Architecture of Sumud in Palestine

The Architecture of Sumud in Palestine

ARCH 5902 B. Arch Thesis
Advised by Caitlin Blanchfield and Lily Chi
Spring 2026

“Refusal is rebuilding a village over two hundred times after it’s been demolished and knowing perfectly well that it will be demolished again; refusal is living in the midst of a settler state that is massively built-up and urbanized, technologically advanced, globally integrated, and still never wavering in your belief that it is fundamentally temporary.”

Nasser Abourahme, The Time Beneath the Concrete: Palestine Between Camp and Colony, 23

Palestinian urbanism both predates and refuses Israeli settlement. This refusal is an expression of sumud, or “steadfastness,” the practice of remaining resilient and on the land despite the precarities of living under a military occupation. Since 1967, sumud has taken many forms: visible and hidden, active and passive, individual and collective. What is the role of architecture in sustaining sumud and keeping the question of the settler state, a question?

In Jericho, the occupation manufactures scarcity. Spring water flows from mountains controlled by Israel. Wells require permits and are frequent targets of settler destruction. The governorate’s sole landfill is at capacity and cannot expand beyond imposed territorial boundaries. Scarce rainfall is channeled into Israeli-controlled land. These conditions are instruments of settler colonial control designed to make Palestinian life contingent on Israel.

This thesis develops “steadfast” design strategies for Jericho and tests them through the proposal of a school at Al-Mashrou, where the city's water, waste, and food infrastructures intersect. Four architectural prototypes, a runoff trench, a salt pan, a composting windrow, and a recycling center, act as both territorial infrastructures and spaces of learning. Water harvesting, soil regeneration, material recovery, and waste management become pedagogical practices through which knowledge is produced, shared, and applied. In doing so, the project positions architecture as a means of sustaining sumud and preserving the material conditions for Palestinian life under occupation.