Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum et ad inferos' (“To whomever it belongs, it is his all the way to the heavens (and all the way to hell).” This principle of property law designates the three dimensional nature of space to be claimed and occupied.

A human is created with an innate need to navigate space and to settle within. It’s a relatively constant vessel in time. He modulates it into a house, city, territory and a home. He then develops a sense of attachment and reappropriation to it. It is his to exploit and to protect.

The architecture of occupation

The architecture of occupation is both a means and a result. It is a state of weaponization of architecture for unlawful land acquisition, segregation, isolation and apartheid practices. It could also manifest as an act of resistance, terrain reappropriation and a pressure asset.

This architectural regime translates to several tangible /intangible - planned/ anarchic structures taking place on a 3 dimensional realm and with various uncoordinated actors involved.

Instrument of occupation architecture

As Eyal Weizman illustrates in his book “Hollow Land - Israel's Architecture of Occupation”, Architecture in its hostile state as architecture of occupation uses many strategies beyond physical barriers to take over and redefine space. It all starts with destabilization and the creation of a complex reality within (geographical, terminological and logistic).

When blurring and stretching the borders, laws and morals follow. Thus, streets names change, history behind vernacular practices and buildings change, and new imposed settlements are neo-native architecture. As if simply, a natural outcome of urban and architectural evolution.

Decomposing and recomposing space

In its quest to take over space, the occupying power decomposes it and then recomposes it. It connects the fragments it scattered to create new nodes on which it claims territorial sovereignty. This assures the thinning of the existing urban tissue, visual controle, and restriction of movements within.

One of the examples of this technique are the Haussmannian piercings (boulevards) implemented in north african cities like the Casbah of algiers -Algeria.

Space layering

The same approach is implemented on the vertical plan. The layering of space into air space, surfacic land and underground space offers 3 conflict realms. Each has its assets but all are indivisible, which makes confrontation inevitable and partial ownership merely formal.

An example of that is the Israeli occupation’s acquisition of Jerusalem, and the proposal of a layered sovereignty of the holy sites. Of course, Israel would not just have the upper layer but the upper hand in the agreement by controlling the air space and owning the underground resources.

Camouflage and cryptic coloration

To fabricate its legitimacy, the occupation tries to integrate within the environment in a process of space domestication. This manifests not only as change in the built environment (building and demolishing) but also a change of its narrative (Changing streets names, reappropriation and repurposing of existing buildings).

When you claim the land, you claim the architecture. This calls for a connection to the indigenous modules and vernacular ways. When it comes to future projection, it is important for the occupier to familiarize its architecture using a unified character or style that is relevant to the space It occupied, Like the example of mandatory use of stone cladding in occupied jerusalem, or the implementation of the néo-mauresque in  north africa..

To build and to wreck are both acts of architecture,which proves that this later is far from neutral. Beyond it being a modulation of space, a translation of a dreamer’s utopia,  It can also be a projection of one's most horrific and  gruesome inner thoughts, a playground for the immoral to build in ruins their fragile kingdom. The understanding of these procedures exposes its ability to be malign and brings up the inevitable questions of its morality and ethical responsibility.