Rachel Kallus

From Abstract to Concrete: Subjective Reading of Urban Space

Urban designers, perceiving the city mainly as a morphological phenomenon, are primarily concerned with the sensory, and particularly with the visual, qualities of urban space. This view of the city as a spatial physical structure requires abstraction, to enable comprehension of the complexity and continuity of the urban space, its transparency and its indeterminacy. However, this abstraction often fails to take into account the properties of the city as a place of habitation, ignoring the sociocultural specificities of its different users. The paper attempts to take urban design beyond this abstraction, which is so indifferent to the human element, towards a more concrete and specific approach. It calls for a shift in the rather theoretical postmodern interest in the urban space, important though it is in its morphological inclusiveness, to embody a pluralistic subjective perception of the space and its use, bearing in mind fundamental relationships between space and social processes.

What is a Neighbourhood? The Structure and Function of an Idea

In this paper we use the tension between ideals and reality as a key to comprehend the ever-changing concept of neighbourhood in architecture and planning theory. We analyze the theoretical, that is abstract, meaning of the concept of neighbourhood by using a deconstructive approach in the examination of particular texts. A shift in the sense and meaning of neighbourhood in architecture and planning theory over the years is discerned. A stratified process of transformation in the meaning attached to the neighbourhood is identified in the arguments used to construct this idea in theory and in professional practice. This process proceeds from a humanistic approach, to an instrumental and then to a phenomenological approach. The humanistic approach sees the neighbourhood as a manifestation of human activity and thus the planning of the neighbourhood as a moral requirement which is a proper response to basic human needs. The instrumental approach views the neighbourhood as a planning device, an integral building block in the development of urban structure. As such it conceives of the neighbourhood as a subsystem in a larger assemblage. The phenomenological approach emphasizes the neighbourhood as a unique urban phenomenon. Its significance is seen to stem from its conventional everyday function (residential) which involves continuity and permanence and which fixes the neighbourhood sense of place in the urban collective memory. In our paper these three approaches are related to present architectural and planning attempts to come to terms with both overall general societal developments as well as with specific demands and needs situated in the profession.

Patrick Geddes and the evolution of a housing type in Tel-Aviv

The typical Tel-Aviv ‘house’ and its resulting urbanscape are the products of the convergence between the plan prepared for Tel-Aviv in 1925 by Patrick Geddes, advanced architecture practice brought to Palestine by European trained Jewish architects, and social, economic and political realities regulating the developing city during the British Mandate. The Geddes plan is examined as a reflection of the period’s planning efforts and their influence on urban land development. The consequences of the plan are critically investigated to show how, aided by administrative and architectural efforts, it facilitated real estate development which promoted the consolidation of a specific housing type. Thus, despite its utopian aspiration for a green communal city, the Geddes plan did not contain, and perhaps even supported, the capitalist development of Tel-Aviv, carried on up to the present.

Loose ends: the role of architecture in constructing urban borders in Tel Aviv-Jaffa since the 1920s

A border is an ideological socio‐cultural construct by which communities define and defend their territory. But what are its formal and spatial configurations? How is the border architecturally conceived and perceived? This paper investigates these questions through analysis of three border typologies – the door, the bridge and the gateway – fostering a new discussion of architecture as a border‐making practice. It also relates to how architects and planners contribute to conflict, and to ethnic and physical barrier‐making by not being fully aware of the cultural and political implications of their actions. These ideas are discussed in the context of Israel/Palestine and the dynamic of the demarcation and separation between Israelis and Palestinians since the early twentieth century. It focuses specifically on the border zone between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the Menshiyeh quarter. By examining border‐making from architectural and urban perspectives, the paper expands the political‐historical discussion of Israeli boundaries and clarifies the relationships between conflict (destruction), architecture (construction) and the everyday life of groups and individuals in today’s world of modern nationalism.

Citizenship in action: participatory urban visualization in contested urban space

Abstract This paper derives from the experience of a community-based university course that uses visualization and on-site methods to explore participatory imagination and imaging of urban spaces. Participatory urban visualization is a platform for discourse. It allows local residents to become involved in thinking the future of their locality, thereby activating their urban citizenship. The paper starts with a discussion of urban space and citizenship, and explores the potential of urban visualization and participation. The second part of the paper explains the context of Haifa, the ethno-nationally contested city in which the course is held, and presents two case studies. It identifies collaborative professional methodologies and techniques, and stresses participatory visualization as a vehicle for promoting communal sense of place and urban identity.

Politics of Urban Space in an Ethno-Nationally Contested City: Negotiating (Co)Existence in Wadi Nisnas

Public art and cultural events have often been enlisted to represent the socio-cultural diversity of cities, to upgrade a citys status and boost its economy by promoting internal and external tourism. What are the consequences of such efforts in an ethno-nationally contested city? Discourse analysis and ethnographic encounters situate the annual Holiday of Holidays festival in the Israeli-Palestinian neighbourhood of Wadi Nisnas as integral to Haifas strategy to promote itself as a site of coexistence. The neighbourhood serves the entire city in that its ‘Arab’ urban space has become its emblem of coexistence. This manipulation of the area by the municipality is, however, not reinforced by urban regeneration and heritage management of the local Palestinian community. However, coexistence discourse is also employed by the residents themselves, suggesting a more nuanced understanding of the role of urban space in advertising the city as well as of concepts of local identity and citizenship.

From colonial to national landscape: producing Haifa’s cityscape

The landscape’s continuity makes it a most efficient means for shaping the cityscape. Contrary to architecture/planning periodical historical approach, it is argued that the urban landscape’s dynamic requires a fresh outlook in order to portray its time–space linear structure. The paper examines the city of Haifa in transition from colonial to the nation‐building era through the landscape production mechanism that this article calls erascape. The investigation shows how this mechanism arises from political agenda to become a powerful agent in constructing Haifa’s socio‐cultural relations. Examining the remaking of Haifa Old City enables one to understand landscape production strategies as interplay between professionals (architects and planners), administrators and politicians operating in the transformative making of colonial and national cityscapes. Landscape production, as embedded through design knowledge and planning procedures, is examined in maps, drawings, diagrams and sketches, in official and private correspondence, in laws and regulations, and as it appears in historical photographs and exists in today’s spatial experience of the city.

The Politics of Landscape (Re)Production Haifa Between Colonialism and Nation Building

This paper examines landscape production as embedded in design and planning procedures and based on spatial knowledge of landscape architecture. It investigates Haifa’s landscape production in the contexts of colonialism and nationalism, focusing on planning mechanisms, design strategies, and political tactics utilized to create the cityscape. Contrary to the common perception of landscape as a passive and aesthetic cultural product, the landscape examined here has been carefully premeditated and planned. It is created and recreated by professionals—landscape architects, architects, and planners—and empowered by politicians and administrators in an effort to construct the city’s image and identity. The case of Haifa demonstrates the major role played by landscape in the sociocultural formation of the city, as a continuous agent of form and productive knowledge, and as an efficient tool for integrating official strategies, ideologies, and values into spatial conditions.

Women's struggle for urban safety. the Canadian experience and its applicability to the Israeli context

This article examines the ways in which issues of womens safety in public space are integrated into planning practice and policy. It deals with two processes of struggle for urban safety, addressing the integration of ‘voices from the field’ into urban administration and planning, and questioning the possible adaptation of experiences of such integration, as developed in one socio‐culture system, into another. The article focuses on a number of Canadian cities, and assesses if their experience is applicable to cities in Israel. Thus it considers the transferability of knowledge and the potential of cross‐culture study, in relation to the production of professional knowledge. The first part of the article introduces the main issues to be explored in the article and considers these in the context of recent theoretical, professional and public debates, especially as related to gender and urban safety, and in relation to concepts of power, knowledge, meaning and identity. The second part presents the major findings of a research project related to local Canadian actions for urban safety and the urban policies adopted for its provision. The third part analyzes the applicability of the Canadian experience to the Israeli context and contains preliminary conclusions and recommendations as to the transferability of this experience.

Past Forward Planning in the Light of Historical Knowledge

This article argues that planning benefits from a historical perspective, affording planners better understanding of current contexts, situations, and the different actors involved. This article draws on integrated historical knowledge acquired from archival research and fieldwork in order to discuss Moshav Gadish, planned and implemented as part of Israel’s nation-building project in the 1950s. Combining official planning material and residents’ personal stories, it highlights the gap between planning intentions and actuality on the ground. A “thick description” of Gadish, derived from the need for deeper understanding of previous planning decisions, emphasizes current planning issues and suggests future planning approaches.