The Extraterritorial Studio, led by Aya Musmar, was a teaching residency hosted at the Lab in Darat al Funun. Designed for architecture thesis students, the residency provided a space to move beyond traditional university settings, fostering critical approaches to architectural research and learning. Focusing primarily on Palestine, the studio engaged with questions of positionality and relationships across geographies, while reimagining methods of inquiry to address Palestinian spatial, political, and social conditions across territories. The program included workshops and exchanges with practitioners such as architect and artist Saba Innab, and multidisciplinary designer and researcher Jumanah Bawazir.

Abdullah Tabaza and Leen Abu Najem, participants in the pilot iteration of the studio, will showcase their thesis work developed over the past year. Their presentation will delve into their processes of engaging with complex and contested realities, offering reflections on their critical methodologies in design and research.

The talk will be in Arabic. To register, please fill in the form here.

Abdullah Tabaza, a graduate student in architectural design, investigates displacement and identity in Gaza-Jerash, Gaza-Jerash. This project explores how residents of the 1967 Gaza refugee camp in Jerash, Jordan, navigate marginalization and engage their environments. Though speculative architectural interventions Abdullah uncovers narratives that challenge the simplistic view of displacement as a before-and-after experience.

Leen Abunajem, a graduate student in architectural design, examines memory, archives, and restoration in Metamorphosing Grounds. Through collaboration with Jeem, a former resident of the 1948 Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, Palestine, the project devises a creative methodology to trace the camp’s emotional and spatial history, reimagining architecture as a textual and spatial medium for resilience and empowerment.