BEZALEL ACADEMY COMPETITION
2007
Zarhy Architects
Project architect,team of three people.
Project type:
Competition for the Bezalel Academy of Art new building
Location:
Jerusalem, Israel
Area:
45,000 m2 studio space, workshops, exhibitions spaces, auditorium, library, cafe.
Project description:
This proposal for the new campus for Bezalel in the centre of Jerusalem is concerned with two major aspects. Urban strategy – how to create a public space, a square, different from the ones we know, how to redefine relationships between private and public. Programme - what does a building for an art academy mean nowadays? How can the important role of art in our society be reflected through architecture?
We therefore define a building which is located both under and above ground, leaving the ground level free, as the new public domain. The new public space is a plaza, encompassed by art from both above and below. It is a pedestrian domain that connects the activities on and around it without obstacles or dead ends so that movement within and across is unhindered and uninterrupted. The academy buildings, above and beneath, shape but do not close it. People can gather together here or pass freely through.
The plaza is a communal stage: it is a place for public events and social occasions, and a venue for concerts, exhibitions and the like. The plaza is a connecting and collecting space, a continuation of the public realm and its urban circulation patterns: it enlivens the buildings around it, offers new views over the city and stimulates activity in this core location.
We believe that a contemporary art academy should act as a melting pot, which enables artistic, intellectual and social relations and the exchange of information and opinions between individuals and groups, within the academic realm and society, and between both. The academy provides a milieu for the human interactions that are the engine of art, culture and civilized development.
A common design language, using simple geometric forms, is applied across the project, but this is modulated to give each of its elements a distinct character that reflects its specific function. The project can thus be seen as an assembly of “function containers” and interstitial spaces, which, while being individually unique, constitute an identifiable whole.
