Israel has for the first time hosted an anonymous international competition for architects, open to candidates in Israel and abroad, and conducted according to the highest standards.
On September 1, 2006, an international architects competition was declared open for design of the future Bezalel campus in downtown Jerusalem. Relocation of the national art and design academy to the heart of urban life in Jerusalem is expected to promote interaction between the students and the surrounding activities. From the city's point of view, it would be adopting a young, creative and vibrant community in its midst, infusing it with a fresh and original vitality.
The new premises are located in the Russian Compound, on the boundary between New Jerusalem and the Old City, a historical area abounding in heritage, scenery and unique environmental features. Construction of such an academy, which has enjoyed the support of the government and the city's mayor, on the line separating east from west, constitutes an unusual professional challenge for designers, who must pay particular attention to the creation of modern architectural concepts.
Registration for the competition ended in early January and the deadline for submission of the designs by the architects was the end of that month.
A total of 188 plans were submitted from 33 countries throughout the world, among them the USA, and nations in Latin America, Europe and the Far East. The event was highly successful in light of the complexity of the project and the significant contribution it has made to Israel's architectural culture.
Judging of the submissions took place at the end of February in the historical Bezalel building housing the Department of Architecture, the results being as follows: five winning plans were selected and advanced to second stage, joining four architectural firms, two from Israel and two from abroad, that had been previously invited to participate in the competition.
The panel of judges included Architect Prof. Moshe Safadi; Architect Prof. Toshiko Mori of Harvard University; Prof. Arnon Zuckerman, President of Bezalel; Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, former President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Architect Prof. Zvi Efrat of Bezalel; and Yiftach Faran, an industrial design student from Bezalel.
The final stage of the competition was held in early July 2007. Over a two-day period a total of nine models, submitted by the nine finalists, were exhibited. Of these the panel of judges chose one to be the basis for the new campus in the Russian Compound.
The winning firm was Studyo Architects, a young practice located in Cologne, Germany, and in Istanbul, Turkey. The architects are Aysin Ipekci and Cem Yurtsever.
The highlights of the selected plan are as follows:
- The plan separates the part having greater public access, including the library, auditorium, offices and administration, from that containing the professional departments.
- The two parts of the structure are connected using a plan that evokes the feeling of a campus and blends with the topography of the Compound.
- The plan offers a successful urban solution from the point of view of the scale of the buildings and public accessibility to the grounds, while allowing a view of the Old City and Mt. Scopus.
The area on which the campus is to be built is a complex one in planning terms for two reasons:
- It contains the Russian Church, which must not be obstructed in any way.
- It must house a modern, functional building alongside a mélange of historical buildings.
There was also a need to consider the fact that Bezalel, being the kind of academy it is, comprises nine separate departments hosting different types of activities, some purely academic, and others involving the handling of messy, toxic materials in workshops and studios.
Most of the solutions proposed in the models designed by the nine firms consisted of two large buildings on either side of the Russian Church, a problem being the nature of the flow between them. An interestingly different proposal was offered by the Italian architectural firm of Marazzi Architetti, which called for placement of the academy in a cavern about 25 m below ground. However, this solution was not feasible both because of the deep excavations it entailed and the problem of light.