An incident in the capital of a city of about one and a half million inhabitants in East Asia, who arrived at the head of a delegation for an intelligence tour. At the end of the tour, he asked the city engineer Tzachi Katz how a child returning from school can identify his house without the numbers on the houses. “I think that says it all,” Katz – who also serves as chairman of the Union of City Engineers and Architects – sums up the story.
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Why do most of the new neighborhoods in Israel look the same? Why is it that when we plow the land from north to south, from Hariah and Karmiel to Ashkelon, Beer Sheva and Dimona, we come across copies of the same neighborhood with only minor changes?
Tzachi Katz, Modi’in City Engineer / Photo: Hani Spector Makhlouf
The recurring pattern: in government construction as well as private construction
“The uniform planning is part of the recurring pattern of planning in Israel,” says Edna Lerman, former chairman of the Planners Association. “In the 1950s and 1960s, there was an attempt led by the Ministry of Housing to find neighborhoods and residential models that correspond to local conditions. This was the case in Be’er Sheva, Arad and more. When construction moved to the public market, economic considerations led to the creation of uniform models that repeat themselves regardless of local characteristics.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, the market gradually moved from the control of government and union companies to the control of the free market. “Today, construction is mainly led by contractors looking for the profit line, and even if the public system initiates it – it itself submits to these considerations. Especially in light of the growing needs and the significant increase in the population,” Lerman adds.
“The damage caused by this is the alienation of the population from the living and living environment, due to the loss of local identity. There is a lack of reference to the characteristics that distinguish one urban environment from the other, and an ignoring of the connection to the natural environment and local conditions – in the Negev or the Galilee, in the coastal environment or in the mountains. In many cases, the public space lacks identity and does not create An urban street and an active activity area,” Lerman says.
But in the end, Lerman believes that the construction industry is not disconnected from the Israeli being and the Israeli home and that it faithfully represents society. “Construction reflects economic, cultural and social processes and it can be said that the character of our cities and houses reflects the character of our society,” she concludes.
Edna Lerman, former chairman of the planners organization / photo: Eyal Yitzhar
This is perhaps the reason for people’s longing for old cities and urban streets that allow people to experience the environment on foot. Lerman also mentions the search for a unique local identity, which is reflected in the preference for old construction such as old Tel Aviv, Jaffa, neighborhoods in Jerusalem and more. Given this preference, the prices in these neighborhoods are also very high.
Katz agrees with Lerman and says that “homogeneous planning has been going on for about two decades in the country. I’ve been the city engineer of Modiin for 10 years, and I came to a city that is very ‘strange’, very homogeneous, and I’m not ashamed to say that this is one of the criticisms I have about the old part of the city.”
Katz mentions that even in other countries the planning is fairly uniform. “Also in the Netherlands, if you leave Amsterdam, you can see such a phenomenon,” he says. As far as Israel is concerned, Katz believes that the root of the problem lies in the government, and more specifically in the Ministry of Housing and the RMI. The VATML, where they force the planning on you above the municipality and the local committee. So there is stun and streamlining here, but also a tough program of the planning administration and over the years they have used the same program.
“Only recently did they decide to think a little about mixing uses. Take Harish for example, which began to be built years after Modi’in – as if they had learned nothing from Modi’in. And suddenly they ‘discovered’ in the Ministry of Housing that the State of Israel is not only flat, and that there are places with mountains and topography. So we do Planning briefing in sloping places. Each architect is not allowed to plan what will be in his neighborhood, but a briefing is issued to him. All these things create homogeneity. The more problematic thing in my view is that these things grow to a height, because as long as they are low then you see them less, but when they grow For height, they are much more prominent in the field.”
Plowing project / Photo: Shutterstock
The planners: A small number of planner companies everywhere
Many with whom we spoke for the purpose of this article, believe that architects and planners have a large part in the copying we are witnessing. Katz: “The state rents the planning offices and every year or two it holds a tender between planners, creating for itself a bank of planning companies, which includes all professionals in the field of infrastructure and road planning.
“When you have a small number of such companies, which at a given moment are the ones authorized to provide services to the RMI and the Ministry of Housing, you can find the same company planning neighborhoods in Harish, Katsrin, Modi’in and Netivot, and it makes the same product. The entrepreneurs want the most efficient and economical planning, because they want to make money.”
The architect Orna Angel, chairman of the Association of Architects and City Builders, chooses harsh words: “The reform of the Planning and Construction Law (amendment 101 to the law) has resulted in the fact that apparently if you meet the conditions of the IBA, no one should tell you anything.
“But the reform is not implemented in a large part of the settlements, and the plans are discussed in the planning and construction committees, which do not have many good architects because the salary does not encourage the good ones to come. All kinds of engineers who have studied for several semesters, give you comments on planning issues. These are endless battles of attrition with the unprofessional people who check the plans, with the safety consultants who are in charge of the plans, who think that safety is the most important thing in a country that does not require a minimum of responsibility from its residents.”
The architect Israel Godovitz, who served as supervisor of rural planning at the Ministry of Housing between 1967 and 1975 (“The country then became huge, and the ability to plan the entire area from Katsrin to Sharm el-Sheikh. Can you understand what that is?”), has a story that he believes Summarizes the whole problem of Israeli planning.
“In 1973, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the state, models of real-size apartments were presented at the ‘Industry and Economy’ exhibition. What was innovative about them was their flexible space, which was designed to give the tenants options for interior changes with relative ease,” says Godovitz. According to him, flexible planning is still a relevant goal. “Our residence goes around in a circle – starting alone, then spouses, then children, the children leave the house and return to be a couple. This is the big challenge. Adapting the apartment to this circle,” explains Godovich.
Project in Petah Tikva / Photo: Shutterstock
He tried to apply the conclusions from that exhibition in the form of setting up a project for young couples that included three-story buildings in the Savion Gardens project in Or Yehuda. In the first phase, only the ground floor was built, where a kitchen, bathroom and living room were built, and the first floor where the couple’s bedroom was built. With the expansion of the family, the owners of the apartments could also build the floor above.
However, this project remains almost the only one of its kind. The system continued to prefer building uniform buildings and uniform apartments. “This is where the problem begins, because there is no such thing as a type of apartment that will meet everyone’s needs,” Horets Godovich.
And finally come the planning and construction committees. Gudovitz says that these committees include “architects who have never designed a building before”, which suppress design creativity and in practice return the architects to standard construction. “From the drones that flew over the last demonstrations, you could see how ugly the neighborhoods are,” he says.
The entrepreneurs: “They even save on the door handles”
Entrepreneurs, the planners claim, also have a part in the template planning. “Today’s architects are submissive and complacent,” gushed Gudovich. “Every time an architect comes to a developer and offers to do something a little different, that will cost a shekel per square meter more than the standard construction – immediately the developer asks him: ‘Do you want to impoverish me?’ And the architect returns to designing cubes.
“There is also a problem that the land prices are very high, and in some places in the center they are higher than the construction. So you see the developer pushing for the cheapest construction and also saves on door handles.”
Rishon Lezion project / Photo: Shutterstock
Angel: “Go to the discussions of large entrepreneurial companies in Israel. Three and a half hours they talk about money and fifteen or half an hour they talk about planning. There is no discussion about quality or planning alternatives, but about a finished thing, which is the furthest from the essence of architecture. No one asks you for alternatives, nor do you get paid for alternatives, because they expect you to do this iterative planning, which also turns out to be the cheapest.”
Entrepreneurs also strive to make a profit abroad.
“There are Israeli companies that also operate abroad and they know very well how the discussions take place there. When you talk about ‘quality’ abroad, you talk about more money, which we don’t have at all. Not to mention the fact that in many places in the world, the planning is in the ministries of culture and not in the Ministry of the Interior, which handles weapons licenses one day and planning and construction the next. Then they transferred it to the ministry The finance, which is even worse in a country where only money is thought of. In France and the Scandinavian countries, the United States, Canada and Australia, the discussion about quality is built in.
“Another matter, which is also related to money, is the demand of the companies from the architects to make discounts on top of discounts. After the architects’ office has reached the financial minimum it can – don’t expect it to come up with design alternatives. The craziest thing is that the expenses for the architects in the project are the lowest. After that, during the implementation, we encounter planning problems, and the costs of handling them are much higher than what was saved in the architects’ costs.”
The solutions: mixing uses and diverse apartments
So everyone agrees that the planning is not successful, but it is also possible to identify improvements and changes in the field. Regarding what is happening in Modi’in today, Katz says that he is interested in changing and diversifying the neighborhoods. “The goal is to change the experience of the pedestrian on the street. We approve the mixing of uses in the new neighborhoods, the use of other materials. It may be that those who drive on the road and see the neighborhood from a distance – will not notice the difference, but those who are inside the city will feel the change.”
As for old cities, Katz comments that it is precisely in urban renewal projects in other cities that planning diversity is noticed. “It’s a fine line because each complex is designed by a different architect, who treats it differently, so you can see two adjacent buildings of urban renewal in Tel Aviv, and they are different.”
Godovitz’s vision of housing units that adapt themselves to the various needs during life is also taking on a new form: just last week, the Planning Administration published the guidelines for creating “housing” in new apartments. The residential unit is a unit that can be separated from a large apartment, and relies on its own infrastructure in terms of protection – that is, there is no need to build its own MMD. It cannot be registered separately in the tabu, but meets the need of creating small apartments for stages in life where large apartments are not needed, and of being able to use it when the apartment expands.
Although this is not a solution for existing neighborhoods, it raises hope for new neighborhoods.
Baur Akiva project / Photo: Shutterstock