3rd Year semester B | Partners: Dana Gross Golan, Shlomo Wolman | Professor: Arch. Hud Abu-Leil
Main topic: architectural design in a historical and social context -Identifying historical architectural heritage and integration into it and its people.
Leading concept: revitalizing an old crumbling neighborhood in a mixed city (Wadi Nisnas Haifa)
Architectural program: creating an active street life using architectural tools as a bridging factor.
The project unites three dimensions of the neighborhood: material, movement, and society
A. Physical texture: after an in-depth analysis of the neighborhood "material", it was decided to give design priority to the building materials, typologies and textures characteristic of the place.
B. Traffic: In light of the steep topography on both sides of the wadi, the excess of vehicles congesting the neighborhood, and the unsafe environment for pedestrians, it was decided to revive the pedestrian's place to the center of the wadi before the era of the car. In a sweeping decision, the cars were removed from the place and new open public spaces were designed.
C. Society - in personal conversations with its people concerning the neighborhood's dark past as a remnant of the War of Independence, the depth of the historical sediments they carry was revealed, a human story that is almost unknown. For this purpose, it was decided to commemorate the past in selected places and to create a common denominator for all - Jews and Arabs - by placing common functions of culture, education and sports - all in a central axis. The hope is to expose the different populations to each other and through studying the past to consolidate a shared future in the city.
