Usually it takes me a few minutes to focus on a topic, think about it and write several pages. My trigger - like with many other writers - is often a swelling emotion looking for a way to take off. Things that come from the heart easily enter another. This time I’ve decided to moderate the emotions somewhat and write rationally about the hottest subject: the heat of July-August.

This sticky heat which reached our area, seemingly long before the ozone was invented, results in some annoying matters hard to accept: the fact we have to shower four times a day, iron wash and pin the blame on the air-conditioning; the shame we haven’t yet solved the problem of the Kinneret while diverting rain water into the Mediterranean; and… the wooden deck at Tel Aviv Port, whose residents - especially the elderly, handicapped and other pampered passersby - can’t understand why it has all those ups and downs reminiscent of dunes and not even one shading device reminiscent of Tel Aviv, knowing that each tree can lower the surrounding temperature by nine degrees - checked! 

On the other side of the Yarkon, the piazza - elegantly viewing the mouth of the Yarkon - may have been an excellent option for the heat refugees of the promenade. There are romantic benches overlooking the nearby power plant waterfalls and the refreshing sea water. However, lacking refuge from the sun, the piazza and benches are desolate most year round, since even in Tel Aviv there is not one dummy willing to sit in the sun with temperatures of 35 degrees in the shade. 

The experienced architects of these two projects need no reminding that this sun-stricken country can do without shade-less projects. I know they know, but someone there has managed to sell the public something it doesn’t really need. This reminds me of a joke I heard from my daughter: a vendor turns to a guy in the street and asks him:  You want a toothbrush for 200 shekels? 200 shekels for a toothbrush?! exclaims the guy…Yes, this is a special one with toothpaste already on it. Even so it isn’t worth that much, answers the guy. Alright, says the vendor, you want a chocolate cake for half a shekel? Ok, says the guy and takes a bite, immediately spitting it out, ranting: Yuck, it’s plasticine! 

Well… you want a toothbrush for 200 shekels?..

I know that trees don’t easily grow near the beach, but malignant cancers do. There’s no doubt that reining in the emotions for the benefit of the functional - a subject inherent some way or another in all the projects presented in this issue - would yield worthy architectural projects. Thank god many shading devices are now available, but even a few white sails - reminiscent of the nearby port - would do the work successfully. 

And by the way, in Herzliya there are still some trees. They’ve installed benches beneath them, and it works just fine.