Ein Hawd was an old Palestinian village on Mount Carmel. During the War of Independence in 1948, the Israeli army occupied the village, and the 900 villagers became refugees overnight. One group fled to nearby family land on the mountain and began building a new village, called Ein Hud after the old one. In the early 1950s, the picturesque old village became inhabited by Jewish artists who called it Ein Hod. It became a flourishing tourist destination whilst the Palestinian Ein Hud stayed unrecognized and illegal without proper infrastructure. In 2004 it was finally recognized but with a master plan that restricted the area and the Palestinian identity.

The project of a visitors centre in Afghanistan offers an unconventional intervention within the war-torn landscapes of north-eastern Wakhan Corridor. Built with the participation of the local community, it serves as a gatehouse for the wildlife reserve and functions as a public space and as a sleeping room for the park rangers. The project architect, Anne Feenstra paid much attention to contextualize every aspect of the buildings from material to construction methods.

Designed as an open wound, the Parque de la Memoria tries to find an equilibrium between the presence of nature- the natural landscape-and the presence of the city with its infrastructure, recreative uses, architecture and public places.

Birzeit is one of the larger villages north of Ramallah containing many archeological and historical sites. The Birzeit University provides the village with a multi-cultural population.

The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, designed by Foster and Partners for the triennial Congress of Leaders of the World and Traditional Religions, contains a 1,500 seat opera house, conference facilities and a national centre for Kazakhstan’s various ethnic groups. This impressive building is intended as a symbol of religious tolerance, peace and co-existence.

Since 1999 when UN peacekeepers (KFOR) led by NATO intervened in Kosovo, Kosovo-Albanians, the majority population in Prishtina, started a frantic construction boom. Villagers moving to the city and returning refugees created an enormous population growth and housing shortage. The lack of regulatory institutions combined with the possible quick returns on property investments led to a chaotic and socially undesirable urban fabric.