Architectural Culture in British-Mandate Jerusalem, 1917-1948

Architecture as a Cross-Cultural Project: Building in Jerusalem during the British Mandate 1917-1948, examines a fascinating and critical epoch in the architectural history of Jerusalem. It proposes a fresh and analytical discussion of British Mandate-era architecture by studying buildings that impacted Jerusalem’s built environment for years to come. By applying relational history methodology, the book reveals how these building projects evolved as an outcome of cross-cultural influences and relations among the British, American, Jewish-Zionist and Muslim-Palestinian communities. The book focuses on 4 case studies: the Muslim Palestinian Palace Hotel, the Jewish-Zionist Zionist Executive Buildings, the British Palestine Archaeological Museum (the Rockefeller Museum) and the American Jerusalem YMCA Building. These buildings’ analysis shows the major role that architecture and architectural culture had in constructing communal and national identities in Jerusalem and in Mandate Palestine The building and design processes, as well as the outcome of the edifices discussed here, present new perspectives on the adaptation of modern architecture in the Middle East and the negotiation of historicism and vernacular architecture during the first half of the twentieth century.