Israeli, Palestinian and German students of architecture have developed concepts in joint workshops for a peaceful future in Jerusalem and are publishing them in a book. The principal sponsor for this project is the Allianz Cultural Foundation.

In Jerusalem, architecture and urban development embody the smouldering conflict. The eastern part of the city is like a patchwork quilt: New well-guarded settlements are located between Palestinian residential areas. The fragmented parallel city is developing mostly without official permission - urban development in a crisis. Ten town-planners from each country as well as two tutors from Germany, Israel and Palestine have analysed together the "cities of collision" in and around Jerusalem and compared them with German regions. The Allianz Cultural Foundation is the principal sponsor for the three one-week workshops between August 2003 and February 2004 as well as the planned book publication. AllianzGroup.com News talked to the architect Philipp Misselwitz who initiated the project at the Berlin University of Arts and managed the project together with Tim Rieniets.

Misselwitz: The idea originated at the end of 2002 after a short visit to Israel. Israeli and Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem know hardly anything about each other. I was interested to see how that functioned in terms of space. As the border line is not clear anymore, you can no longer talk about two halves of the city, but rather two overlapping parallel towns which despite this are almost completely separate from each other. First of all, the basic idea of Cities of Collision was to develop an understanding for this extreme situation and secondly to try and find bridges between these islands which make the idea of a shared city appear conceivable. From the beginning it was obvious that at the time-being this could only be possible through mediation from outside.

Misselwitz: We have developed a sort of exemplary "guidebook" for the Palestinian village Sur Baher and the Israeli settlement Har Homa.The two places are only 300 metres apart but culturally, politically and socially they appear to be at opposite poles. Visible and invisible walls run through the landscape and through people's heads. For us this micro-cosmos is a symbol for the geopolitical and cultural situation of Jerusalem and the entire country.The "guidebook" will flow into the planned book publication. "City of Collision" is due to appear in English by 2005 at the latest.

Misselwitz: In the workshops we collected and interpreted common trails of all kinds - stories or objects such as dying olive trees or rubbish tips. The resulting guidebook can also be used to "read" and understand the landscape.However, apart from the differences we also show the fine, informal connecting ties: Colliding cities are also micro-utopia for living together and for an exchange of ideas, from which more might grow in the future.Urban development and architecture on both sides are products of a mostly unconscious dialogue. The Israeli settlements copy the matured, natural village architecture of the Palestinians. They in their turn see the settlement Har Homa as a symbol of enemy occupation, but on the other hand also as a window on modern living and western lifestyle which they admire and copy.Beyond the architecture there are informal exchange patterns every day in shopping, taking taxis, working, although the last intifada has reduced these encounters to a minimum.Therefore "collision" is not negative for us but denotes a third mediation area which can make the differences culturally productive and improve everyday life. In the course of this process we have succeeded here as all workshop participants constantly had to swing to and fro between Israeli and Palestinian realities and viewpoints. Perhaps Jerusalem will be able to resume its history in the future as the cultural threshold between Europe and Asia.

Misselwitz: We are not developing any architectural concepts but an understanding for space. We would like to combine the last workshop in the summer of this year with a conference and exhibition in Jerusalem in order to address a wider public. Together with the website and the planned book we understand this as sustained "realization" of our work.

Misselwitz: A major success of the project is the actual common work process. At the beginning the differences and misunderstandings between the various groups - especially between Israelis and Palestinians - seemed to be irreconcilable. This changed during the course of the process in a striking way. We have formed " mixed working groups". This has never previously been the case outside the peace movement and was of course not always simple. First of all, we could only reduce the initial mistrust gradually - at the beginning even little things were given a political dimension. However, when you consider that a lot of outsiders declared such a cooperation impossible right from the beginning we have achieved an enormous amount. The group dynamics - which despite bomb attacks and military actions during the workshop basically remained stable - show that cooperation is both possible and productive.

Misselwitz: The German participants functioned as "neutral outsiders". Sometimes Israelis and Palestinians downright wooed them as "referees" - surely a strange feeling.The German-Israeli relationship which is strained through history was uncomplicated for the students compared with the current Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Nevertheless the role of the Germans will always remain a special one and I think that all the participants were aware that some important manoeuvres in the Middle East conflict are directly connected with our own past and that a special responsibility results from this.

Misselwitz: As a direct result of the cooperation a group of German, Israeli and Palestinian students has developed the installation project "Transmission" which is to be shown in Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Berlin. A webcam will broadcast simultaneous pictures from three selected public places in these three cities.Beyond that "Cities of Collision" has been invited to participate in international exhibitions and we are considering institutionalising and professionalising our project.