Israel is a place of delineations, definitions, constraints and enclosures. A statutory line, by its very nature, determines rules and boundaries.

In this project, I explore what takes place when a line is transformed into a volume, breathing life into a newly formed realm, creating a space for interaction rather than separation.

There exists an enclave at the heart of the city of Nazareth, which, for unknown reasons has been transferred, in 1976, to the ownership of its neighbour, Nazareth Illit, never to be returned.

This enclave, measuring some 150 dunams lies empty, forlorn and forgotten. It houses an active military base, as well as an abandoned convalescent home. All this, right in the centre of a tightly woven built-up urban landscape in a city with nowhere to expand into and a shortage of green public spaces.

This project addresses the question of how to deal with this absurd statutory line, this transparent line, all but invisible to those who are not versed in design or planning concepts, a line which creates a wonderous delusional reality.

At present, this line cannot be built on. The urban master plan for both these cities, shows this stray area as a blank mass with no colour, use or description.

My proposal is to build on that statutory line, transforming this invisible line into a volumetric realm.

The proposed building project would be shaped like a nest, with a mass, a wall-like embankment creating a new reality - in an internal realm within that wall, a contemporary interpretation, drawing inspiration from ancient walled cities.

Thus, a new green zone is created within that line, which seemingly belongs to Nazareth Illit, yet in fact is defined by being built in Nazareth, turning this once forgotten area into a verdant public space.

The act of building this wall as an arena of life, a wall which communicates with the city, to unravel itself to the city and be open to it, on that line, the essence of which denotes separation - is, in my opinion a new way of relating to the conflict which always manifests as a line.

This is a new interpretation of the concept of a ‘wall’, and a new way of examining a statutory line as a means of dealing with the land conflict in Israel - could the lines of separation become the lines of a new life?