Parcing TrapsDesigning Coexistence

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VISION

Growth of the information technologies and the advanced transportation systems has triggered a shift from a state-centred world of boundaries to a city-centred world of flows. The cities increasingly depend on the level of integration within the global city network. As the businesses and important companies move from Haifa to Tel-Aviv, the city will struggle to keep skilled workers and attract new companies.

Despite its strategic gateway location, the country is an island in terms of energy infrastructure. In order to compensate limited access to natural resources, there has been a greater emphasis on research and development of new technologies. Haifa as a part of the high-tech cluster Silicon Wadi - became recognized worldwide for its achievements in Computer Science. Development of new technologies and quality education at the Technion

and Haifa University are the keystones, which can make the city very attractive young people from the entire Near East. Young generation from neighbouring countries would help to establish an open international atmosphere.

As the future prosperity of Haifa largely depends on improving relations with the neighbours, the aim of the project is to identify the key area for potential consensus and come up with a proposal which promotes social & cultural cohesion at the local level. The site represents an opportunity to approach the Near East conflict beyond the political agendas and address the ‘troubles’ from the bottom up - by creating a space which shall forge an attitude based on principles of the ‘open city’. As the dialog is not likely to be initiated in the capital neither the religious centre of the country, it could be Haifa for its record of peaceful coexistence which can become a key actor in the peace process

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Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

Haifa

Acco

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HISTORY

There have been two major shifts in the modern history of Haifa. First, during the Ottoman Period in 1860’s the regional importance moved to Haifa with consulates and merchants because of European siege on Acco. Second, since the War of Independence in 1948, regional importance moved from Haifa to Tel-Aviv the capital of a new national state.

During the British Mandate - the city was planned and developed for purposes of the British Empire as a strategic industrial and commercial centre of Palestine. Development of the seaport, railway junction, oil pipeline to Iraq and refinery before the WWII attracted large number of new residents and established the city as a gateway and transport hub into the entire region. As a result of political conflicts with surrounding countries, despite key role of Haifa during building the nation state and substantial influx of inhabitants during that period, the city has lost its significance for the new capital located to the south, further from the state borders with hostile neighbouring countries.

POLICIES & AGENDAS

The first regulatory document for the city dates back to the colonial period. The Skeleton Zoning Scheme from 1934 introduced modernist planning principles including the concept of the Green Belt and Garden City. Despite that there have been other masterplans proposed, none of them have been approved as the zoning plan created suitable conditions for the nation state strategies. While colonial attempts to transform the city were made in the name of modern urban planning, the national endeavour was based on a far-reaching political agenda. As a result, traditional fabric of the Old City was erased and the development took direction towards the slopes and detached locations on the Mount Carmel.

Events of the 20th century uprooted part of the city which caused a social and cultural discontinuity. However, well-balanced cities provide the both - the new and old, renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition; we believe that this gap is one of the main causes severing the image of the city. Even though Haifa can be proud of progressive Bauhaus architecture brought during the British Mandate, the city roots and the cultural identity reach further into the past. The oldest neighbourhood of city, which remains derelict, should be listed as a cultural heritage and reintegrated into the city tissue.

Erasing the historic core was unfortunate particulary because it drained the city of ‘lieux de memoire’ or places to which traditional societies attach their memory. These places transfored into spaces of cultural consumption and bring the people together.

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DISINTEGRATION

Key city assets such as shopping centres, hospital, two universities and the IT technology park are scattered around the city.

Besides the political and socio-cultural issues, the city has to cope with difficult topography which segregates neighbourhoods on the slopes of the Mount Carmel from the Downtown and civic facilities. As a result, movement around the city discourages pedestrians and largely depends on the car travel. Non-linear street pattern follows the topographical contours, serpentines, loops but also dead ends. The existing integrating factors - such as staircases interconnecting the streets, open public spaces, public transport and the civic facilities – appear to be outdated, insufficient or missing.

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SOCIETY

Haifa today has a population composed by 80% Israeli Jews, 4% Muslim, 6% Christian Arab, and 10% members of other faiths or nonreligious - the vast majority being immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The proportion of Arab people is growing, because the Jewish population is ageing and the young leave the city. As the modern population of Haifa, particularly the Jewish community counts people from all corners of the world, the city is similarly multicultural and diverse as Brussels in Belgium, Melbourne in Australia or Auckland in New Zealand to name a few. Despite that people of Haifa have earned the city’s reputation of peaceful coexistence; this has not been formally encouraged nor expressed through the Architecture.

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SPATIAL CONFIGURATION

The graph shows that the German Colony - the area between the Port and the Baha’i Gardens - is the most integrated part of the city. The competition site is indicated white.

Space Syntax Analysis of Integration measures how many turns one has to make from a street segment to reach all other street segments in the network, using shortest paths. The street segments that require the least amount of turns to reach all other streets are called ‘most integrate’ and are represented with hotter colors, such as red or orange. The integration measure shows the cognitive complexity of reaching a street, and is often argued to ‘predict’ the pedestrian use of a street. It is argued that the easier it is to reach a street, the more popularly it should be used. While there is some evidence of this being true, the method is also biased towards long, straight streets that intersect with lots of other streets. However, a slightly curvy street of the same length would typically not be counted as a single line, but instead be segmented into individual straight segments, which makes curvy streets appear less integrated in the analysis.

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The city can be reintegrated by reinforcing existing and adding new connections.

1/ Extending the connections arround the competition site towards the old City

2/ Establishing a strong link between the Hertzl Street to the Grand Canyon - a future gateway to residential areas on the Mount Carmel 3/ Creating a bridge to the neighbourhood of Neve Sha’anan

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PUBLC TRANSPORT

On basis of the Space Syntax Integration Analysis, we propose two strategic public transport routes intesecting at the Grand Canyon tunnel exit and Bat Galim interchange. The new routes will integrate the key city destinations and reduce the need for car travel.

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THE SITE

Despite that the waterfront area represents a great opportunity to reconnect the city to the sea, the scope of our project was to come with future scenario for the Memorial Garden which is situated in more complex social and cultural context. Located at the intersection of the civic and cultural axes, the site is associated with a fortress which used to overlook the seaport and the Old City. As the fortress remained unbuilt since its demolition, it represents a neutral space amidst the main inner-city areas.

Wadi Nisnas represents a concentration of the Arab life in the city, while in Hadar, which used to act as a cultural centre and marketplace, most of the people speak Russian because of the latest immigration. The Old City became home to the government compound. Situated at the boundaries of these relatively homogeneous areas, El Burj is a natural location for a civic amenity, which could act as a local landmark and place of an overlapping interest and positive inteference.

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“...there are as many memories as there are groups, that memory is by nature multiple yet specific; collective and plural yet individual. By contrast, history belongs to everyone and to no one and therefore has a universal vocation.”

Pierre Nora, The Realms of Memory, 1997

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The new space should let the history be preserved and interpreted by the scientists.Making the history present in a more ambient and rational way, the space will find its place in the city better than conventional means of commemorating which rarely avoid political or religious manipulation of memory.

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ARCHIVE

ARKEtymology: Middle English, from Old English arc, from Latin arca chest; akin to Latin arcere to hold off, defend, Greek arkein, Hittite hark- to have, holdDate: before 12th century1 a : a boat or ship held to resemble that in which Noah and his family were preserved from the Flood b : something that affords protection and safety2 a : the sacred chest representing to the Hebrews the presence of God among them b : a repository traditionally in or against the wall of a synagogue for the scrolls of the Torah ARCHEEtymology: Middle English arche-, arch-, from Old English & Anglo-French; Old English arce-, from Late Latin arch- & Latin archi-; Anglo-French arch-, from Late Latin arch- & Latin archi- from Greek arch-, archi-, from archein to begin, rule; akin to Greek arche beginning, rule, archos ruler1 : chief : principal <archfiend>2 : extreme : most fully embodying the qualities of the kind <archconservative> ARCHIVEEtymology: French & Latin; French, from Latin archivum, from Greek archeion government house (in plural, official documents), from arche rule, government — more at ARCH-Date: 16031 : a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved; also : the material preserved —often used in plural2 : a repository or collection especially of information

LIBRARY

If the archives have the role to store the information as a collective memory, the library aims to disseminate it. The library is the human interface of the archive which permits access to the information. It is a space which intermingles people and knowledge. The library creates an atmosphere where people can manage the knowledge.

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Perfect maze algorhythm Braid maze algorhythm PATTERN

Instead of planning a trip ahead with a map or using a GPS as we got used to today, orientation in cities which evolved naturally relied on following the longest visibility sightlines and use of intuition. Images show that layouts of a traditional Arabic neighbourhood and one example of a medieval town in Europe – both carry similar feature of a distorted grid. In order to find the way, one moves around an open space to explore the sightlines of alternative paths. The routes across the site allow the pedestrians to let themselves guided by their intuition when finding their route and to explore alternative paths. Situating the entries onto the diagonal of the plaza shall encourage people to enter into the library.

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1 Open Public Space 2 Exhibition & Theatre

3 Visitors Centre

4 Administration

5 Main Entrance Welcome Desk Childrens’ Library World Languages

6 Reference Desk Youth Centre Magazines, Fiction, DVDs Staff & Operations

7 Public Computers Meeting/Training Rooms

8/9 Non-Printed & Digital Records Projection & Study Rooms 10/11 Non-Fiction Book Shelves Printed Records Reading Rooms

12 Department of Information Science

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FUNCTIONS

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The complex can be built in different stages resolving little by little the problems of the site;In the first stage we create a diagonal dynamic and we open the site to the street below and then to the business district.Then we multiply these connections creating new paths and new journeys.

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PATTERN

We let the existing topography impact on the design by introducing features which are characteristic for Haifa’s public spaces such as stairs, ramps and terraces. The proposed massing considers the fine grain of the surroundings and puts emphasis on the ease of access, permeability and movement across the site. The circulation through the buildings will be a three dimensional sinusoïde. The journey consist of outside connections, onto the roof of the central buildings crossing their interaction zones, and by inside ones through the shelves.

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SHELVES

READING ROOMS

SHELVES

READING ROOMSSTORAGE

INTERACTION ZONE

ENTRANCEPAVILION ENTRANCE

PAVILION

SHELVES

READING ROOMSSTORAGE

STORAGE MEETINGROOMS

INTERACTION ZONE

INTERACTION ZONESHELVES

READING ROOMSSHELVESSHELVES

READING ROOMSREADING ROOMS

SUSTAINABLE CONCEPT

We will excavate the rocks by a Norwegian technique, which cuts the rocks instead of blasting them. On one hand it is a safe technique to use in an urban environement and on the other hand it allows us to reuse the stones to build the volumes. This willhelp us to integrate the buildings with the environement and will contribute to an sustainable design.

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REFERENCES

Middle East, 2010. [Documentary] Kemp Ross, SKY1, 30 March 2010

Johal, A., 2004. Sifting through the ruins. Historic wadi Salib under pressure., [online]. pp. 1-3 available at http://world.mediamonitors.net [Accessed 2 June 2010]

Kolodney, Z., 2001. The politics of landscape (re)production. Haifa between colonialism and nation building., pp 173-189

Lynch, K., 1960. The Image of the City, The M.I.T. press

Nora P, 1996. The Realms of Memory, Volume I - Conflicts and Divisions, Columbia University Press

Segev, T., The makings of history. So much for the melting pot., [online]. pp. 1-3 available at www.haaretz.com [Accessed 12 May 2010]

Shilo, S.,2004. A stye in slumberous Haifa’s eye., [online]. pp. 1-4 available at www.haaretz.com [Accessed 14 May 2010]

The birth of Israel, 2007. [Documentary] Llewellyn Tim, BBC

Wadi, 1981. [DVD] directed by Gitai Amon. Israel: Agav films.

Wadi Grand Canyon, 2001. [DVD] directed by Gitai Amon. Israel: Agav films.

Wadi ten years later, 1991. [DVD] directed by Gitai Amon. Israel: Agav films.

Warre, SA., 2002. Contemporary anty-memorials and national identity in the Victorian landscape., pp. i-xv

Yom yom, 1998. [DVD] directed by Gitai Amon. Israel: Agav films.

Zohar, A., 2008. Bay Watch., [online]. pp. 1-10 available at www.haaretz.com [Accessed 14 May 2010]

www.haifa.muni.il/

www.spl.org/lfa/central/oma/OMAbook1299/page14.htm

www.ted.com/talks/joshua_prince_ramus_on_seattle_s_library.html29