Dwelling in the Israeli City- Holon a Case Study

Monday, January 7, 2008

Location

H 300 is located in southern part of Holon city

Over the years apartment units have become more diverse and are actually made up of more rooms and facilities. Compering the two types of apartments it is simple to identify the changes in the living patterns.The growth of the need for communal space and how the bedroom has shrunk over time.

Shikun Amami building Type

Image from: Efrat, Zvi, The Israeli Project, Tel Aviv Museum Publishing, page 278.

Examples for different apartment types in the new H-300 neighborhood , as published on the Internet.

Building

The section of the building tells the tale of the ratio between the public areas in the building and the private areas in the building. The SHIKUN AMAMI donates a limited amount of space for the public in contrast to the H-300 project where the public area is found as the lobby , a wide open space.

City

Holon city evolved as a suburb of Tel Aviv city, because of this the city was built from the north to the south. The 1950'S and till current time are characterized by major building activity. Each area in Holon was built at a different time and this is noticeable by the exterior attributes of the buildings and urban structure. The old center of Holon was a commercial one, located on one main street (Sokolocv St). In the late 1990s a shopping mall was erected on the southern side of Holon near newly built and planned living areas (H -300). This new building area caused the shift of the city center to the H - 300 surroundings.

Environment

Over the years a change has occurred environmentally in the newly built buildings. This change was brought on by the usage of different systems in the buildings. Each system that was added created a new living environment.

Environmentally the use of air conditioners changed the way the building interacts with the fresh air surroundings. The SHIKUN AMAMI (1950) building used the natural circulation of fresh air in order to condition the home. The 1980 Building ("H plan" Building) also tryes to use the natural flow of fresh air in order to condition the home. In this case the layout of the building tries to create a 3 way air circulation system that will create the most comfortable enviorment.

Apposed to these two examples stands the 2008 Building. This building uses a closed air conditioning system which recycles the air and reuses it in the different apartments again and again.

Technology

Generally the building in the Israeli city is made up of blocks and concrete. The SHIKUN AMAMI building portrayed a visual modesty. The SHIKUN AMAMI building used the basic materials that were available in the simplest manner. As the years progressed there was a change of materials and design. The façade received much attention starting from a textural finish till the search for a more fantastic and colorful façade that was made up different materials.

Implementation

In the 1950s there was a need for a quick solution to the housing problem. As a part of this problem the government encouraged private home ownership. In order to have housing solutions the government then initiated, planned and built the new buildings. The SHIKUNIM were populated by the help of organizations such as AMIDAR..
The apartments were then distributed by raffles. The people that attend the raffles were those who had a saving plan for an apartment.

Today the Housing market is private sector. From the entrepreneur till the home owner there is a chase after a profit.

Neighbors

When examining the life of a typical family in Holon, in the past 30 years, one can notice the change in housing trends:
A young couple starting their family life in the 1960's had their first apartment in the SHIKUN AMAMI.
As the family expanded and the standard of living went up, the SHIKUN AMAMI apartment could not accommodate the family's needs. Then, in the 1980's, they moved to newly built neighborhoods, such as KIRIAT SHARET. The building typology has changed: the buildings were higher and the apartment's bigger ("H" typology).
Today, after their children have moved out, couples in their 50's-60's are moving again. Looking for higher building standards, they are moving to smaller (yet better looking) apartments in the new H-300 neighborhood.

Neighborhood

When looking at the two different layouts of the SHIKUN AMAMI and the H- 300 area it is clear to see the difference in layout and the difference in the leftover space.

The SHIKUN AMAMI contributes most of the ground around the building to the public. This space is now unused and not maintained.

The H – 300 project has a variety of public areas that are carefully planed. They differ by their proximity to the building itself, Levels of public use and the maintenance facility.

The Shikun Amami Master Plan as shown to the public at the Holon Expo for Housing Projects (Amidar), 1950's.

Image from the Holon Municipality Archive.

H-300 Mastar Plan as Published Today at the Holon Municipality WebSite.

Neighboring

Public vs Private - In the late 50's the open public areas were no ones private property. Each SHIKUN building in the 1950's was built without areal percolation therefor the open grounds were left unattended.

In the new H-300 project the open areas are for the private public of the buildings around. Each building that is newly built comes with its own green open area. The municipality determines the amount of open public areas that have to be added when building a new area focusing on its private agenda of the "Story Gardens".

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Vision - New Public Scape in Holon

current view within the H-300 neighborhood

Vision 2 - view within the H-300 neighborhood: wild green open spaces

Vision 1 - view of the H-300 neighborhood from the outside: A new and public city streetscape

Holon represents the typical Israeli suburban city, a satellite city to Tel Aviv. As such, during the years it became mainly a "Sleeping City", offering its inhabitants basic services such as education and health, while heavily lacking in open public scapes and activities.
The fast growth and development of neighboring cities in the 1990's, mainly Rishon LeZion, and their new "Bne Beitcha" neighborhoods, attracted many couples and young families from Holon, causing a stand still in Holon's real estate market and population growth.
Aware of the grim situation of the city, the municipality, led by Mayor Moti Sasson, set in motion a few plans to change the city scape and attract new population to the city:
The most known initiative is that of the "Story Gardens" – small gardens across the city have been redesigned as story gardens, with sculptures and playgrounds. These gardens together with the newly built Children's museum and the Mediateque, have helped brand the city as the "Children's City".
Once the word got out, and young families started moving into the city a new neighborhood was already being built to accommodate the rising need for quality apartments in Holon – H-300:

The plan of the H-300 neighborhood does not resemble any of the existing neighborhoods in the city: It is surrounded by an outer ring of mid-height apartment buildings (8-12 floors). An inner ring of private houses surrounds the public space: a combination of education facilities (schools, kinder gardens and a high school) and five different "Story Gardens". Most of the public space is children oriented.
The structure of the inner and the outer rings creates a barrier between the city and the vast public spaces within the neighborhood, thus creating the feeling of a "Gated Community". Without having to put up an actual gate, the new neighborhood separates itself from the "Old Holon" – on the one hand gaining its benefits: the new public center at its border (Shopping Mall, Mediateque, and soon to be open Israeli Design Museum), and on the other hand not sharing its inner public spaces.

Having said that our vision of the new public space in Holon (as a case study to other Israeli cities), offers two main objectives:

1. Dealing with the problem of the street scape (or lack of it) and the relationship between the new neighborhood and the city: We offer to use the double height street level of the lobbies along with the spaces between the buildings of the outer ring for public and commercial use.
As seen in our research (City perspective), the center of the city has been relocated next to H-300: the Mall and the Mediateque. Yet a new street life, to replace that of the "old main street" (Sokolov), has not developed. This is an opportunity for H-300 to contribute back to the city's life. Further more, a densifyed elevation of the outer ring to the city will maintain and strengthen the "gated community" affect of the neighborhood as it wishes.

2. Dealing with the inner public space – the green scape: We offer to remove all the built public facilities from the inner core of the neighborhood (schools and so on) to the outer ring (as mentioned above), and instead of an assortment of small "Story Gardens", we suggest a large, wild, open green space. The open space planed by the municipality is that big, that it can allow a real park with in the urban tissue, and not just "pocket gardens".