Israeli Architecture

Jonathan Ben David of the Israel Institute of Technology has created a thesis project titled “Terra Nullius” which dwells on the identities and conceptual restraints dividing people in the Middle East. Suggesting alternative concepts, frames of mind, and mediums for which different social groups can gather upon, the thesis takes place off the coast of Jaffa, once an epicenter of Palestinian urbanism, where a new state is formed as an act of protest by Jews and Palestinians longing for co-existence.

321 graduation projects designed by 407 young architects, landscape architects and urban designers were submitted for the 2019 Archiprix International / Hunter Douglas Awards. Among 22 finalists announced in December 2018, an international jury selected 7 winning projects which spotlight international trends in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture.

The Ilan and Asaf Ramon International Airport has opened in the Negev Desert of Israel. Designed by Amir Mann-Ami Shinar Architects and Moshe Zur Architects, the project was made to service the Red Sea resort city of Eilat and the surrounding region. The airport's design was influenced by the futuristic world of aviation and the project's natural desert surrounding. Commissioned by the Israel Airport Authority, the project is Israel's first civil airport built from scratch.

Moshe Safdie has been named the laureate for the 2019 Wolf Prize for Architecture. The award recognizes a winner in either painting, music, sculpture, or architecture. As one of Israel’s most prestigious international awards, the prize is bestowed upon luminaries for their accomplishments in advancing science and art for the benefit of humanity. The jury cited Safdie’s exemplary career motivated by the social concerns of architecture and his formal experimentation.

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has unveiled the design of their landmark Azrieli Tower in Tel Aviv. The 340-meter-tall elliptical building, Tel Aviv’s tallest, seeks to establish a dynamic new identity in a cluster of perfectly square, circular and triangular towers.

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage, we present the proposal for the Israeli Pavilion. Below, the participants describe their contribution in their own words.

The name Niemeyer stands for one thing above all: curves. Whether undulating lines, soaring domes, or swooping pillars that repeat in perfect rhythm, his designs reject “the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man” in favor of “the curved Universe of Einstein,” as he wrote in his 2000 memoir The Curves of Time. Indeed, a late interview with him was headlined “the architect who eradicated the straight line.”

With the completion of the citywide light-rail expected in 2020, connecting Tel Aviv’s city center to neighboring Ramat Gan, Ramat HaHayal, Bat Yam, Jaffa, and Givatayim brings a new wave of residential architecture to transform the skyline. The city of Tel Aviv boasts the highest land value in the Middle East, and with this new connectivity it is only projected to increase demand and value.

The Israeli Ministry of Culture have revealed In Statu Quo: Architecture of Negotiation as the theme of the Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In the exhibition architects Ifat Finkelman, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Oren Sagiv, and curator Tania Coen-Uzzielli, will examine "the complex mechanism of the 'Status Quo' within shared holy places in Israel-Palestine, which functions as an informal—if controversial and fragile—system of coexistence between rivals."

At a vibrant intersection in downtown Jerusalem, The Architecture Department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, in collaboration with the Israel Festival Jerusalem and EDEN—the Jerusalem development authority—created a temporary structure for the Israel Festival, which ran from the end of May to mid June of this year.