Stitching Gaza: A Thesis in Mourning – Textile Counter-Mapping, Spatial Justice, and Writing Under Ruin

Hala Alnaji’s doctoral dissertation in Architecture develops a textile-based counter-mapping methodology to examine how architectural research can respond to conditions of erasure, siege, and ongoing destruction in Gaza. The study critiques conventional cartographic practices that rely on aerial abstraction and territorial legibility, arguing that such tools often reproduce the logics of control they seek to represent. In response, it proposes textile counter-mapping as an alternative spatial epistemology grounded in material practice, embodiment, and ethical refusal of neutrality.

Written under the ongoing devastation of Gaza since October 2023, the research reframes mourning as a methodological position rather than an emotional aftermath. Through stitching, folding, layering, and fraying, fabric becomes an architectural medium capable of holding rupture, displacement, and survival without resolving violence. Drawing on decolonial theory, feminist geography, and spatial justice discourse, the dissertation integrates research-by-design, critical writing, and participatory mapping practices.

By positioning stitching as both analytical tool and collective act, the study advances an architectural framework in which mourning becomes a form of spatial resistance against disappearance and erasure.

Hala Alnaji is a multidisciplinary architect, researcher, curator, and educator working at the intersection of architecture, art, and political engagement. She is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster, London. She holds a master’s degree in architecture and completed advanced research in Decolonizing Architecture at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, alongside specialised studies in curatorial studies at Konstfack University.

Hala is the founder of the Butterfly Trace Collective in Gaza and co-founder of the Ezwa Initiative, both platforms dedicated to exploring displacement, spatial justice, and cultural memory through collaborative artistic and spatial practices. She has worked as a consultant with UNESCO, served as a juror for the Palestinian Cultural Fund, and held research and teaching positions across Europe and the Middle East. Her curatorial projects have been presented internationally, and in 2022 she published her first book, Scattered in the Shadow.