Kozlovsky Hill - Givatayim
Location:
Year:
Status:
Program:
Architects:
Givatayim
2021
Competition entry
Mixed use
Sewar Ghantous, Yahya Thalji
The competition called for a design that creates new public programs while preserving the natural landscape as the site is one of the few remaining open areas in Givatayim. As part of our entry, we stress the public aspect of the hill as a shared communal asset and propose a scheme in which open structures blend with nature to produce an exciting urban space.
In the current economic climate, most public projects follow rigid typologies and suffer from over regulation and underfunding, as the free-market ideology has limited our imagination for what potential the public realm holds.
There is no reason why innovation and ambition should be confined to private developers while the public realm becomes outdated and underfunded, in fact there are very good reasons to the contrary.
This was an opportunity to explore an idea for a more exciting and intense public project that utilizes both architecture and nature to provide a mix of greatly needed services such as education, work, and social interaction.
The program provides different community needs, such as: an open library, workshops, Sports facilities, performance hall and an open rooftop playground. In the centre of the hill there is a large atrium with suspended podiums, which accommodates all ongoing urban activities and frames the urban scene.
