The
Azrieli Prize for Urban Planning 2006 has been announced. The aim is to
encourage innovative urban projects that will inspire planners to create
quality projects for the benefit of the community. The sum of the award is 100,
000 NIS.
Winners will be announced at the beginning of March 2006.
The
Ayalon Prize for Urban Improvement was awarded this year to the office of
Shwartz -Besanossof for the planning of a residential tower in Hadar HaCarmel, Haifa. Fifty-one offices
had presented towers that would merge, to their opinion, with their
surroundings and contribute to it socially and culturally. The
Shwartz-Besanossof project that was to be planned on a fire-station lot has not
been built, due to public scrutiny.
“Entrepreneur
Brings the Architect” Competition for the planning and building of a school in
Jaffa, held between several contractors, was won by the Canffu-Klimor office,
although - architecturally speaking - Yoav Messers proposal received higher
grading. The new school is planned on the Bat-Yam border, on a hillside going
down Yefet Street.
Messers proposal was based on dug-in courtyards that blend in with the urban
fabric.
A
public competition for the carrying column of the Fair
Center logo in Tel Aviv was held by the
Center of Congresses and Fairs, and the Architects
Association. The emblem of the flying camel was planned by architect Arie
Elhanani in thirties. It was then upgraded in the 60s by designer Dan
Reisinger, and redesigned in 2000 by designer Mina Portnov. The first prize in
the architects route was won by Uri Caduri Ben-Zion, while the student route
was won by Tel-Aviv graduates Naama Sarid and Yehuda Tamir.
An
international competition for the planning of an Asian cultural center in South Korea was
held under the auspices of the UIA. 120 proposals were received, 6 of which
were Israeli. 7 were awarded prizes, 10 received special honors - one of them
Israeli: a conjoined planning team of Rechter and Proto Architects, headed by
Amnon Rechter.
The
invitation competition for the planning of a structure in Yokneam (Yokneam
Gate) was won by Skorka Architects (see page 32). Second place was awarded to
Kavillio Architects with Miri Levitan.
Exihibitions
An
exhibition by artist Kimiko Yoshida, Portraits with Comma, is being held at the
Gallery for Contemporary Art at "the heder" architects office. The
exhibit will end 18/03/2006.
www/theheder.com.
Tiles
Exhibition is being held at the Shalom
Tower, Tel Aviv, in honor of the
centennial of Bezalel
Academy. The tiles, which
were drawn in the 20s by artist teachers from Bezalel, were found in old
buildings in Tel Aviv. The exhibition
will take place until the end of February.
Kairos
Exhibition, by artist Orit Hofshi, is held at the Braverman Art
Gallery. Hofshis works,
blending a wide variety of media, deal with the tension between abstract and
hyper-realism. The work Witnessing, shown here, characterizes a unique
view-point concerning the artists interest in the human being.
Dr.
Arie Pelleds exhibition "Living in the Place - towards Humanist
Architecture" was held at Wizo Academy of Design and Education, Haifa. Pelled pinpoints
the alienation ingrained in space and tests its humane meaning, as part of the
whole existential dialogue. At the center of the exhibit is the concept model
of a house as a garden that was developed by Pelled several years ago.
www.self-place.com.
Events
Architect
Chezi Berkowitz, who was the city engineer of Holon for seven years, replaces Dani Kaeizer
as the city engineer of Tel Aviv. Pleasant mannered Berkowitz was part of the
image-transformation that Holon
underwent during the last decade, and his presence in the Tel Aviv municipality
may create a positive transformation in the relationship between the
establishment and the residents.
In
an international competition that took place during a convention for
sustainable architecture in Tokyo 2005, under the auspice of AJ Magazine, third
place was awarded to Yosi Kori and Eyal Malka from Haifa.
The
Museum for the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw
will be constructed in the Warsaw Ghetto opposite the memorial for the Jewish
resistance. The structure, designed by Finnish architects as an oblong glass
box, will be surrounded by an open park.
The
Department for Interior Design, Structure and Environment at Shenkar College
hosted an international conference on the subject of digital use in
architecture and design. The star of the conference was the Dean of the AA
London, but several other lectures were more interesting. The complex subject
is discussed in details in AI #63.
Verging
On Architecture
The
cover picture of AI #63, featuring glass artist Jeremy Langfords work at the
new visitors center near the Wailing Wall, awoke much curiosity. Here is his
site: www.JeremyLangford.com.
Projects
House
and a Gallery on the Coastal Plain
Two
land-form structures will be built on a five-dunam site, with aided digitation
ferro-cement technology. One is a residence, the other - a studio.
Three-dimensional lace-like pergolas will enrich the play of light and shade on
the sculptural concrete surfaces, thus blurring the borders of the structure,
walls and ceilings.
Architect:
Yael Reisner.
Public
Library, Ashkelon
A
new library and culture center complex is being built in Ashkelon.
The complex contains two large structures that form the entrance space between
them. The complex will include a library, auditorium, pedagogic center,
cafeteria, and book store.
Architect:
Asderban Sergio Architects
New
Courthouse, Herzliya
The
new Herzliya Courthouse will be built adjacent to the Yad Labanim building. The
structure will be clad in grey stone to match the concrete finish of the Yad
Labanim and will be the same height as the neighboring museum, (both buildings
were designed by Yacov Rechter).
Architects:
Dina Amar - Avraham Korial.
The
Tractor Museum
An
Israeli version of the Swedish Tractor Museum
will be built at the mouth of Poleg wadi in the Sharon area. The museum is a private venture
of Erez Milestein from Ein Vered.
Architects:
Gur Architects.
Students
The
annual students’ exhibition of the Judea and Samaria College
was held in the Zionists of America building.
The works dealt with the issues of density, mixed use and urban renewal.
“Urban mediation”, the final project of Hilla Popper, is placed on the border
between Bat-Yam and Rishon Letzion, and aims at mediating between the cities,
between city and sea, and between industrial areas and residential zones. The
idea was to create an urban axis that sends functional tendrils towards the sea.
That’s
it for this quarterly.
Rachel.
