Palestinian residents feel at home. The textured yet
simple limestone surfaces also provide a backdrop for
the art on display. Colored ceramic tiles with patterns
similar to the local carpets are used to cover the walls of
the reception area, café and library, another feature of
the project inspired by Islamic arts and local traditions.
Donaire Arquitectos winning design proposal for the
A.M. Qattan Foundation is in search of an economic and
rational plan inflected by the practical and aesthetic
features of the local Palestinian vernacular architecture.
Innovative use of local limestone integrated into a
complex glass façades introduce qualities of light and
space that is balanced with a limestone plinth and walls
that emphasize solidity. For the newly developing civic
life of Palestine and the Middle East this equilibrium
between space and solidity, lightness and heaviness,
achieved through stone architecture is a metaphor for
the effort to develop an enlightened society grounded in
the values of tradition.
MART - NİSAN 2013 / MARCH - APRIL 2013 • NATURA 57