The Activation Mechanisms of Community Participation in Architectural and urban Conservation (Case Study of the West Bank)

This study addressed the issue of community participation in architectural and urban conservation projects from both the conceptual and applied theme, through analyze and understand the concept of architectural conservation, the concept of community participation, and analysis of the relation between the two former concepts associated as a multi-disciplinary subject, and also analyzed the interaction of the community and such projects in varying degrees of community participation, through analyzing case studies from outside Palestine, compared with other cases in Palestine. Among many challenges posed by the conservation projects in the theoretical and practical framework, and multiple models on the ground that each conservation project is a particular case. The study aimed to understand the nature of community participation as a relatively new method, and to shed light on the models and theories which examine the theme of community participation, and analysis of the experiences of local conservation in the light of the previous studies and cases. The study concludes that there is a difference in the concept of community participation in conservation projects, but eventually leads to include the citizens in a positive state, and also shows that in general there is no citizen control power among the implementation of projects. Also the study concludes the diversity of the needed objectives of popular participation according to each case, and concludes that the conservation of architectural and urban heritage alive requires the activation of community participation and adopting it as a method for implementation of these projects.