Exploring and promoting new forms of making based on Palestine’s rich but threatened heritage of both craft and industrial production, the Wonder Cabinet is a non-profit cultural and educational platform established and designed by local architects Elias and Yousef Anastas. Despite being known primarily for their work in stone, they here sought material anonymity by using a simple, rough-finished concrete grid frame. Glazed, extensively openable front and rear facades, along with a largely open-plan interior with just a few glass partitions, ensure transparency throughout and natural climate control through airflow. The focus is entirely on the making, as a means to support fulfilling livelihoods that sustain Palestinians’ presence here in the West Bank, and on the landscape setting.

Nestled into a hillside at the edge of Bethlehem – a city that previously lacked any dedicated contemporary arts venue – the building looks out over the Al-Karkafeh Valley. Its views towards the Jordanian mountains on the horizon are interrupted by an Israeli settlement on a once-forested hilltop in the near distance.

A giant mural by the artists Somnath Bhatt and Ayed Arafeh adorns its west elevation. The street facade gives access to the upper level, housing a café and a shop showcasing locally made products. Between the two, a diagonal void that cuts through and connects all three levels draws the gaze downwards, offering a sweeping perspective of the multiple activities taking place inside, and on to the valley beyond.

The architects’ studio and several other open offices are also accommodated on the upper floor. The mezzanine below hosts a production area, artist workstations, a radio station, and a restaurant. The lower level mainly houses a performance and production space, with facilities for various craft activities, from wood- and metalworking to casting, textiles, and photography. An outdoor patio offers a relaxed spot for socialising or informal meetings.

The only enclosed areas of the rear facade are the masonry-walled sound studio and the metal-fronted staircase bay, which has two conical protruding porthole windows. Crafted by Mohammad Husni, who specialises in steelwork for factory silos, these windows are angled to frame particular parts of the surrounding landscape. Furniture, lighting, and other details are likewise made by local artisans, including the prominent rooftop installation by Bishara al-Hadweh, of staggered stainless-steel letters spelling out “WONDER CABINET” that gently spin – weather-vane-like – on tailor-made ball-bearing mechanisms.

Jury citation

“Initiated by the architects to fill a gap in the cultural offerings for youth in the city, this project expands the agency of architects to the roles of client, designer, cultural practitioner, and activist.

Designed as an open, flexible, and transparent beacon of cultural production and resilience in the Al-Karkafeh Valley, the spatial organisation of the building facilitates exchange, dialogue, and community-building. With a mixed programme of artists’ studios, production spaces, a radio station, a restaurant, and the architects’ offices spread over different platforms, the cross-sectional void traversing its three floors encourages physical and visual connections, both within the building and towards the surrounding landscape.

Borrowing from the contemporary language of the concrete frame construction prevalent in Bethlehem and its environs, the project demonstrates that spatial complexity and richness can be achieved through the judicious application of standardised construction methods and minimal material use. The concrete grid becomes an inhabited infrastructure of cultural production as well as a domestic monument – anonymous in its expression and scale, yet monumental in its impact. The building manages to both blend in with the other buildings in the city through its architectural expression and stand out through its transparency as an open and welcoming gesture in the landscape. Its bare concrete frame is complemented by locally produced artisanal elements such as the spinning signage, portholes, and murals that celebrate contemporary Palestinian production.

Firmly nestled within a deeply charged setting, the Wonder Cabinet offers new horizons: reintroducing making, music, wonder, and joy in the city. By imagining both the cultural institution and the physical structure that hosts it, the architects have created a building that transcends its immediate political context, providing a model for an architecture of connection that is rooted in contemporary expressions of national identity and asserts the importance of cultural production as a means of resistance.”

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture