Axioma
Types: Religious, Yuppie, Student, Secular
Plans: Typical floor, Ground floor, Sections, West – East – North – South Elevations
Cholon / Bat Yam
Jessy Cohen
Block
Siteplan
Home is ambiguous
There is something desolate about the streets of Jessy Cohen than cannot by easily changed. The roads seem to quite inevitably lead to dead end walls or just end up in the middle of nowhere leaving you to search for other ways around. As a matter of fact there is a secondary infrastructure that seems to be much more viable consisting of often informal paths connecting off-street spaces. This structure that seems to be crucial for the genetic code of the neighborhood is already considered 1961 urban plan that proposed to connect residual green spaces inside different blocks. The proposal however conscious didn’t completely work out. One of the possible explanations might be that it wasn’t able to provide such concept with corresponding architecture. Which I believe is the ultimate condition for any successful development of Jessy Cohen.
I tried to address this issue with my project on different levels. I should state that I consider two ways of interacting with the incriminated backyard environment. One is direct which happens on the ground level and the other is indirect from within an apartment. The idea of connecting with an outside environment goes beyond a simple balcony which is a feature of a room rather than defining quality of a dwelling. To achieve the feeling of the later I suggest a structure both structural and phenomenological that could be likened to one of an onion. The structural core together with the shell enables no other walls to be load bearing. This has further social implications but apart from that it turns the shell into a skin that wraps the whole apartment with no interruptions. The sequences of french windows leading to a habitably wide terrace dissolves the discreetness of outside and inside while providing notion of privacy.
What happens on the ground level is a different story and it has its roots in the initial tendency to inspire from within the urban structures. The wall that goes through the entire street continues through the gable of the building as it somehow refuses to be a part of the street. Instead it defines the relation of the path and the yard through the series of lateral narrow spaces whose typology suggest variety and small scale activity be it grocery, cafe, atelier, prayer room or even a garage. The modernistic commercial structure across the block shows how skillful local people are in appropriating unassigned spaces. The structure doesn’t define specific function but rather its atmosphere and the way it operates. The result of such initiation would hopefully be that the the yard through becoming more public and varied in its activities will also become more private in a way that the residents will be thus encouraged to use it.
As Jessy Cohen is one of he most underprivileged neighborhoods in the area, social considerations were also an issue. A single core with one lift was introduced to service both wings to reduce the construction cost. However the idea wasn’t to design solely for the poor. Due to the structural qualities mentioned above the scheme of a flat is surprisingly variable in both number of rooms and their standards with minor structural efforts.
I would like to devote the last paragraph to character ambiguity. Both the form and the details of the house are far from being specific about its identity. While preserving some urban associations its poetics refer somewhere to summer house. And while being fully aware of the threats of rigorously deconstructing such issues I would only suggest that in context of multiplying the floors and the money it is not necessarily about how tall you are but also in what manner.
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