If conflict can be spatial, so too must be empathy

I watched the video about Eyal Weizman’s work in Israel and how architecture is utilized for violence and warfare within the area. Though he spoke about how he is utilizing forensic architecture to help fight injustice, I found myself wondering about the architecture after the violence has occurred. What architecture is built to allow citizens to feel safe again? What is an architect’s role within these communities? Or can architecture provide solutions to the conflict within a community?

While trying to find answers, I came across Zarith Pineda’s nonprofit research lab called Territorial Empathy  which specializes in mitigating urban conflict through architectural interventions. She emphasizes the need for empathy-based design to allow cities to be more inclusive. Pineda and her team bring issues to light such as how NYC has the most racially segregated public schools in the country while also proposing a sustainable refugee camp prototype in Syria. She states that "conflict cannot exist without dehumanization…and fundamentally relies on “othering”: the systematic use of a device that demarcates a difference between an “us” and a “them”." She then proposes that “…the antidote to conflict must be empathy. And so, if conflict can be spatial, so too must be empathy.”

Designing with empathy means creating spaces that are inclusive for everyone. For example, Territorial Empathy proposed to create 'engineered paradises' in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank/Israel. A network of elevated walkways allow safe spaces where citizens can express "...universal emotions [such as; mourning, fatigue, love, embarrassment, solitude] between dissonant factions in conflict areas, users will be forced to confront the humanity of the ostracized other in hopes of catalyzing enough empathy for acceptance and eventual hopeful reconciliation." I truly admire Territorial Empathy’s approach which almost simplifies issues to be solved not only at a human scale, but at a ‘humanizing’ scale. Their work shows that a designer has the ability and responsibility to change people’s hearts and minds.

 Both Weizman’s and Pineda’s work has revealed to me injustices in our world that (thankfully) I have never experienced. Though at this moment I feel powerless and unable to help, in a way it is comforting to know that our profession can provide positive change, as long as we don’t look the other way and instead speak up and take action.