This housing report provides information regarding housing typologies in the Palastinian territories, with a special focus on unreinforced concrete and masonry bearing construction (designed for gravity loads only).
This building type is usually found in most cities of the West Bank and less often in the Gaza Strip. It is a traditional, non-engineered, low-rise construction practice. The main lateral loadresisting system consists of bearing walls with unreinforced concrete strip foundation. Theinterior masonry walls consist of plain concrete (system #2) or two wythe stone masonry walls filled with plain concrete (system #1). The exterior bearing walls consist of stone masonry facing with a plain concrete backup. Wall thickness ranges from 400 to 500 mm (system #1) to 300-mm thickness in system #2. It is important to note that system #1 represents the old practice for bearing-wall construction while system #2 represents the new trend which was developed and used from the 1950s to the 1970s. This construction is not practiced at the present time.