Forensic Architecture

Forensic Architecture is a London-based research agency that investigates state violence and human rights violations through architectural and spatial analysis. Founded by Eyal Weizman at Goldsmiths, University of London.

FA's interdisciplinary team includes architects, software developers, filmmakers, investigative journalists, scientists and lawyers. In 2022, the Peabody Awards described the agency as having co-created "an entire new academic field and emergent media practice." In 2024, the European Research Council assessed FA's work as "a scientific breakthrough," citing its revolutionary impact on existing paradigms. FA's work has been admitted in legal processes in jurisdictions worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, Greece, Israel, Guatemala and Colombia. Investigations have been submitted to the International Criminal Court and presented at the European Court of Human Rights and the UN General Assembly.

What makes Forensic Architecture distinctive is not just their methodology but their position: they work explicitly on the side of the people harmed, treating investigation as a form of counter-power. Their tools — 3D modelling, satellite imagery, open-source intelligence, acoustic analysis — are the same tools used by military and intelligence agencies. The difference is who they are used against. FA's investigations at Europe's borders include documented pushbacks on the Greek-Turkish river border, where masked men beat and illegally returned migrants while Greek and EU authorities refused to investigate; the killing of Muhammad al-Arab by Greek forces at the Turkish-Greek border, which Greece had denied; and the Left to Die Boat case, in which 63 people perished in the Mediterranean while NATO vessels failed to respond.

In the Iuventa case, Forensic Architecture did what the prosecution never did: they looked at the evidence. Their investigation reconstructed the incidents at the centre of the charges against the crew — and found that the events had been systematically misrepresented. Their work did not merely challenge the case. It exposed the machinery behind it.

Selected Investigations

The Left to Die Boat (2012) — 63 people drift for 14 days in NATO-patrolled Mediterranean waters. State actors knew. No one intervened.

Death by Rescue (2016) — forensic reconstruction of the April 2015 Mediterranean shipwrecks and the political decision to end Mare Nostrum.

The Iuventa (2018) — spatial reconstruction of the three incidents at the centre of the Italian prosecution. All charges found to be misrepresented.

The Murder of Halit Yozgat / NSU (2017) — counter-investigation into the presence of a German intelligence officer at the scene of a neo-Nazi murder.

Pushbacks on the Greek-Turkish Border (2020) — systematic documentation of illegal returns, beatings and abandonment at Europe's eastern border.

The Killing of Muhammad al-Arab (2020) — confirmed that Greek forces fired live ammunition at the Turkish-Greek border, killing a Syrian migrant, despite official denials.

A Cartography of Genocide: Gaza (2023–ongoing) — comprehensive archive of systemic violence, built with Bellingcat, to support accountability efforts.

The Architecture of Genocidal Starvation (2025) — documentation of the destruction of food and water infrastructure in Gaza.