COMPETITIONS, NEWS, EVENTS,
CRITIQUES
PRIZES & COMPETITIONS
Architects Ruth Lahav, Toni Rig, and Prof. Len Warshaw
received the 2004 David Azrieli Award for Urban
Planning, in coordination with the Council for Beautiful Israel, for their
building in the Beer Sheva
government complex. The 100,000 NIS
prize was awarded for the second time, in a festive ceremony hosting architect
Santiago Calatrava. According to the judge panel
"the project creates a positive urban change in the pedestrian street connecting
the train station and the municipality building". The building is a link
in a chain of public buildings funded by commercial lots (the architects are
not to blame).
The 2005 Wolf Art Award will be
awarded this year to architect Jean Nouvel. The $100,000
prize will be awarded to Nouvel, as "his works
express the unique encounter between the buildings purpose and its context,
beyond expressing his individual style". Thats the way things should be,
in comparison to Calatrava, Gehry,
and Libeskind, whose works are easily identified from
a distance.
EVENTS
The annual Holiday of Holidays
winter festival, which takes place outdoors in the alleys of Wadi Nisnas in Haifa, every weekend in December, is an
authentic spectacular event that should be adopted in other places too. This is
thanks to Haifa Arabs who wholeheartedly host the many visitors in their
wonderful shops and market stalls, in ways known only to them. A coexistence
well done!
The Building Permission by
Permitted Architects bill initiated by architect Israel Goodovitch
with Knesset members Michael Gurlovski and David Azulai (who initiated the beach bill), has passed its first
reading in the Knesset. The bill grants architects who have at least five years
proven experience, the authority to authorize plans based on the information
file and a valid municipal masterplan. Only once the
bill had been phrased did the Association of Independent Architects and the
Architects Association jump on Goodovitchs
bandwagon to join the initiative. It seems also hitchhikers can go far.
Prof. Arza
Churchman has replaced Prof. Edna Shaviv as Dean of
the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in the Technion.
Architect Hillel Schocken
was appointed Head of the School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University, replacing Prof. Moshe Margalit. Good Luck.
The annual Landscape Architects
Conference took place in December 2004, under the title "Landscape as a
Multi- Disciplinary System". The main message was that the landscape
should be perceived as a dynamic complex system demanding a holistic outlook
comprised of all environmental, social, engineering, and economic aspects. A successful event.
EXHIBITIONS
The Association for New Israeli
Urbanism has announced the opening of an exhibition of works epitomizing its
guiding principle: to produce a harmonious, well-balanced, sustainable urban
environment. The exhibition will be displayed at the organization establishment
conference in May, and will represent Israel
in international conferences - this June in Pasadena
California, and in the following September in Berlin. Projects may be submitted by 03/03/05 to MIU Tel Aviv offices.
Curator: Dr. Ami Ran.
Participation fees are minimal. www.miu.org.il
An exhibition of contemporary
Norwegian architecture was displayed in the Jerusalem Shimshon Center,
in coordination with the Architects Association and the Norwegian Embassy. The
works exemplified the current trend in Norwegian architecture of returning to
the Modernistic code, adopting clean basic geometric facades.
ON CAMPUS
Modern Architecture 1927/2002 -
the International Style - an exhibition displayed in Wizo
Haifa College of Design, sought to reveal the fate of projects first presented
in the first Werkbund exhibition which took place in
Stuttgart in 1927. Among the projects were Mies van der Rohes Wohnhaus
in Guben, Gropius Bauhaus
and Fagus building in Dessau, and Le Corbusiers Pavillion de LEsprit.
Curator: Karin Kirsch.
Fourth year student Amichai Cohen, from the Academic Institute of Technology, Holon, was chosen to exhibit his
works in the Biennale of Israeli Ceramics currently showing at the Museum for Eretz Israel,
Tel Aviv. Among the works displayed are a number of stools designed by Cohen,
under the instruction of ceramicists Eylon Armon and Shulamit Bauman. The
exhibition will be open till the end of February. Some stools are still
available.
The final project of Galit Ochayoun from the College of Administrations
Interior Design School, proposes an observation tower above the Reading bridge, so that pedestrians will not simply cross the Yarkon river without stopping to take a look at the
refreshing view. Shes right, her ideas worth implementing.
The Jerusalem College
for Engineers headed by architect Dan Reuveni sent in
a number of works by their best students. Here are two of them:
Ihab Zins 450 sqm 4-unit residential
building, in the Talbieh area of Jerusalem, utilizes available materials in a
vernacular language. The apartments, which differ in size, concentrate around a
shared courtyard, with maximum exposure to the view and sunlight. Sounds fun.
Rami Shaltiel planned a community center in Rehavia
- a quiet Jerusalem
neighborhood, which developed mainly between 1930 to 1960.
The new building transmits a refreshing dynamicity that distinguishes it from
surrounding residential buildings.
ON THE VERGE OF ARCHITECTURE
Artist Orna
Ben Ami is currently showing her sensitive project "Open House" in
the Hiboorim-tech exhibition at Teffen Open Museum.
The work exhibits her ability to convey soft social issues through hard
materials.
Artist Evie
Polig has produced a statue that will speak to you no
matter how you turn it over.
BOOKS
"Color in Educational
Facilities - Theory and Practice" - a book intended to inform architects
and decision makers on the didactic use of colors within the educational space.
Writer of the book, Dr. Rachel Zeba, of the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning,
contends that students erroneous understanding of color will inevitably
influence other areas of their lives.
Edited by Zvia Ortner of the Unit for
Designing of School Buildings.
JUST INAUGURATED
A fire broke out in Paris in May 2002,
destroying the Israel Embassy that resided in a 19th century building. In spite
of the great harm done, the disaster granted the Israeli Foreign Ministry a
fine opportunity to update the 1970s embassy to current needs. The main problem
the architects encountered was that, according to the Paris municipality rules, the buildings
mantle had to be conserved, while the interior had to be adjusted in line with
strict defense requirements. Hence the mantle was reconstructed by a local
architect, while the interior was redesigned by Israeli architects Knafo-Klimor. The main features of the new building are two
glass boxes: one demarcates the new protected entrance, the other - the two new
additional floors.
Architect: Knafo-Klimor
Architects.
Coordinating
architect: Jan Jack Ory.
Thats it for now,
Rachel.
