In present days, the ideals and values that once guided the construction projects of residential areas, as controversial as they may have been, have been replaced by market powers and profit making. The new neighborhoods built in the last two decades in Israel are all based on the same generic scheme of “Towers in the Park”. Those neighborhoods are usually detached and isolated, and lack human scale and mix-use environments, which increases the dependence of the car.
This project proposes an improved solution for the weaving singular local characteristics of the site (Bottom Up) into the existing residential principles (Top Down), to create rich and versatile urban spaces.
The case study is an empty lot in the south of Bat-Yam, part of the high-demand Tel-Aviv metropolis. combined with its proximity to the beach and to two future mass transit stations, make this empty piece of land very attractive as both an employment and residential area. The potential of the lot, “The last empty lot in Bat-Yam” is even more evident considering the housing crisis in Israel as a whole, and in the Dan area in particular.
the challenges that arise are two: how to incorporate both a buisness center and a residential neighborhood side by side?; and how to plan a rich, unique and urban environment from scratch?
Through the process of surveying the lot and the area surrounding it for the last two decades, an intricate system of pathways is revealed and what seemed like a clean slate is now exposed as a vibrant and active space. The new plan (edited by Mann-Shinar architects) applies new urban principles to the site in a “Tabula Rasa” approach, and erases any trace of the site’s original characteristics such as topography, vegetation and paths.
This project introduces a new approach, and tries to mediate between two opposite planning methods. on the one hand, an urban grid representing a top down approach. On the other hand the original pathway system represents local and unique characteristics as in the Bottom Up approach.