Jerusalem: The Latest Architecture and News

SCI-Arc graduate Harris Silver has shared his experience passing through the Kalandia Checkpoint during his quest for "an uncanny truth" that would lead him to develop an architecture project in the city of Jerusalem.

The Kalandia Checkpoint is an opening in what Israel calls "The Security Fence" and what Palestinians call "The Apartheid Wall". Regardless of what you call the separation infrastructure, the checkpoint acts a modern gate to the city of Jerusalem.

After experiencing Kalendia first hand, I came away realizing that until I personally walked through the checkpoint, I was ignorant of the mechanism and tactics employed to humiliate and dehumanize everyone who passes through it. Which means I was not fully capable of participating in the Israeli-Palestinian discourse.

Continue reading for the full Op-Ed.

Designed by o2a studio, the man-made structure for the Natural History Museum in Jerusalem is designated to celebrate the transcendent force and majesty of nature, which is a contradiction in terms. The paradoxical question that arises when approaching the design of a building that is dedicated as a showcase for the unbuilt, is how does one bridge this conceptual gap between the man-made and the organic – between the artificial and the natural. The proposal aims to highlight this difficulty, while allowing for a composite coexistence between the natural and the artificial – interpreted here as ranging between various degrees of control. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Museum of Tolerance, designed by Bracha Chyutin, Michael Chyutin, Jacques Dahan, and Ariel Noyman is located at the heart of modern Jerusalem, in its rejuvenated city center, on the borderline between the spacious Independence Park, and the urban built environment. The location is a meeting site of three main streets which differ in character and function. Hillel street: a bustling commercial zone; Moshe Ben Israel street: a road crossing the park; and Moshe Salomon street- Nachalat Shiva’s pedestrian mall, a tourist hub, full of restaurants and shops. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Zarhy Architects were chosen among three other finalists to participate in the final round of an invited competition to design the new premises of the Israeli Government in Jerusalem. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Tel Aviv based Chyutin Architects have won a competition for the new Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The project will replace a previous scheme done by Frank Gehry. More images and architect’s description after the break.