Ungrounding
The Architecture of Genocide
Published on 7. May 2026
Book
Hardback
416 pages
978-1-911717-33-1 (ISBN)
Description
A devastating, meticulous account of the history of Israel's destruction of Gaza from an acclaimed architect and investigator
'Urgent and essential' DAVID WENGROW
'Extraordinary' ILAN PAPPE
Eyal Weizman is one of the world's leading experts on the relationship between violence, conflict and the environment, both built and natural. As director of the organisation Forensic Architecture, he and his team of interdisciplinary researchers document acts of state crimes and human rights violations around the world. Since 2023, the group has worked to produce evidence for the International Court of Justice's genocide case against Israel.
In Ungrounding, Weizman draws on that research to bring us on an eye-opening journey across time and into the 'deep cartography' of the area extending from Gaza's subterranean tunnels through to its militarised topography, its unique soil, settlements and barriers. He catalogues, in unflinching and forensic detail, the Israeli campaigns of violence and displacement that have reshaped the region in an effort to make Gaza and its surrounding areas unliveable.
Taking us through the broader geographic and historical context, from the Nakba in 1948 to the present day, Ungrounding establishes that architectural and territorial analysis is key to understanding the relationship between coloniser and colonised - and how Israel's actions after 7 October escalated into violence so extreme and so far-reaching as to, Weizman argues, meet the definition of genocide.
Deeply informative and profoundly affecting in its scope and precision, and illustrated with dozens of original images, maps and diagrams, Ungrounding is an essential document of atrocity in our time.
'Urgent and essential' DAVID WENGROW
'Extraordinary' ILAN PAPPE
Eyal Weizman is one of the world's leading experts on the relationship between violence, conflict and the environment, both built and natural. As director of the organisation Forensic Architecture, he and his team of interdisciplinary researchers document acts of state crimes and human rights violations around the world. Since 2023, the group has worked to produce evidence for the International Court of Justice's genocide case against Israel.
In Ungrounding, Weizman draws on that research to bring us on an eye-opening journey across time and into the 'deep cartography' of the area extending from Gaza's subterranean tunnels through to its militarised topography, its unique soil, settlements and barriers. He catalogues, in unflinching and forensic detail, the Israeli campaigns of violence and displacement that have reshaped the region in an effort to make Gaza and its surrounding areas unliveable.
Taking us through the broader geographic and historical context, from the Nakba in 1948 to the present day, Ungrounding establishes that architectural and territorial analysis is key to understanding the relationship between coloniser and colonised - and how Israel's actions after 7 October escalated into violence so extreme and so far-reaching as to, Weizman argues, meet the definition of genocide.
Deeply informative and profoundly affecting in its scope and precision, and illustrated with dozens of original images, maps and diagrams, Ungrounding is an essential document of atrocity in our time.
Reviews / Votes
Ungrounding by Eyal Weizman proves that decolonisation is not revenge but a condition for justice and, in the end, for the liberation of both Palestinians and Israelis -- FRANCESCA ALBANESE In the face of overwhelming state violence, forensic architecture is becoming an indispensable tool of international law and human rights, as well as a new approach to history. Ungrounding is a work of profound moral clarity and scientific precision, based on years of tireless collaboration and advocacy. Urgent and essential reading -- DAVID WENGROW A wake-up call to the world and the international community - a very important book -- SHAWAN JABARIN Ungrounding leads us between layers of earth and history, soil and infrastructure, elucidating both the long story of Israeli aggression against Gaza and the histories of Palestinian resistance . . . Weizman cuts through obfuscations and horror, and helps us to see something of the truth -- ISABELLA HAMMAD Eyal Weizman's work has long manifested a unique combination of moral passion and scientific rigour. It makes him, as Ungrounding shows, a formidable adversary of technically sophisticated regimes of violent dispossession. No further evidence of Israeli genocidal acts and intentions in Gaza would be necessary after this shocking report -- PANKAJ MISHRA A timely and crucial contribution tracing the trail of the Israeli architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip. The ruthlessness and inhumanity detailed in this extraordinary book, nonetheless, also hold hope for turning the future soil and grounds into spaces of liberation and reconciliation -- ILAN PAPPE Ungrounding powerfully reveals the architecture of the genocide in Gaza within its century-long context. But with a forensic architect's precision, Weizman excavates, reassembles and ultimately lays the foundations for an architecture of liberation -- TAREQ BACONI The work of Eyal Weizman and Forensic Architecture has been fundamental to our understanding of the Gaza genocide, and will probably play a major part in the ICJ case. His book . . . is a major contribution -- MARTIN SHAW Ungrounding is a brilliant, shocking and urgent book for our times, as well as a precious warning to future generations -- YANIS VAROUFAKIS In this remarkable book, Weizman commands the mastery of architecture, the accuracy of a geographer and the evidence of a historian -- SALMAN ABU SITTA One of the most informative and relevant books of our present moment * Bookseller * Buy two copies of this book. One for yourself and one for those that need to be educated * Morning Star *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
1104 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911717-33-1 (9781911717331)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2026
Vintage Digital
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where, in 2005, he founded the Centre for Research Architecture. In 2007, with Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, he established the architectural collective DAAR in Beit Sahour, Palestine.
He is the author of numerous books, including Hollow Land, The Least of all Possible Evils, Investigative Aesthetics, The Roundabout Revolutions, The Conflict Shoreline, Forensis and Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability. In 2019 he was elected Life Fellow of the British Academy. In 2020 he received a MBE for services to architecture. He was the recipient of the London Design Award (2021) and the Mark Cousins Theory Award (2024). Forensic Architecture is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, a Peabody Award for interactive media, the European Cultural Foundation Award for Culture and the RIBA Charles Jencks Award.
Eyal graduated with a degree in architecture from the Architectural Association in 1998 and received his PhD in 2006 from the London Consortium at Birkbeck, University of London.
He is the author of numerous books, including Hollow Land, The Least of all Possible Evils, Investigative Aesthetics, The Roundabout Revolutions, The Conflict Shoreline, Forensis and Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability. In 2019 he was elected Life Fellow of the British Academy. In 2020 he received a MBE for services to architecture. He was the recipient of the London Design Award (2021) and the Mark Cousins Theory Award (2024). Forensic Architecture is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, a Peabody Award for interactive media, the European Cultural Foundation Award for Culture and the RIBA Charles Jencks Award.
Eyal graduated with a degree in architecture from the Architectural Association in 1998 and received his PhD in 2006 from the London Consortium at Birkbeck, University of London.