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- Country of residence: Palestine
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The engineer, Nadia Habash, won the position of captain of the Palestinian Engineers Syndicate in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, for the year 2021. So who is Nadia Habash?
Engineer Nadia Habash, born in the occupied city of Jerusalem, is today a brilliant name in the world of architecture. She co-founded the Department of Architecture at Birzeit University, one of the most prestigious Palestinian universities.
Habash completed her school education in occupied Jerusalem, and completed her university education at the University of Jordan, majoring in architecture, and completed her higher education at the University of Michigan in the United States, after which she worked as a professor of architecture at Birzeit University before she resigned and established her own engineering office.
Engineer Nadia Habash excelled in architectural design to become the most prominent architect of the restoration of historical and heritage sites at the local level, in addition to being considered one of the founders of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering at Birzeit University and an accredited professor in it.
Habash has won several awards for its contribution to building and architecture projects, the most recent of which was the Haseeb Al-Sabbagh and Saeed Khoury Award for Distinguished Projects in Architecture and Restoration, for the Araba Palaces Restoration Project, which succeeded in dealing with the urban heritage and reusing it socially.
Araba Palaces and Notable Designs
Habash says that her winning project included the restoration and rehabilitation of the palaces of Hussein Abdel Hadi, Abdel Kader Abdel Hadi and Al Kasbah, to be used, respectively, as a community center for children and family, a youth cultural center, and a public space for holding events and celebrations.
Engineer Habash emphasized that following a professional methodology in the process of documentation, intervention and application of global standards issued by UNESCO and ICOMOS in accordance with international charters, starting from the stage of documentation and archaeological and architectural analysis, through the stage of intervention and architectural design, and ending with the implementation and operation stage; This is the main reason for winning the prize.
Habash considered receiving the award a great responsibility and the culmination of a long journey of hardship and fatigue. She added that these awards provide a presentation of distinguished projects despite the difficult conditions and environment in which engineers work, and they are awareness and appreciation for engineering work that follows the correct engineering principles.
The restoration of the Araba palaces was not the only work for which Habash won a prize. She had other designs, including the Independence Park project in Ramallah, the archaeological park in Hisham’s Palace in Jericho, and the reservoirs of Deir Istiya and Kafr Abush, which were erected in the historical center of the village.
Birzeit my first home
Habash says that she has a historical association with Birzeit University, and she is proud that she is part of the university and the faculty, considering that it is her first home and the place that embraced her after her graduation, and that the university contributed to developing her skills academically and practically, stressing that her success and superiority are the success and superiority of the university as well.
Although the occupation prevented her from traveling for 28 years, she continued to learn about the urban movement in the world and its developments, through local conferences and workshops, in addition to benefiting from the academic work at Birzeit University, in its constant quest to improve architecture and create public awareness to preserve the urban heritage. .
College of Arts and future projects
Habash worked on the design of a project for the rehabilitation and rehabilitation of the courtyards in the old town of Al-Sammou' in Hebron and adapting them to be used for social and community development purposes to revitalize the historical centers.
The project has received international recognition after being selected by the British Council to be funded under the £30 million Cultural Protection Fund.
At the university, Habash submitted an architectural design for the project of the College of Arts and Music, which is being implemented inside the university campus, and it is the first building that the university has designed.
Nadia Habash joined the Engineers Syndicate in the year eighty-two, and was the first woman in Palestine and Jordan to win the presidency of a branch committee of the Engineers Syndicate.
Speaking about the experience of the Engineers Syndicate elections, the engineer, Nadia Habash, said that what prompted her to go into this experience was the feeling of responsibility, stressing that it is not an easy step and would affect the course of her life and professional work, but she decided to run after a deep thought because there was a necessity for union work to collect Rights, raising the voice of the union, preserving its independence, and restoring its national role.
Habash stressed that unions are among the popular institutions that must represent the voice of the street, and raise it to confront the suppression of freedoms and guarantee freedom of expression, and added that her candidacy also came in addition to the presence of many professional files, and indicated that all these things together made her feel responsible for carrying the file.
Engineer Habash saluted "the Palestinian engineers who exercised their democratic right to vote."
Habash considered that "what happened today is a democratic wedding in the true sense of the word, especially since all other elections, "legislative, presidential and local government" have been postponed."
She pointed out that "this is the first election to be held after all this delay, and it directly expressed the pulse of the Palestinian street."
Engineer Habash promised, "Every engineer who trusted me and elected me to the position of captain will take care of all the different engineering segments and specializations."
She stressed that "the list of determination will represent the rights of engineers, and we will work together to raise the level of the engineering profession in Palestine, and we will strive to achieve all the demands of engineers."
At the conclusion of her speech, Habash stressed that "one of the most important reasons for running in the Engineers Syndicate elections is the feeling of great responsibility to raise the voice of the union and defend freedoms."
It is worth mentioning that the union represents about 11518 male and female engineers in various governorates of the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and the union’s council consists of 15 members at the level of the West Bank.
The elections are held with a three-tiered system of election, which includes the election of the Syndicate Council, the election of a subcommittee for each governorate, and the election of members of the General Conference, which is considered as Parliament.
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