Architect Senan Abdelqader spelling from his web site will be designing the Palestinian culture and art museum in Umm al-Fahm, after four years of negotiations with British architect Zaha Hadid did not bear fruit.

"We chose Abdelqader, an Arab architect whose work deals intelligently with both Arab culture and contemporary architecture, and who uses his architecture to explore Palestinian culture," says artist Said Abu Shakra, who initiated the museum and is among the founders of the contemporary art gallery in the city.

Abdelqader teaches architecture at Tel Aviv University and Bezalel. He is 43 years old, a native of Taibeh who lives and works in Jerusalem. He studied architecture in Germany, where he lived for 15 years. When he returned to Israel in the 1990s, he began working at the office of Moshe Safdie.

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The Umm al-Fahm museum will be the first of its kind in Israel, and will be broader in scope than the contemporary art gallery, says Abu Shakra. It will be built on a lot allocated by the Umm al-Fahm municipality, adjacent to the city soccer stadium and the public pool. The museum will both display art, and document and preserve the Palestinian cultural heritage.

The museum is still in the early stages of planning, and several options are being considered. However, all are based on the concept of a bridge over a brook. Abdelqader describes the idea as a "rhapsody" or "dam," a "non-monumental iconic building" and a "belligerent Palestinian architectural statement."

The project will be officially presented at the Tel Aviv Museum on December 12.