JNF | World Zionist Village

International Competition Third Place Winner

Location: Be'er-Sheva
In collaboration with Arch. Leora Niderberg

 

The greatest challenge for the students on the Muss program is spending an extended period away from home and family. But this challenge is also an amazing opportunity for creating a stimulating, immersive, and innovative learning community. One of the best ways to cultivate a sense of belonging in a place is to lay down roots. Just like the earliest halutzim, these students will tend their own shared food garden and “green the Negev” using the best, state of the art hydroponic technology that Israel has to offer. They will develop a sense of responsibility, care, and independence, a sensitivity to where their fresh food comes from, and a firsthand appreciation of the astounding agricultural advances being led by Israel which enable growing crops in the desert.

The building is organized by three distinct spatial zones, creating a strategic composition of private, communal, and public spaces that simultaneously serves as a passive ventilation system. The residential apartments face the northern facade, letting in light but keeping them cool despite the desert environment. On the southern facade, the greenhouse shields the building from the sun’s strongest rays throughout the day, absorbing the sunlight for the plants’ growth, while emitting cool air into the interior atrium/passageway, utilizing as well runoff rainwater from the roof for crop growth.

The heart of the building is the open circulation area with communal functions and patios, which, like the chadar ochel and green space of the kibbutz, form the core of the communal experience. Designed as a long corridor, this area channels cool east-west winds throughout the building while bringing light to the apartments. Public functions in this area include patio seating with trees (cooling effect), classrooms, a workshop/studio/MakerLab, a quiet study hall and library, and a communal kitchen which opens onto a cafe-style dining area facing the greenhouse.

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