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 streetscapeHolon 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".
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".
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