Colour photos: Issa Freij. B&W photos: Martin Sugarman
Situated in a quiet area of the booming city of Ramallah -16 Klm. north of Jerusalem-, the building housing the KSCC is a model of traditional Palestinian architecture. Built in 1927 with massive pink stone, floors tiled with traditional Palestinian tiles, it is surrounded by a large garden and orchard. It was built for Khalil Salem Salah as a family home for an approximate cost of 20,000 Palestinian pounds. Salah was mayor of Ramallah from 1947 to 1951.
In 1995, the house was sold to the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. Renovated by the architectural conservation firm Riwaq with the financial support of the Japanese government, it was converted into a cultural center inaugurated in May 1996. The Centres renovation was part of an ongoing trend of surveying, renovating, and finding new uses for abandoned or decayed traditional buildings throughout Palestine.
The ground floor of the Centre is made up of a reception area and four rooms used as exhibit space. The first floor houses the Centres administration and the offices of the Al Karmel literary quarterly, edited by the poet Mahmoud Darwish. The top floor is made up of a large multipurpose room hosting most of the Centres activities.
The building underwent a second round of renovation in the summer and fall of 1998, when Riwaq oversaw the installation of central heating, landscaped the garden, converted the garage into a larger space to be used as a bookstore, built additional storage space, and a new outer wall and gate. The works were made possible through a grant from the Arab League Education Science and Culture Organization.
