The Portable Barrack-Hut and a University under Occupation
Faculty research lies at the core of a university’s mission. It generates new knowledge while also being instructive, demonstrating how questions are framed, evidence assembled, and arguments built through spatial, material, and archival inquiry. This role is particularly vital at the Waterloo School of Architecture, where design, history, technology, and theory meet in the study of buildings which are both physical artifacts and political instruments.
This exhibition brings together two congruent research trajectories centred on the idea of the provisional: Professor Robert Jan van Pelt’s long historical study of portable emergency barracks, conceived as standardized, temporary structures designed for mobility and planned impermanence; and Professor Anwar Jaber’s investigation of Birzeit University, a campus built for continuity yet developed incrementally under the unstable conditions of military occupation.
Presented together, these histories trace a spectrum, from intentionally impermanent shelters to an institution determined to endure. They invite visitors to consider how architectural research sustains systems of control and survival, engaging with urgent ethical and political questions.
Curated by Zaven Titizian
Coordinated by Kearon Roy Taylor
Exhibition Team
Alya El Shafie, Falak Nazer, Helia Memarian, Jake Farquharson, Joudy Kusaibati, Ksenija Lukic, Michael Salib, Naomi Soufi Sabbagh, Patricia Poiana, Sydney Symak