Hummus - East Mediterranean City Belt 2050

East Mediterranean City Belt 2050 is an alliance of some 20 cities, which form a corridor of urbanization along the Mediterranean Coast from Turkey to Egypt and include the corresponding desert hinterland. A high concentration of people, money, services and production will create a strong backbone for the area: by 2050, the belt's population will approach or exceed 200 million inhabitants.

Jerusalem in the region - the region in Jerusalem

Jerusalem has very specific problems which cannot be solved in a micro or macro scale. Being a symptom of the whole region, we consider it necessary to think simultaneously of Jerusalem in the region, and the region in Jerusalem: without a peaceful and economically thriving East Mediterranean region, there can be no vital city.

New definition of a geographical figure

The new defined geographical figure implies a tight focus on developing existing and "new" cities, as well as their close alliance and cooperation. This metropolitan governance can be understood as the development of historical precedents or as the consequence of the existing accumulation and connections of economic capital. It also incorporates the major trend of urbanization and urban concentration, and stresses the importance of metropolitan regions on state policies.
East Mediterranean City Belt 2050 is, by the way, not an invention, but something easily predictable to anyone with an interest in the region and a feel for spatial properties. Successful European metropolitan regions constitute a living model for this type of governance.

Constructing an image - collective imagination

Currently, the Middle East - and therefore Jerusalem - lacks positive connotations and confidence.
What the region also lacks is an overall image of the future: an almost emblematic visualization, easy to communicate and robust enough not to lose its message through different interpretations. The map of East Mediterranean City Belt intends to create such an image of the far future, which will allow orientation and collective identification. Thought as Leitbild, the map offers in a universal language a new vision and new terms, thus becoming far more than a description: in reciprocal action complex coherences are communicated to a wide public.

"Grand Questions":

Where do we want to be in 40 years?
In what environment shall our grandchildren live one day?
How can we communicate a confident vision to a non-homogenous region of about 140 million inhabitants?
Can we skip the close future and think the remote future backwards?
Can we practice archeology of the future?
How can such a process and Leitmotiv be governed?
What role/identity can/will Jerusalem take in the region in 2050?
How does an international Jerusalem fit in with the regional alliance of cities?
What could be the economic specificity of the future East Mediterranean City Belt?