Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide is Eyal Weizman's spatial account of the destruction of Gaza—an argument that the evidence of genocide is written into the territory itself, from the tunnels beneath it to the soil, settlements and barriers on its surface.
About This Book
Weizman builds the book on the investigative work of Forensic Architecture, the research agency he founded and directs, including material prepared for the genocide case brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Rather than treating architecture as backdrop, he treats it as the medium through which violence is organised and recorded: the layered ground of Gaza becomes a site of analysis in its own right.
The book moves across time as well as depth, connecting the Nakba of 1948 to the period after 7 October 2023 and arguing that the relationship between coloniser and colonised can only be understood through its territorial and architectural form. Weizman's conclusion—that Israel's conduct meets the definition of genocide—is reached through spatial evidence, set out in dozens of original images, maps and diagrams.
Key Features
- Grounded in Forensic Architecture's investigations, including work prepared for the International Court of Justice
- Dozens of original images, maps and diagrams
- Reads Gaza vertically—subterranean, surface and built environment—as a single territorial system
- A long historical frame running from the Nakba to the present
What You'll Discover
- How architectural and territorial analysis can serve as evidence in international law
- The ways soil, infrastructure and settlement patterns register displacement and destruction
- Why Weizman argues that colonial relations are fundamentally spatial
- How forensic methods developed in architecture are reshaping the investigation of state violence
About the Author
Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he established the Centre for Research Architecture. He co-founded the Palestine-based architectural collective DAAR, is a Life Fellow of the British Academy, and is the author of numerous books, including Hollow Land.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 416
- ISBN: 9781911717331
- Publisher: Fern Press
Perfect For: Architects, urbanists and students of spatial practice, readers following Forensic Architecture's work, and anyone concerned with how architecture is implicated in—and can testify to—political violence.