Umm Al-Fahem is an Arab city in Israel, a city of social, geographic, historic, and political importance. Once a small village, Umm Al Fahem developed to be the third-largest Arab city in the state of Israel. It endured several hegemony stages of occupation and mandates, which shaped its socio-spatial systems through the years. The social and spatial features created a system of segregation and inaccessibility within the different scales of the city, mainly reflected in the core of the city. Therefore, given the long history of the city and its constant unplanned spatial growth, and its important cultural familial heritage, the city core gradually became impenetrable to those who do not live in it, socially and spatially. It became stagnated in order to prevent unauthorized access to it, only readable and open to those who culturally belong, resulting in the need for rejuvenation.

This project’s main focus is to understand the city and its people, create intervention strategies in order to rejuvenate the core of Umm Al-Fahem to be socially integrated and spatially accessible on different scales. Through the medium of investigating the history and context of the city and proposing possible minimal and extreme spatial intervention scenarios, this project will be examining and answering the main question:
”To what extent can the socio-spatial strategies of rejuvenation make the stagnated core of Umm Al-Fahem be socially integrated and spatially accessible?”.

At the moment, 23,5% of total waste production in the Netherlands comes from the construction sector. Therefore, in view of international agreements and the developing climate crisis, by 2050 this construction- and demolition sector should be transformed into a circular system that limits CO2 severely. It is important to bear in mind that current waste collection and waste treatment in the Netherlands are often separated and that it is a system that does not integrate social and spatial aspects, such as education or embeddedness in the urban fabric. These processes lack in optimal use of existing spatial systems in order to stimulate a sustainable circular flow of materials. In order to tackle this problem, we envision to integrate several systems of existing waste collection stations and treatment facilities and involve citizens in the waste system rejuvenation. In order to achieve this, we build upon the existing network of waste collection stations, by transforming it into a multi-functional system. Adding social values to the existing systems such as educational facilities and maker spaces improves their spatial quality and contributes to more public awareness about these systems. In order to achieve this, we propose to integrate systems into the urban fabric and improve the dialogue with the cities in the South Holland region. However, the unique identity of each location requires a multi-layered approach, consisting of central hubs and local- and flexible spokes. The central hubs emphasize logistical optimization of circular material processes, while the local and flexible spokes focus more on public awareness creation. The local spokes do so through integration with the city and the flexible spokes with a more adaptable character by being related to construction sites. To determine the functions and characteristics of each site, the regional strategy will take into account all individual spatial, environmental, social, and technical characteristics in order to achieve the best interaction between them. The multi-scale integration and rejuvenation of the system improve the efficiency and the sustainability of waste collection, with an impact on the spatial qualities of the waste collection stations. In turn, this leads to added social values and crucial society-wide awareness for the transition and active engagement of citizens in the circular economy.