The Yalla Project (YP) is an applied research hub on socio-spatial that was established in the Kasbah of Nablus in 2018, which tackles the everydayness through a learning-by-doing approach. YP seeks for endogenous responses to the fragilities that endanger the local everyday survival and security. Pursuing a genuine bottom-up approach, YP develops on a paradigm that combines research and social businesses, so to provide a permanent involvement in and by the local context, while providing systematic financial sustainability and independency. YP operates through acupunctural actions that maximise the outcomes on the social and spatial context, having accomplished in so far eight impactful projects that consistently contributed to the revitalisation of the local social and spatial tissue.
In this presentation, the Yalla Project elaborates on its theoretical and practical trajectories to disclose a first-hand experience on architectural regeneration of the old city of Nablus.
- Register for the event: here.
- To join the Zoom talk on 24 August, 4 pm BST / 6 pm Nablus/Amman: click here.
This lecture is held jointly with the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA). Event details in Arabic are also available: here.
About the speakers:
Abdalrahman Kittana, co-founder at The Yalla Project, Nablus (PS), Department of Architecture – Birzeit University. Abdalrahman is a Doctor in Architecture born in Nablus in 1980. He currently joins the academic staff of the Department of Architectural Engineering at Birzeit University as an assistant professor. He received his B.Sc. in architectural engineering from Birzeit University and later he obtained his master degree in International Architectural Regeneration and Development from Oxford Brookes University/ England. Dr. Kittana has conducted his doctoral research within ‘OSA Research Group Urbanism & Architecture’ in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/ Belgium. His teaching experience includes architectural design, urban regeneration and urban design. His research interests are in the fields of city and war, urban resilience, architectural and urban development, and architectural history.
Alessandra Gola, co-founder at The Yalla Project, Nablus (PS). PhD fellow in Architecture, KULeuven. Alessandra is an architect and researcher, co-founder of The Yalla Project (Palestine), an interdisciplinary applied research hub that deals with the interrelation of built space and social constructs approached through “learning by doing”. Amongst her recent publications, the co-edited book “Making Home(s) in Displacement: Critical reflections on a spatial practice” (2021, Leuven University Press) and the paper “National Identity in the Guest Room: The Palestinian “Duyuf” (2021, Journal of Palestine Studies). She is currently concluding her PhD in Architecture at KULeuven (Belgium) with a thesis on the production of spatial domains in the contemporary Palestinian context. Her work combines professional practice and academic teaching. Her research focuses on empirical and interdisciplinary methodologies for the study of the relationship between society, built environment and rights, with a particular concern for the experience of displacement within contexts of conflict and social unrest.
