Polish-Israeli architect Zvi Hecker, internationally recognized as an influential figure of Modernism in Israel, as well as a painter, illustration artist, and furniture designer, has passed away at the age of 92, as reported by Moderne Regional. Throughout his career, Hecker combined geometry and modularity with asymmetry and spiraling complex compositions inspired by the pattern of sunflower seeds, a recurring inspiration for his work. His complex geometric explorations are exemplified in a variety of projects on various scales and programs, including the Spiral Apartment House in Ramat Gan, Israel (1981–1989), the Heinz-Galinski-Schule in Berlin, Germany (1992–1995), and the crystal-like Synagogue in the Negev Desert, Military Academy, Israel, (1969).
Born as Tadeusz Hecker in Kraków, Poland, in 1931, he began his architectural studies at the Krakow Polytechnique. Soon after, he immigrated to Israel, where he enrolled in the School of Architecture at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1954. He also studied painting at the Avni Institute of Art and Design before beginning his career as an architect. Following military service, he set up a private practice with former Technion colleague Eldar Sharon until 1964 and former teacher Alfred Neumann until 1968.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Zvi Hecker embarked on several large-scale projects, including the Military Academy in the Negev Desert and the Ramot Housing in Jerusalem. He also participated in the Tokyo Forum competition and designed the Ramat Hasharon City Centre. During this time, he also created the iconic Spiral Apartment House in Ramat Gan. In 1991, Zvi Hecker relocated to Berlin to develop the winning design for the Jewish School in Berlin. He continued his work in Germany with the Jewish Cultural Centre in Duisburg and the Memorial Site for the Lindenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, collaborating with Micha Ullman and Eyal Weizman.
What seems to be consistent in my work is the absence of free-standing buildings for people to go around in admiration. You know, you can’t go around the Jewish school, there is nothing to see. You have to go inside, even though you will still be outside. My buildings very often tend to interchange into a semblance of a city; its walls shape buildings, squares, and courtyards, providing an enclosure and a sense of security. - Zvi Hecker
More recently, he designed the Jewish Museum in Warsaw, the Market Hall in Bethune, France, the "Amber Baltic" Apartments in Miedzyzdroje, and the Koningin Máximakazerne at the Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, currently under construction, according to his website. Hecker was also awarded the German Critic Prize for Architecture in 1996 and the Rechter Prize for Architecture in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1999. He also participated in several editions of the Venice Architecture Biennale and has served as a visiting professor at Universities in the US and Canada.
I am an artist, after all. You know, real art and real architecture cannot be totally legal; very often, both are in direct conflict with legality. - Zvi Hecker
ArchDaily had the chance to sit down with Zvi Hecker on two occasions. As part of his column City of Ideas, Vladimir Belogolovsky spoke with Hecker about the inspiration behind his projects and the ideas that underpin his career, touching on the metaphor of the sunflower and the meaning of radical architecture. In 2019, Ory Dessau discussed with Hacker the tension between urbanistic and architectural approaches and the notion of an architect’s stylistic signature.
At the beginning of the year, ArchDaily took a moment to look back at the architecture masters we have lost in the recent past, remembering the legacy of architects such as Pritzker Prize laureate and pioneer of the High-Tech Richard Rogers, Post-Modern icon Ricardo Bofill, the thoughtful Gyo Obata, advocate and innovator Doreen Adengo, and social housing pioneer Renée Gailhoustet.
