Picture 1 - First computer simulations made by students architecture of the An-Najah National University of Nablus.

Given the difficult political and financial situation of Nablus and my experience with self-help groups, the initial idea was to make of this project a low budget project, maybe even a zero-budget proposal forcing to think along the line of self-reliance which would root the project deeper into the Nablusi society. Dependence on others outside the country may be a lovely perspective, but makes it weak to develop on its own powers and skills. Empowerment and a self-supportive economy is a better starting point, and may have other benefits too for a community living too long under the burden of occupation and and all its problematic side-effects.

The city as a healthy and ecological environment

Bringing flowers in the Old City, has several meanings and functions. I only mention here:

-    It can augment the microbiological climate by ameliorating the quality of the air in the Old City.
-    Flowers bring another type of “energy” into the City. They elicit joy and happiness. It can be a complementary image put against  all the suffering and the general atmosphere of occupation and life-threatening circumstances.
-    Many people react positively to nature. The overall view of the city will be much more cheerful. A kind of symbolic ‘wadi' is created, a place of rest and healing near nature, however small this space of nature may be. This effect has been reported several times in  literature.
-    Many cases show that an aesthetic environment in general reduces violence and criminality to a certain extent.
-    It always rewards to invest in beauty of the environment. Being overwhelmed by a ‘bath of beauty’ is a quite universal pleasant experience. It may attract people to visit the City. Especially for the future this can be important.

The idea was launched to choose one street as an “example of good practice”. The proposal was to clean the street, perhaps clean some façades and to put flowers at certain points in the street.  At the CSC we had several discussions and the ultimate choice was made for Qaryoon Street at the East side of the City, a street that runs from a small open space to the outside wall. Here are some pictures of the street before the project started (Spring 2004):

Nablus: city of flowers – city of peace.

The decennia long Israeli occupation, of course, has carved deep wounds into the local community.  The Nablusi society lives under a heavy burden of occupation and all its problematic side-effects. I’m personally convinced that non-violent ways to solve the conflict are possible and may offer many advantages in the long run. In the literature about architecture I found some indication that building structures influence highly the mood of people and that beautiful surroundings prevent the occurrence of violence of all types. So, the idea was born to spread a message of peaceful solutions, and help the population to find other ways of dealing with the severe problems they are facing. I have many friends in Nablus who also support similar ideas of non-violent solutions.

Of course, a nicer Old City is by no means in itself able to bring a political opening of the mind, but it may be one of the many elements that can help the Middle-East to come out of the circles of violence that lashed over its peoples. However, not to be able to turn the fate of history, it neither means we should cross our arms and do nothing. Anyhow, bringing flowers in the city may influence somewhat. And at least, bring some hope, as well as probably show at the occupying power the peaceful side of the Palestinians and their longing for peace. Can there be a clearer message than a town filled with flowers and ‘love energy’?  Those initial ideas are, of course, under discussion and further suggestions are given, that may be  executed in the future.

First realisations (The first stage)

In the Spring of 2004 we started to bring flowers in the Qaryoon Street. House by house the inhabitants were visited, the project explained and the inhabitants were asked for their co-operation. None of them refused; on the contrary they were pleasantly surprised by the attention for their dwelling situation and street. So, in this respect it was an easy start. Harry Michiels and Karam Halawa did almost all work in this part of the project.

Picture 3 - Qaryoon Street, June 2004 after installing the containers with flowers. (Pictures taken by Karam Halawa).

If you want to have an impression of the current situation, please, click here.

During the development of this project, of course, new ideas emerged to ameliorate the living conditions and the aesthetic within the Old City. We now call the installation of flowers the ‘first stage’ and the following next stages are planned.

Stage 2 Solar lights
In Europe there are a lot of rather cheap solar lights for the garden came on the market. We are now experimenting to use those models for lighting the flowers in the Old City. A first series of ligths is been put on the flowers. At this moment in collaboration with the Energy Research Centre of the university we are investigating and testing some types of solar lights . Especially we also want to try to put some plants and flowers in some of the corridors at the entrance of the street. There are dark corners which will become much more cheerful when the there can be a light day and night. When the lighting of the containers will be successful, we will try to expand our experience to other areas of lighting in the Old City, and perhaps beyond. Our initial ideas have to become realised in practice and lots of technicalities have to be solved before the city may become an ‘ecological paradise’ based upon ‘natural energy resources’. From a theoretical point of view, of course, it’s an important target. Nablus is not too far from desert areas, so we have a serious advantage there in terms of climate suitable for the application of solar energy. 

Stage 3 Covering the water tanks
Modernization in general is unavoidable since people want to ameliorate their comfort of living. But sometimes, new technologies are applied in such a way that they put a burden on the aesthetic of a City.  The poorly designed black water tank, a common view in the Middle East, is one of the elements that should be considered for redesigning. Together with my friend, the architect Ismail Badarin I'm investigating ways to ameliorate the common water tanks. Some of the output of this research can directly be applied in the Old City and is therefore planned as a third stage in the project. Several possibilities are possible, ranging from camouflage painting towards redesigning the shape completely so that it fit in the old architecture of the City. A few computer simulations may illustrate our way of thinking.

Picture 4 - A simple painting of the water tank in back ground colour of the soil around Nablus.

Stage 4 Camouflage for the wires
In the initial project we had planned to cover the electrical wires that are in the air everywhere. We intended to develop some type of camouflage for it. However the German Government sponsored a renewal of the complete electricity system in the old City, so that our initial ideas became superfluous.

Stage 5 Another type of coverings in the streets.
Another disturbing factor are the coverings in the street, which are necessary for protection of people and business. Together with Ismail Badarin I’m working out possibilities of using glass and Plexiglass to cover the streets (partly) as an alternative of the rusty metal systems now that catch the eyes for inappropriate reasons. This stage of the project is still on the working table. Hopefully we can finish our investigation of the most appropriate models soon.

And beyond?

The Old City needs much more projects than the City of Flowers project to rejuvenate.  It needs larger projects for restoration and rebuilding parts of the City and proper activities to bring prosperity to its inhabitants. This project is by definition limited in scope.

What we consider for the near future is to deepen our insight and our technologies of the bio-climate of streets and houses using vegetation. We also want to develop more durable and more ecologically appropriate containers for the flowers, to explore the reduction of  water consumption by using aquaculture, and to stimulate the knowledge and skills for cultivating flowers of inhabitants. As far as a societal basis may be found for it, it can be used as a motor to launch new types of community work inside the Old City. A lot is in our mind or already in a stage of preparation, but it needs feed-back of many people in order to grow and become more mature. I've only put a seed into the soil of the Old City. I'm waiting what will come out of it!

The seeds are spreading around...Expansion of the project to other cities.

Some visiting colleagues in the Summer of 2004 were interested to adopt the basic ideas of the project and apply them to the situation of the public spaces in their city. Of course, the Nablusi team was very interested to expand the project, so the new collaborations were warmly welcomed.