of existing conditions and its analysis, deciding, for example, on physical and natural elements that might be preserved. This vital information in hand, a program for rebuilding the enclave would then be drawn up providing a foundation for the plan.
Once prepared, the Master Plan would be broken down into its main areas, Gaza’s forty kilometer shoreline on the Mediterranean Sea with its beaches, promenades, roads and buildings, would be one of them, the permanent security buffer zone along Israel’s borders, a seaport and possibly an airport, among the others.
Transportation movement and road engineers, utilities, landscape, climate and acoustic consultants would submit their plans, advising the various planning teams where relevant.
Plans developed for the various areas, supervised by architects, city planners and urban designers on the highest professional level would advise the planning teams and insure the plan’s unity.
The planning process will surely take years, all proposed plans approved by the governing authority. Only in its final stages would detailed architectural drawings be prepared. Building contractors selected, staged construction would begin.
Assuming all goes well, which given the fact that Hamas is presently recovering its control of the enclave through unspeakable brutality, seems highly unlikely, pointing clearly to the failure of the peace proposals, Gaza’s rebuilding will take decades. Experts predict that clearing the rubble alone could take between ten and fifteen years. Estimated cost of the reconstruction project: 120 billion dollars.
Gerard Heumann – Architect and Urban Designer, Jerusalem