NO MAN'S LAND - A WATER COMMONS

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No Man’s Land: A Water Commons is a commentary on the displacement of the Syrian refugees in the north-eastern border zone between the Syrian and Jordanian berms. Rather than seeing the zone as a holding area, this proposal seeks to inhabit the berm and empower refugees by using fog harvesting, waste water management, permaculture and landscaping techniques to create the possibility of an autonomous No Man’s Land. Through the harvesting of this scarce resource not only is a humanitarian crisis mitigated but it proposes to create a different strategy for organizing emergency migration and a long term ecological solution for Jordan’s water infrastructure. The project seeks to respond to a humanitarian crisis created by a political conflict. However, the conflict may remain keeping people in holding for the foreseeable future, a scenario that begs the question - could No Man’s Land turn into a future Megacity? Or if the conflict subsides and refugees are able to return home - will this area become a ruin? Perhaps, a memorial of a precarious moment in time.

 

Zarith Pineda + Ahmed Jawdat, Mayra Mahmood, Grabriela Fiorentino, Yang Liao

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Prof. Kate Orff. Water Urbanism Studio, MAUD, Columbia University, GSAPP