Description of Course

The acceleration of population growth in Israel; demographic changes within the economic, social and cultural framework ; the tendency of the local authorities to prefer more profitable usage over residential usage which conflicts with the tendency of the  state to allow more residential units and to increase the density of  the urban  fabric; changes in supply and demand both in regard to profitable areas and residential units – a tendency which leads to a rise in the cost of living which the public finds difficult to bear; the physical aging of the buildings and the demand to rehabilitate and renew them together with the demand for urban renewal due to new trends in planning such as a mixture of usages, density and high-rise building -  all of the aforesaid are the subjects which constitute the planning challenges to be coped with by the students. The students will be expected to be creative and to give added values in the planning of the urban structure and the public space which are mutually connected with the private spaces in order to create a multi-faceted urban dynamic influenced by social, economic, environmental, sustainable, climatic, ecological, cultural, technological and demographic aspects as well as historical and political processes, consumption habits, existing, changing and new building and transportation, including the changing tendencies in the use of public transport.

The planning with which the students will have to cope will be within the existing municipal context – "municipal percolation" while creating new infill arising from defining the vision, purposes, goals, analytical processes, planning and the existing municipal environmental design and creating it anew.

Each group will be required to think creatively and originally and to demonstrate personal expression, independent thought and to formulate an established, reasoned and new value system while  implementing the planning idea influenced by the ideology of the group.

The studies will be conducted in groups of up to three students.

The scale of the project will be from 1:5000 up to 1:250.