The
idea to write about the countrys largest architecture office, Aleph Bet Tichnun, was inspired by a book published in memory of
architect Hannan Havron,
one of the
office’s founders. The title, "Clear Lines", looked promising.
A group of friends, relatives and fellow members of Kibbutz Reim,
Havrons home Kibbutz, compiled with great care and
fondness a collection of articles referring to many of
the buildings he designed over a fifty-year career. Architect Assaf Kashtan, one of Aleph Bet Tichnun’s senior architects, designated Havron as "the artist of bare concrete."
Architect Vittorio Corinaldi
defined Hannans work as the "aesthetics of
simplicity and asceticism, beaming yet, disciplined architecture."
At
the outset of his career with Aleph Bet Tichnun, Havron was a member of the planning team of the Jerusalem
National Library. Other buildings he designed as a member of the office are the
Yigal Alon House at Kibbutz
Ginossar, the monument in memory of the Nachal Soldiers in Pardess Hanna,
and the Eshkol
Civic Center
near Kibbutz Magen in the Negev
desert. Equipped with this information, I thought it reasonable to assume that
clean lines and free from "overly designed and decorated" expressions
would be demonstrated by all of the offices work. But after visiting about
fifty of Aleph Bet Tichnuns projects, I realized
that things aren’t that simple. In fact, and perhaps with good reason, many of Aleph
Bet Tichnuns buildings are multi-shaped and
sometimes even overly-designed.
Aleph
Bet Tichnun was established as the Technical
Department of the Kibbutz Movement before the State of Israel gained
independence in 1948. In
1990, the office was privatized and ownership was transferred to its workers
who run the six branches that are spread all over the country and the
firm’s headquarters in Tel Aviv. Unlike most offices, it is managed by a
non-architect and management positions rotate amongst the senior architects who
are supported by a board of directors. Small planning teams, each headed by a
senior architect responsible for its economic aspects, oversee each project.
The advantage of such a system is that the size of the team matches the scale
of the projects, and that each team has the office’s administrative
facilities at their disposal.
As
the main planner of the Kibbutz Movement, Aleph Bet Tichnun
was involved in the development of most of the kibbutzim and settlements in the
country, from the early stages of their master plans to their actual
construction. The economic and demographic changes that kibbutz society has
undergone in the past few years have enriched the offices wide experience in
design. With offices dispersed over the country, Aleph Bet Tichnun
has the advantage of close proximity to the client as well as local knowledge.
In addition to the design projects that are popular in the free market, the
office has specialized in some of the most technologically advanced
agricultural installations in the world. Nowadays, Aleph Bet Tichnun designs 1400 projects a year.
Just
about every architectural discourse I am aware of debates the relation between
form and content, and it is in this context that different architectural codes
can be distinguished one from another. There are thousands of equally valid
answers to the question of what is the correct relation between expressions of
form and content in a building, especially in an age where the goal is an
abstract value like, for instance, the perceived need to be close to a body of
water even when there is no intention to take an actual dip in it.
My
personal preference is for purposeful buildings that are also an expression of
aesthetic thinking. I am not referring to the candy-box like structures, but
rather to a simple and real building that is decorated with one or even two
beauty spots. To me, this is preferable over a building bearing a collection of
freckles at best, or, even worse, teenage acne.
One
of the problems with architecture in the age of anything goes is the danger
of too much of everything: the infinite variety of computer-generated forms and
the overwhelming choice of available building materials allow for some lethal
combinations.
The
projects described here were planned over a long period of time. The variety of
subjects, different geographical locations and the varying cultural backgrounds
and world views of the architects that planned them makes it hard to point out
one central concept. However the common social background is discernable in most
of the works of Aleph Bet Tichnun. Many projects are
perhaps subconscious attempts to reconstruct the social embrace that
signifies the purity of the original Kibbutz ideology. This somewhat naive
togetherness concept is a precious quality in a hostile world, and it grants
a clear and honest expression to the content of many of the projects.
