Summary

Publication Year: 2019

Authors:

Shared Spaces Workshop

Addressing the Complex Urban Demographics of the City

Jerusalem is a mixed city in which population groups with different religious, national, and cultural characteristics reside side-by-side. An examination of Jerusalem as a mixed city requires understanding and addressing the unique needs of its various sectors, with special attention to the points of intersection between these population groups. The city contains physical spaces that function as boundaries between the different communities. These areas are characterized by neglect and an atmosphere of insecurity, which prevents their optimal use.

An opportunity for Integration

The municipal planning process currently underway for the development of a new Master Plan for Jerusalem offers an opportunity to integrate and apply the information presented here. Jerusalem, characterized by physical and demographic segregation, is, in spatial terms, primarily composed of disconnected residential neighborhoods – a consequence of its topography but also of the approaches to planning that have prevailed since the mid-twentieth century, which advocate autonomous neighborhoods separated by green zones.

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