Utopian City
2016
The semester dealt with the analysis of structures, the meaning of defining a place that enables human existence. At first we went through the process of defining an identity in space, in our immediate environment, by a paper-wrapping technique of layout. We implemented this technique to the important, interesting and unusual elements in the space. From there we moved onto treating the urban sphere, where we divided into pairs and each pair was required to define the identity of the space / structure in the same wrapping technique. After formulating the identity of the space and its rationale, understanding its complexity through drawings and wooden models, creating a personal conceptual formation, we worked together to create a utopian city that combined all the projects of each couple as well as the individual projects. My partner, Ruth Kenan and I, worked on the Ethiopian Church, located on a street named after it, which branches off HaNevi'im St. in the heart of Jerusalem. The unique circular building looms over the street and stands out above the houses of the adjacent ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea She'arim. In the church, we identified structural shells, inner and outer shells that layered and created a separation between different spaces. Each time someone entered further into a shell of the structure, he entered into a different experience. The entrance to each shell is located in an indirect location, so the transition from one shell to another is even more complicated than the former. Not only does this influence the experience of the observer in the church- it in fact dictates it. One of the most dominant structural shells is the first and outer shell that leads to the church from the street. It is a curved wall that creates an alcove, a "middle space" that separates the outer street from a sacred and important place.
Led by: Michael Velma van der Mullen, Saar Levi and edith kofsky