IUG Centre for Architectural Heritage (IWAN) of the Faculty of Engineering signed an agreement to finance the restoration and rehabilitation of Ghussain and Ashi homes in the old city of Gaza. This agreement is part of financing of the tenth stage of project EGPX to create job opportunities funded by the German Development Bank (KFW) Programmes through the United Nations Development Programme in Gaza (UNDP).
Dr. Suheir Ammar, head of Iwan’s centre for archeological heritage, explained that the project comes within the framework of the centre’s strategy towards restoring archaeological abandoned houses by cooperating with the owner to have a community foundation run the house for a long period of time in exchange for a comprehensive rehabilitation and restoration of the house.
Engineer Mahmoud Al-Balawi – coordinator at the centre – noted that the two houses belong to Ghussain and Ashi families at the Daraj neighborhood, both of which date back to the Ottoman era.
Engineere Naswha Alramlawa- a member at IWAN- showed that the choice of homes benefiting from the project came after the process of a systematic evaluation taking into account the archaeological value, space, priority, owners’ reaction, geographic location, and the estimated cost.
In recent years, IWAN centre has restored many ancient houses within its strategy to maintain and rehabilitate the old town through the preservation of archaeological buildings.
