Gaza Demountable Houses are a series of temporary, modular homes composed of pre-fabricated beams, trusses, columns, floors, walls and windows. Invoking French engineer Jean Prouvé’s elegant structural design for a series of small, assembled houses for sub-Saharan Africa and the south of France, Gaza Demountable Houses proposes to prototype three houses—6x8M or one bedroom, 6X12M or two bedrooms, and 6X18M, or three bedrooms.

 

Dark, wooden elements form the skeleton of the houses, and extend beyond the building envelope allowing alternative uses like hanging clothes, outdoor rooms, and even play/exercise. Each prototype is fitted with a rain catchment system, to create a system of self-sufficiency in a tightly-controlled military occupation where every drop of water and every morsel of food is counted.

 

The Gaza Demountable Houses have their longest façades on the north and south, providing indirect sunlight and privacy. The pitched trusses create a triangular opening above wall panels, forming a clerestory window from above which lets in natural light but still maintains the living and sleeping spaces as private. 

 

Sliding, wooden doors divide and expand the grid of rooms in each house, offering the possibility of openness or introversion. Raised one meter from the ground, the Gaza Demountable Houses assume a coastal condition, humid and moist with flooding in the winter. Entrances are set back three meters, providing shade and an unobtrusive entrance for individuals, families and their guests.

 

Considering the level of destruction which Gaza has endured in the last two years, it is evident there must be a reconstruction approach, one that emphasizes the precarious nature of life in Gaza. While many of lost their homes, these prototypes can demonstrate that Gaza can be re-built, experimentally.

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Project: 2026

Partner: Goethe Institute, Ramallah for Palestine Design Week