From quarry to life

The project seeks to offer a critical assessment of the current state of quarries operating in Israel, emphasizing their problematic proximity to residential areas, particularly Arab villages. Quantitative data indicate that most quarries in Israel are located near Arab communities, with their environmental and social impacts steadily increasing.

To examine this phenomenon, the project focuses on the Tur’an quarry, situated immediately adjacent to the village. Over the years, the quarry has expanded, encroaching on the natural mountainous landscape and intensifying excavation and crushing activities, primarily to meet the demands of the construction industry. Due to its strategic location, both the state and private companies accrue significant profits, yet this comes at the expense of the villagers’ health and the surrounding environment.

From this perspective, the project interprets the quarry as a symbol of spatial control and the exercise of power, while proposing a redesigned plan for the quarry site post-closure to remediate the area and potentially compensate affected residents and ecosystems. Moreover, the project offers an alternative to the national master plan TAMA 1067, which seeks to expand the village at the expense of private agricultural lands—a process that further destroys the natural landscape and reinforces mechanisms of land control. Accordingly, the proposed design seeks to establish a new framework for relationships among land, the environment, and community, grounded in principles of environmental and social justice.