Kufr Aqab as a mega project in a ‘no-man’s land’

This paper presents the case study of kufr aqab neighbourhood located on the northern outskirts of jerusalem as a special kind of mega-project where the political framework has created and defined spatial conditions that appear critical from the urban planning point of view. Kufr-aqab is a case of a silent mega-project in which around 60,000 palestinian jerusalem id card holders unable to expand within east jerusalem due to the high housing prices but especially due to the imposed restrictions have found shelter within this mega project in a sort of ‘no man’s land’. Within a broader and really fast process of building development (unplanned and uncontrolled, which affects the residual part of the land from the israeli occupation) there are some areas (as Kufr Aqab) where the relationship between the absence of rules and definition of an urban environment of poor quality and poorly sustainable is very clear. The idea is that this case could show how Urban change through large scale projects works in conditions of no plans, visions and policies from this side, under the effects of occupation in a contested city as Jerusalem.