Kibbutz Architecture Without Precedents
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1 3 Header Kibbutz Architecture Without Precedents The Israeli Pavilion The 12th International Architecture Exhibition The Venice Biennial Kibbutz: Architecture Without Ministry of Culture and Sports Precedents Culture Administration The Israeli Pavilion Director of the Culture Administration: The 12th International Architecture Exhibition Zach Granit The Venice Biennial Director of the Finance and Budget Division: August-November 2010 Shlomo Itzhaki Director of the Museums and Visual Art Exhibition Department: Idit Amihai Chairman of the Israeli Council of Culture Curators: Galia Bar Or, Yuval Yasky and Art: Haim Perluk Production: Productions’ Den Ltd. – Miki Gov Chairman of the Visual Art Section: Sigal Barnir Director of the Israeli Pavilion in Venice: Steering Committee: Sigal Barnir (chair), Arad Turgeman Ulrik Plesner, Dan Eytan, Gidi Bar-Orian, Exhibition design: Dan Hasson Thea Kisselov Graphic design: Michael Gordon Studio Archival conceptualization: Zvi Efrat Ministry of Foreign Affairs Video archive: Adi Biran; Archival research: The Division of Cultural and Adi Levy-Trau, Iris Kashman, Nur Efrat; Video Scientific Affairs and sound installation: Doron Video and Deputy General Director: Arye Mekel Computer Projections; Printing: Top-Print, Director of the Arts and Literature Tel Aviv; Press coordinator in Italy: Department: Ofra Ben-Yaacov Lucia Briseghella Head of the Visual Arts Section: Yona Marcu Videography director: Itai Raziel; Videography: Administrative Assistant in the Visual Arts Gideon Porat, Shalom Rufeisen; Video editing Section: Yossi Balt director: Ayelet Gil; Video editing: Tahel Director of the Administration and Budget Azulay; Video production: Dina Kapchitz Department: Isi Yanouka Munio Gitai Weinraub installation: Embassy of Israel in Rome Amos Gitai; photography – Gabriele Basilico; editing – Isabelle Ingold; soundtrack editing – The Ambassador of Israel, H.E. Gideon Meir Alex Claude; production – Laurent Truchot; Cultural Attaché: Ofra Farhi thanks – Ben Ori Gitai Consul: Avi Zairi Book The exhibition and book were made possible with the kind support of: Chief editor: Galia Bar Or Associate editor: Yuval Yasky David Azrieli – the Azrieli Group Ltd. Design and production: Michael Gordon Plasan Sasa Ltd. Hebrew text editing and translation: Bank Hapoalim Ltd. Daphna Raz Rachel and Dov Gottesman English text editing and translation: Ronny Douek Richard Flantz Mati Broudo – Rothschild 69 Additional English translations: Gezi Kaplan Daria Kassovsky, Uri Bruck, Arlene El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. and Jerry Aviram, Shira Szabo Hadera Paper Ltd. Graphic execution: Tom Kuris Museum of Art, Ein Harod Pre-press and printing: Top-Print, Tel Aviv Gan Shmuel Foods, Ganir Ltd. Binding: Keterpress Enterprises, Jerusalem Culture Mishmar HaEmek Ricor Ltd., Ein Harod Ichud © 2010, all rights reserved Be’eri Printers Maytronics, Kibbutz Yizre’el Yotvata Dairy Caesar Stone, Sdot Yam Havatzelet, Cultural & Educational Institutions Contents Foreword 9 Part One – Social Ideas and Architectural Planning (History) 15 The Initial Phases: A Test Case | Galia Bar Or 17 On the Problems of Kibbutz Building | Yitzhak Tabenkin 51 The Planning of Construction in the Commune in Socialist Thought | Shabtai Beeri 65 The Culture House in Our Commune | Haim Ben-Asher 81 Part Two – Planning and Change (The Present) 89 Neither City, Nor Village – A Kibbutz | Yuval Yasky 91 Towards Structural Changes: Regional Organization Freddy Kahana 115 The Discreet Charm of the Kibbutz Zvi Efrat, from a conversation with Galia Bar Or 121 Part Three – Architects on their Work (The First Generation) 127 The Kibbutz and the Communal Village | Richard Kauffmann 129 Some Remarks on Construction in the Kibbutz | Shmuel Mestechkin 133 Pages from the book Kibbutz + Bauhaus | Arieh Sharon 138 On Some Problems of Gardening in Kibbutz Settlement Planning Samuel Bickels 147 The Junkyard Playground of Malka Haas | Carl Steinitz 167 Lullaby to My Father | Amos Gitai 173 Part Four – Key to Terms and Notes on Architects 187 A Passover Seder in the dining hall, Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, 1953 [Photo: Tim Gidal, courtesy of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem] ליל הסדר בחדר האוכל, קיבוץ משמר–העמק, 1953 ]צילום: טים גידל, באדיבות מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים[ Foreword The underlying theme of the exhibition and its book Kibbutz: Architecture Without Precedents is the role of architecture as an active partner in the shaping of a society and in contributing to the quality of human relationships within it. Kibbutz planning presents a unique architectural challenge, for the kibbutz is a voluntarily way of life based on equality, mutual aid and full partnership in all the social and economic aspects of life, including property and land. This social ideal, which reformist and utopian architecture sought to promote in various forms from the 19th century onwards, remained mostly in plans on paper and was essentially ideological and formalistic in its character. In the kibbutz, in contrast, the collective social vision was from the very outset translated into architectural language and a form of spatial organization, and these developed through many improvements into a new settlemental typology that could assimilate both the experience that was being accumulated and the contemporary processes of change. The idea of communal sharing and egalitarianism found expression first and foremost in the principle of a shared space for all the functions of life – production (agriculture, industry), education, culture, health, etc. In effect the kibbutz is a single undivided space, in which there are no fences or private plots, which contains all the dimensions of life and is collectively owned by all the members of the kibbutz. The central arena of kibbutz life is the large lawn and the public facilities (the dining hall, the culture house, the library, the members’ club), which are situated around it like a “forum” or “agora” This center, together with the kibbutz garden, the landscape of paths and the space among the houses, constitutes a significant focus of social interaction. Since 1910, 280 kibbutzim have been established throughout Eretz- Israel – in the semi-desert Negev, in the hill country, on the coastal plain, and many have been joined by immigrants from diverse countries of origin. Over the years various alternatives of kibbutz life have taken shape in these settlements, and kibbutz architects have been asked to provide specific answers for diverse hues of social relationships, which have found 9 Foreword expression in distinctive versions of overall settlement planning, of the connection with the landscape, of the placement and design of the public buildings, the residential and the production zones, and of the relations among them. The adaptability of the kibbutz architectural space to new demands arising from orientations of change owes much to its complex undivided character, but in recent years many kibbutzim have been undergoing a radical shift: a transition from a socialist conception of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to the principle of differential earnings linked to the rules of the market, although the “safety-net” still subsidizes education and health as well as social security and mutual aid on a scale unknown in other forms of life. With regard to architecture, many kibbutzim are today experimenting with varying degrees of privatization of the collective kibbutz space, and its unique fabric is in a danger of destruction. Nonetheless, in the past three years there has been a discernible wave of return to the kibbutz, as well as a rethinking of its architectural, environmental and spatial values, and a developing of new and original models of solidarity and mutual aid. Will we be able to think about the kibbutz not merely as a social experiment that has exhausted its potential but as a proposal for a very contemporary discourse, as a community structure that offers an alternative, both to the nation-state, which is providing fewer and fewer services, and to the generic-spatial default option of the separatist suburban model? Is there a chance that the discussion about the transformation of the kibbutz and about new forms of organization of mutual aid could extend to beyond its Zionist origins and consequently generate new structures, new spatial relationships unknown to us as yet, and a pertinent dialogue between architecture and society? To illuminate the fecund collaboration between a social vision and architecture, the book of the exhibition juxtaposes social and ideological pronouncements with texts on architectural theory and practice. In the past, many researchers tended to read ideological formulations of a social vision as no more than a mobilizing device used by a manipulative leadership; in the present book, in contrast, such formulations are regarded as a mirror reflecting how people perceived the narrative of their time and endeavored to confront its challenges. The ideological projection in these texts helps us to understand the principles implemented by the architects when they prepared general plans for kibbutzim, shaped the character of their institutions, and embodied in materials all the aspects of their social and economic life to the last detail. The kibbutz experience teaches us that true collaboration between architectural vision and in-depth social dialogue is a necessary condition for the creation of meaningful architecture that embraces a complete cycle of life and can absorb processes of change judiciously. Part