My name is David Kroyanker. I’m an architect and an architectural historian, born in Jerusalem. I worked for many years with the municipality of Jerusalem and I was in charge of planning. Since 1972 I have actually been a freelance architect. I am working mainly in preservation projects: very little new construction. I have dedicated about 70% of my time for the last 20 years to researching and writing about the architecture of Jerusalem.

I have written a good number of books, the most important of which being a series of six books, in Hebrew. about Jerusalem architecture during the different time periods. Five volumes relate to the architecture outside the Old City walls, and one volume within. After I completed the six books in Hebrew I discovered that Hebrew is not the most popular language in the world, and that many people can not read Hebrew. My publisher in Israel is Keter and they decided to send the rights abroad. However, as my work is very complicated and detailed, no one would buy six volumes of 500 pages each about Jerusalem Architecture. Therefore we found a publisher in the United States who was willing to abridge the six volumes and publish it in cooperation with four other publishers in a number of languages.

The English edition was meant mainly for the Arab public and the Arab World. It was also published in German, Italian and in French. Keter also published the abridged edition, again in Hebrew, and it is one of Israel's best-selling books. People tell me that my books are very nice but heavy, and cannot be carried on walking excursions to see the places described. Therefore I published a guide to the Architecture in Jerusalem. It is a short version of the book including 19 tours of Jerusalem, some inside the city walls and some outside the city walls. It is based on a geographic - neighborhood guide. There’s a tour in Talbiye, another in Qatamon, another in the German Colony and another in Me’a She’arim. Each tour covers approximately 20-50 buildings.

Now I would like to tell you about how I started dealing with Jerusalem Architecture. I was working with “CBD (Central Business District section of the Municipality of Jerusalem planning Department" in the late 1960s and early 1970’s, a short time after the reunification of Jerusalem that followed the 1967 war. Until 1967 the situation of Jerusalem was very simple, at least from the Israeli side. Jerusalem was surrounded on the north, east, and south by Jordanian Jerusalem. Jerusalem was joined to the rest of Israel by a road, from Tel Aviv on the coast. There was very little development in Jerusalem at the time. There was construction of housing of course, and there were also institutional buildings like the Knesset, the new Hebrew University campus, and the Hadassa Hospital. However, there was no real pressure for what I would call commercial development of hotels, residential blocks, offices and so on. After 1967 everyone became very interested in Jerusalem. Developers wanted to build all over the city. Large hotel chains wanted to build everywhere. Suddenly Jerusalem became a real hit in terms of real estate.

The rather neglected central part of Jerusalem was due to be demolished the practice of demolition, so a comprehensive development plan was began. . The discussions on whether to preserve, renovate or demolish old buildings were based on complete ignorance. People didn’t know what architecture was and they didn’t know the meaning of buildings in terms of styles or historic importance, and I started to publish a number of small booklets that related to certain projects. Those booklets contained an explanation of the architecture and the history of the building, and they gave the decision-makers some understanding of the cases and places they were discussing. These books became hits. They were published in about 200-300 copies each. When I recognized this interest I started to collect material about the various buildings of historic importance in the city.

Once I accumulated enough material I approached the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, which was headed at that time by Professor Joshua Prawer . He was a very well known historian who specialized in Medieval history. I proposed to the Jerusalem Institute to prepare a series of books about Jerusalem Architecture. It was completely an unknown subject. No one had ever spoke about architecture in the city, and no one knew what it was all about. The word "architecture" for some people was intimidating. For most of you the word is obvious and understandable but to many people it was too technical. So we decided to go for a six volumes series of books. We decided to begin with the city outside the walls because of the limited knowledge and understanding of these areas and buildings and because some of these were in danger of being demolished. As far as the Old City was concerned there was a consensus of opinion among the Israelis, which was “do not demolish”. Structures inside the Old City have the kind of historical value that should be preserved. Therefore we decided to go to those areas of the city which were more critical in terms of what we assumed would be where future development and/or conservation or preservation of Jerusalem outside the wall would take place.

We prepared the master plan and approached Teddy Kolllek, who was good enough to provide the means for the research. The first task was to determine the theme and contents of each of the six volumes. I did some preliminary research in order to work out a master plan and in so doing really discovered one of the most important things about Jerusalem architecture as a whole. It is this conclusion, to a certain degree, that I am presenting now - namely the Ethnic aspect of Architecture. The ethnic In fact, the ethnic aspect of architecture is the most important aspect in the city's architecture.

There are not many landmarks in the world architecture in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount are among the most beautiful urban statures in the world, and the Holy Sepulchre is of extreme importance. The Jerusalem City Wall and the Gates are interesting and important, but they are not great landmarks in world architecture.

What is interesting about Jerusalem is first of all the ethnic side. It is easy to distinguish clearly between Jewish buildings and Arab buildings at various periods; likewise, Arab buildings can be differentiated from Christian buildings at different periods. Furthermore, one does not usually speak about individual buildings, but rather about urban fabric. The interest is in the urban texture. If we speak of the Moslem quarter in the Old City, or if we speak of the German Colony in the south west of Jerusalem, or if we speak of the Me’a She’arim neighbourhood, we speak about a very distinct and interesting urban identity. We do not speak about individual buildings; rather, the overall texture is the interesting aspect of the city.

We decided to start with the Jewish Neighborhoods and buildings as the first volume. (I didn’t bring with me all the volumes because they are a bit too heavy. But I brought some just to give you an idea). So, I brought the first volume which is about the Jewish neighborhoods outside the city walls, which were built between 1860 and First World War 1914. Neighborhoods like Me’a She'arim we call the traditional Jewish neighborhoods. (In each one of the books is included a walking-tour through some of the neighborhoods). In the Jewish one there is a tour of Me’a She’aim and a tour of the Bokharan quartile. The second volume featured Arab buildings outside the Old City walls and in it are included walking-tours in Talbiye and in Qatamon. The third volume is about the European architecture outside the city walls, and contains a tour of the German Colony. The next volume is about the architecture during the British Mandate period between 1918 and 1948. The fifth volume is about modern architecture in Jerusalem 1948 and 1993. The last volume is about the Old City. The six volumes were published over a 12 year period, and I acknowledge with gratitude Teddy Kollek who provided the means, and Keter publishing house.

One of the great advantages of publishing a series of books was in that every two years an International Book Fair is held in Jerusalem. I managed to have each book published just before the International Book Fair, and have it "launched" there. This is, more or less, what I did over the past twenty years. I have also been working on a number of projects, mainly renovation of historic buildings. I have worked for the “Ticho House”, a project in the center of Jerusalem in which a former neglected private eye-hospital building was converted into a cultural center, museum and restaurant.. I am also currently involved in plans for renovating the former Palace Hotel building, which was recently purchased by the Hyatt Regency chain. I am not sure whether or not I will be the architect in charge of the detailed planning; but the building will be conserved with an extension of a new wing at the back of the building.

I have been also involved in a number of projects documenting architectural sites during the planning and construction stages. A big book was published about the City Hall Plaza in the center of Jerusalem, which documents the entire process of planning.

I would like to say a few words about Jerusalem Architecture. To a certain degree we are too close to ourselves to appreciate many things about Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a fantastic city. Many people who come to visit Jerusalem from abroad immediately realize that stone is the common denominator of all the buildings, the periods and the styles. New York is a city of glass and stainless steel, London is a city of red brick, and San’a in Yemen is the city built of clay.

With regard to the slides, I must say that they are intended to be a superficial overview of Jerusalem. What I mean by superficial is that I presented these slides on a double slide projector abroad to people who didn’t know anything about Jerusalem - to give them some impressions of what Jerusalem is like. I believe that ethnicity is the most important factor in the architecture of Jerusalem and if one looks at the four quarters in the Old City, it’s obvious that the architecture in each quarter is very distinct and different. The Moslem quarter's main architectural quality is in its closely knit and small-scale structured housing areas. The Christian quarter, built mostly at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, is really a quarter of monumental Christian European buildings. It has a completely different texture, unlike that of the Moslem quarter; here are big monumental buildings built around courtyards. The Armenian quarter is a mixture between the Moslem and the Christian quarters - there are in it some public buildings as well as a number of residential buildings. The scale there is again slightly larger than that of the Moslem quarter. The Jewish quarter, built after 1067, has its own very distinct character. The new housing in it was built in accordance with the general alignment of the original Jewish Quarter, but in a completely different style of architecture - which is also different from that in the Moslem, Christian and Armenian quarters. Then there is the Temple Mount - the Haram El-Sharif, an area which has its own unique character, and as I said before - it is one of the most interesting and beautiful spaces in the world.

In terms of the ethnic identity outside the city walls, I will begin first with the Jewish quarters. The Jewish quarters are basically the ones built at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Here I have to remind everyone that until the 1860’s there was nothing outside the Old City walls. There were just olive trees and empty hills. That was 'Modern Jerusalem'. The first development outside the city walls were Arab buildings mainly north of Damascus Gate, but these were built really as a community but as a "Hamoola" style of buildings for the extended family. In contrast, the Jewish quarters were built as communities. Me’a She’arim is a community of people who came out of the Old City because of very difficult living conditions there, and they built their own neighborhoods. And then of course, and this is very important, there are the buildings which were built by the Christian European powers. The European powers, at the end of the 19th century were competing with each other over dominance in Jerusalem. The main ones being the Germans , the Russians , the French and the English.

The Italians came at a later stage, at the beginning of the 20th century. The large Ethiopian monastery, which was built in the area known as the Ethiopian quarter, was really built in the area also known as the Nashashibi quarter, in the western side of the city, and was built in the late 19th century. . The period between 1860 and First World War is the most "ethnic "period in terms of architecture. There are Jewish, Arab and Christian buildings and neighborhoods of very clear identity, and I will show you in a minute a number of slides that demonstrate this. Between 1918 and 1948, the period of the Mandate, I would say that the ethnic identity is somewhat diminished. It is not so clear which is a Jewish building, which is a Christian one and which is Arab. After that, in the second half of the 20th century, the distinction emerges again and it becomes very clear which are Jewish housing projects and how Arab developments looks. In the Old City there is no great change besides in the Jewish quarter, which is of a completely different style and structure. This is more or less the story of what I find to be the main features of Jerusalem Architecture. Before I start with the slides, does anyone have any questions?

Participant: You always mention Jewish, Christian and Arab architectural styles. What do you mean by Arab? Do you mean Moslem Arabs?

Although I do have slides of some Arab Christian architecture, the features of some of the most prominent buildings here are mostly Moslem. The most dominant feature in Arab architecture is what we call Motifs of Islamic Architecture. I’ll show you in a moment a slide of a building in Talbiye (the Jallad Villa). The building has many features of typical Moslem Architecture - it has the red-white stone and it has ceramic glazed tiles and other motives which are very prominent in Islamic Architecture. The balustrade at the top of the building, which was built in the 1930’s, is a replica of the top section of the Al-Aqsa mosque - yet the building was built by a Christian Arab. What I’m trying to show in the slides is that to a certain degree, one generation is quoting the architecture of previous generations. I was asked once by a journalist: How would you rate the architecture of Jerusalem? How would you rate Jewish, Christian and Muslim architecture? There is no doubt that Islamic architecture is number one, and not only because I sit here, for I said this to an Israeli newspaper as well. If I were to grade them on a scale from 5-10, I would say that Islamic architecture is a 9, the European-Christian is between 7 and 8 and the Jewish is between 6-7. Of course we are speaking of quality, rather than quantity.

Architecture or even buildings were never held with very high regard in Jewish culture. Judaism is very strong spiritually, but has never produced significant architecture. In Islamic culture, however, buildings were always very important. People were always ready to invest both talent and money and everything else that supports good architecture.

Display of slides of Jerusalem

Slide 1: Map of Jerusalem: it shows the Old City and the central part of Jerusalem after 1967.

Slide 2: This slide shows the point at which the new city joins up with the walls and the Old City. It gives some perspective of the relationship between the northwestern point of the Old City wall and the Temple Mount area, and the different scales within the city. You casee the Christian quarter has a certain texture and the Moslem quarter on the left and Jerusalem to the east beyond.

Slide 3: This is the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) area that you all know: the different textures, the Old City wall which was built in sixteenth century by Suleiman the Magnificent.

Participant: Temple Mount is the Jewish Term for what we call Al Haram Al Shahreef. We agree on the place but we differ on the name.

Slide 4: (Slide of Jerusalem as a whole) For people from abroad this is a very significant picture, but to you it is obvious because you see it every day. It shows the different scales and the change in scale between the Old City wall (sixteenth century), the Temple Mount “Al Haram Al Shareef”, the variety of textures in the Old City, the Holy Sepulchre, and the new skyline of Jerusalem after 1967. So there are different generations, one after the other.

Slide 5: This is the historic Jerusalem, the Old City. You can also see in it Mount Scopus before the Hebrew University, and the few buildings that were built there before 1948. This is sort of the historic Biblical texture of Jerusalem as people abroad imagine it all to be. Few people imagine Jerusalem as having high-rises, Hiltons, office buildings and so forth. It was taken some time before the construction started on the Mount Scopus (in the late 1960s). .

Slide 6: This is the traditional and the modern scale of western Jerusalem. Again these are things that are obvious to us, who live here, but are not obvious to others: the architecture of Jerusalem is very much determined by the hilly topography. As a result construction is on one hand more difficult and expensive but on the other hand makes it more interesting as a view of the city .

Slide 7: This is close to Sour Baher and the Southern part of the City.

Slide 8: This is the sixteenth century City Wall, which was built on earlier foundations. One of the first moves of the Israeli government after the 1967 war was to demolish the buildings that were built along the Old City wall. I think that was a very important historic decision. This is a decision that you can only take at a certain historic minute, and not afterwards. They were very clever, although I’m not sure they realized this at that time. The decision to demolish all the buildings around the wall and to expose the City Wall once again was made very shortly after the 6th of June 1967. Previously the wall between Jaffa Gate and what is today “Kikar Zahal” and the New Gate, had many ugly buildings built along it. They had become semi-demolished and this was the first time that the Old City wall was really exposed to its full height and to its full beauty. I am seeing this as an Israeli, maybe you would have a different opinion, but the most important decision taken by the Israeli government in terms of planning after 1967 was to create a green belt around the Old City to give the city its own identity.

One of the biggest struggles over the planning of Jerusalem was that of planning the Mamilla area. One of the major objections to it was because it called for new construction so close to the Old City walls. The parks and gardens around the western side of the Old City wall are part of the national park around the Old City. I know these are political problems, but as a planning decision the creation of the green belt around the Old City was a first class decision. By the way, the idea of having a green belt around the city was drawn up by the British in all of their outline plans since 1918. They prepared five plans, but they never implemented the making of the green belt.

Participant: This decision was taken even before 1918 by the Pro-Jerusalem Society.

The Pro-Jerusalem Society is a very important society but they operated only for a short while. They published two nice books. Actually they did quite a lot and I think they are very important, but in terms of implementing this idea of a green belt around the Old City, they did not succeed. I do not want to go into the reasons why.

Slide 9: This shows the stairs above Damascus Gate. Again this is a very interesting walk (for visitors) which to us is obvious. For people who come to Jerusalem, the opportunity of looking into the Old City and out on the New City - it is something very impressive.

Slide 10: This is part of the Jewish quarter, again showing the problem that the planners tackled when they hit archeological findings. This is a wall from the first Temple period and buildings were built around it, so that the archeological dig could be exposed.

Slide 11: This is the Cardo (the street which traverses the city from north to south). The Cardo is again a very interesting project because when the planning of the reconstruction of the Jewish quarter started, people knew that the Cardo existed but they were not sure exactly where it lay. The general alignment was known, but they didn’t know what the findings would be. Once they started digging the foundation for the construction of a housing project they discovered the Cardo, and when it was exposed it was decided to build above it a residential project, and make the Cardo partly exposed to the sky and partly covered by buildings.

Slide 12: You all know Silwan. Now I am trying to a certain degree to see how things developed in the city. Silwan serves as a picture of the very rural texture of housing. (connected with slide 13)

Slide 13: This is a model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. You can see that the buildings of Silwan are really "biblical" in terms of the general texture of architecture, the scale of the building and the way they are located on this very steep topography.

Slide 14: Now we come to Me’a She’arim. Me’a She’arim is basically a replica of Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe. This is a community of Jewish people who left the Jewish quarter (in the Old City) at the end of the 19th century and decided to build a settlement in the new city. They purchased a piece of land and they had two major types of construction. You can see these very large buildings in relation to this very much smaller scale. These are individual houses that are stuck to one another. In the center of Me’a She’arim there was a central courtyard - and in it was a Yeshiva (Theological, religious school). The rest of the courtyard was empty and an open space. By the way, it was designed by a very well known German archeologist, architect and researcher of Jerusalem, Conrad Schick. Schick designed this plan for the Jewish quarter of Me’a She’arim. Over the years since the people needed more space, and they couldn’t expand, they started building more buildings inside this area, which was initially meant to be a public open space or courtyard. Instead of all these buildings surrounding the Yeshiva in the center there was supposed to be an open space.

Slide 15: This is the Batei Ungarim area, which is also a community. The buildings were built by this community and rented out to its members, who are the people still living there. The triangular courtyard is one of the special and interesting public "squares" or piazza, in Jerusalem.

Typical of the texture of Jewish neighborhoods are these row houses which surround the central courtyard. Below the central courtyard is the water cistern. The entrance to this quarter, and like communities is through the very narrow alleys which are positioned at certain intervals between these row houses.

Slide 16: Here you can see the different scale of what happened in Jerusalem for the last 70-80 years. This is the area of Sha’rei Hessed. It is one of the religious Jewish communities that were built around the turn of the 20th century. Again row houses, on which illegal additions were built over the years. The original structure of the neighborhood was row housing. Next to it is what we call “Qiryat Wolfson” which are the high-rises that were built in the early 1970’s opposite the Knesset. There is a series of tall high-rises of about 16-18 stories. What is interesting about this its that it very much characterizes the Jewish deboth at the end of the 19th century, about a hundred years ago. This is very typical of the Jewish demand for a certain type of housing after 1967. After 1967 there was a very large influx of immigration of Jews from western countries -and from the United States and England. They wanted to live in a high rise because this is what they were used to, with a garbage shoot and underground parking and the view and all the qualities that are found in modern high-rises. So the demand for high rises actually created this type of architecture. This is neither great nor a landmark in world architecture, but it typifies a certain period and the demand of a certain population.

Slide 17: This is the Yemin Mosheh area. Here we have the Old City walls and the Jaffa Gate, and this is the texture of Yameen Mosheh, also a Jewish residential neighborhood. Very much like Me’a She’arim, Yemin Mosheh has a similar type of construction without a courtyard but with row houses built at the end of the 19th century facing the Old City. The purpose of this construction was to encourage people to move out of the Old City, but because it was unsafe at that time to live outside the walls, no one wanted to live here. There was nothing around it, and although after a few years people did begin to move in, populating it at first was very difficult. This was the windmill that was built by Moses Montefiori, at the middle of the 19th century. What you see here, and again this is a typical characteristic of post-1967, is the green belt around the Old City. This gives the Old City walls a very distinct character, in relationship to the new development, or in this case the renovated and refurbished old neighborhoods. Today this is one of Jerusalem’s most expensive residential areas, and it is very beautiful .

Slide 18: We spoke about rural Arab construction, Silwan, and we spoke about Jewish neighborhoods with the courtyard textures, and now we shall speak about the Hamoola buildings built outside the Old City wall, mainly north of Damascus Gate. This is the Husseini Villa, which is today the American Colony hotel. Its architecture is typical not only of Jerusalem, but of many Arab and Near Eastern cities - in Damascus and also in Turkey one can find buildings with similar beautiful windows and such traditionally decorated ceilings.

Slide 19: This is a building on the West Side of Jerusalem, it is one of the Nashashibi buildings which are part of the Ethiopian quarter. This is the apartment owned by a very well known artist named Jacob Pins, just opposite the Ethiopian Monastery. These buildings were built by the Nashashibis at the end of the 19th century, and this is a characteristic interior of those buildings.

The struggle of the western powers over dominance in Jerusalem was very much expressed in the architecture of the buildings. Many countries such as Russia, Germany and England "dropped" on Jerusalem a number of buildings that are almost replicas of buildings from their native countries. The first were the Russians, - they wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Russia was in Jerusalem; then that England was in Jerusalem, that Germany was in Jerusalem. This was their intention in impressing the local inhabitants and also in making an impression on Russian or German pilgrims or immigrants - that when they came to Jerusalem they would know that they could find elements of home here.

Slide 20: Now the Russian church that was built in the center of Jerusalem in 1860 is a copy, or at least very similar to, the classic Russian church. Everyone looking at it would immediately know that this church was Russian and not German. It is very similar to the church of the “Assumption” in the Kremlin, built a few hundred years prior.

(compare with slide 21)

Slide 21: This is church of the “Assumption” in the Kremlin in Moscow.

Slide 22: This is the Cathedral of St. George and is almost a replica of the tower of St. Magdalene College in Oxford (Slide 23) which was built in the 14th century. The English pilgrim would feel almost back home in England when he came to Jerusalem.

Slide 24: This is the Russian church on the slope of the Mount Of Olives, compared with a Russian church close to Moscow which was built in the 17th century (Slide 25).

Slide 26: The Palazzo Vecchio in Jerusalem was not built in the 14th century as the one in Florence, Italy, but rather in the 20th century. Some people do not believe me when I tell them that Jerusalem outside the city walls is only 140 years old.

Slide 27: This is the original 14th century Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

Slide 28: This is the Augusta Victoria Hospice on Mount of Olives, which looks like many German medieval castles on the Rhine and elsewhere in Germany. It was initiated by Kaiser Wilheim II, and it was inaugurated in 1910. Other than the stone walls, all other construction materials were imported from Germany. A ship sailed from Hamburg to Jaffa bringing all the appliances and fixtures for the building. Again, the Germans had to prove that Germany is here in Jerusalem.

We have seen the Jewish, the Arab, and the Christian buildings, which are basically buildings imported from Europe. Now we come to the Mandate Period and the British. The interesting thing about the British is that the government decided that the British would not spend more on construction in Jerusalem than they could obtain from the country in terms of taxes. They would not invest any money brought in from abroad and for this reason, they actually built very few buildings in Jerusalem.

Slide 29: The Rockefeller Museum is one of the most beautiful buildings that was built by the British, although it was funded by American money, This building displays many Islamic motifs. Mr. Harrison, who was the chief architect of the Public Works Department, was sent on a mission to North Africa and to Spain to study Moslem architecture, and many of the motifs in the buildings which he built, are from that culture. One of the special elements incorporated in the building is its central courtyard.

Slide 30: The Al Hambra in Spain.

Mr. Harrison when he visited Spain was highly impressed and quoted elements from there in a more modern way. Although the Rockefeller Museum is very nice, the Al-Hambra in Granada, is even more beautiful.

Slide 31: Does anyone know what this building is? This is the Hadassa hospital. The Hadassa hospital was designed in the 1930’s by one of the most important architects of the 20th century, Eric Mendelson. He came here in the 1930’s and designed a number of buildings, all in a modern style. He incorporated no oriental motifs whatsoever in his buildings, except in this one building. This is the entrance of the Hadassa hospital on the Mount of Scopus and its domes serve a visual, though modern, echo of the Arab village opposite. This is his explanation of the design element.

Slide 32: The Diskin Orphanage, in the Western part of Jerusalem is an interesting building that very few people know of. It was built in the early 1920’s, when Neo-Oriental architecture - which included oriental motifs such as palm trees was very fashionable. In each corner of the building is a palm tree - which is significant both in Islamic and in Jewish culture.

Slide 33: The great palm tree in the Al-Haram Al Shareef. Next to it is one of the most beautiful structures in Jerusalem; the Cotton market gate on the western side of Al-Haram Al Shareef.

Slide 34: In the 1930’s modern architecture reached Palestine, mainly through Jewish German architects who fled Nazism in Germany. Many of them had studied at the Bauhaus School of Architecture in Germany (Weimar, Dessau and then Berlin). This is a typical Bauhaus International Style architecture of the 1930’s. These terraces, the glass windows and these cylinder type elements on top of the roof can all be seen in Berlin. The only two cities in the world where there is still today the most of Bauhaus-style architecture - are Tel-Aviv and Miami Beach.

Slide 35: The Schocken Liibrary designed by Eric Mendelson. The Library is located between Rehavia and Talbiye in the western part of the city. What typifies many buildings of Eric Mendelson is the glass cylinder - which appears both in buildings that he designed in Palestine - such as the private residence of Dr. Chaim Weizman in Rehovot - and buildings which he designed in Germany such as the Schocken department stores . They all have this typical glass element, which at that time a very modern innovation.

Slide 36: This room at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem is in its design a homage to Eric Mendelson. The new building was designed by a brother and sister team of architects - Ada Karmi-Melamed and Ram Karmi.

Slide 37: One of the most highly regarded residential quarters in Jerusalem is the Talbiye quarter, in which are some of the most beautiful buildings. This is the Salameh Circle, today called the Wingate Circle; The former Salameh Villa now houses the Belgium Consulate building. It was built by Constantine Salameh, a Christian Arab contractor in the mid 1930’s. In fact, it is one of the most beautiful private houses built in Palestine during the Mandate Period, and is still one of the most beautiful buildings in the country. It was designed by a French architect, M.Favier who had designed also the the French Consulate just north of the King David Hotel. The contractor of that building was Constantine Salameh, and after the French consulate building was completed, Mr. Salameh requested that Favier design for him a building unlike any other in the Middle East. This building is exactly that.

Slide 38: This is the Jallad Villa in Talbiye. Most of the residents of Talbiye were Christian-Arabs, rather than Moslem-Arabs. Constantine Salameh, who was the promoter , or the entrepreneur of Talbiye, had purchased most of the land of the quarter, and then began selling it off to non-Moslems. He wanted to make sure that the quarter is Moslem Frei (free of Moslems). The architecture here, however, displays typical Islamic elements such as the red and white stone work, the ceramic-glazed tiles and other elements typical of Islamic architecture.

Slide 39: The Nashashibi Villa. What is interesting about the architecture of these buildings is that there are 12 "ceramic villas" in Jerusalem - like the Jallad villa, the Nashashibi villa, etc, and they were designed by Architect Spiro Khouri, a Greek Orthodox.

Slide 40: You all know the Dome of the Rock; The tiles on it are a modern interpretation of the old glazed tiles put there during the period of Suleyman the Magnificent..

Slide 41: Now we move from the Mandate Period to 1948. First of all, the Israelis wanted to design a parliament building in Jerusalem for the new Jewish state, and there were many arguments about how to accomplish this. The result is sort of a modern version of the Parthenon of Athens. I think that I’m older than most of you here, so I can tell you from my own memory that there were tremendous arguments about the design of the Knesset in the 1950’s. Some people had argued that a democratic state should not have as its parliament an impressive building of a classical character, which also looks Fascist. The architect Yosef Klarwein won the competition for the Knesset building, but since many people didn’t like his design, a committee later changed his original plans. What you see today is more or less the design of a committee - and you know that the design of a committee is not always a successful one… What is important is not whether you like it or not, but rather that it is very typical of a certain period. People didn’t know what the Jewish parliament should look like in the 20th century.

Slide 42: This is part of the Israel Museum. This is the dome covering the Dead Sea Scrolls. The shape that covers the museum, most of which is underground, is shaped like that of the lid of the clay jar in which the scrolls were found, near the Dead Sea in the (from 1947 and on). The shape alludes to a certain form.

Slide 43: The clay jars in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Slide 44: The synagogue of the University Campus at Givat Ram. This is a modern interpretation of the traditional stone dome - which is typical of Islamic architecture. This is a modern version, made from a very thin concrete structure and built in the late 1950s.

Slide 45: A typical office building from the 1950s - 1960s, in the International Style of the 1950s.

Slide 46: These are the terrible housing blocks that were built in the western part of the city in the early 1950s. I presume that some of you have been to Eastern Europe, have you seen the housing blocks there? They are huge anonymous structures such as these, very typical of a certain period. The blocks were all built after the World War II, when the governments of those countries had to provide, within a very short time, shelter and a roof for millions. This was the easiest way to provide decent housing for people whose homes had been bombed out and had no shelter. This was exactly the same situation in the state of Israel after 1948. Hundreds of thousand of immigrants, from all over the world, flooded into the country, and the government had to provide for them minimal shelter within a short time. Interestingly, this structure is an Israeli invention; a nine-story building without a lift (elevator). You enter into the center of the building through a bridge, and then go up three or four stories or down four or five stories. This is very typical of the period in the early 1960s when again the government did not have the means to build buildings with lifts. So how can one build densely and cheaply on a hilly topography? By the way, the Ministry of Housing abolished this scheme in the early 1970s. It is not permitted to build like this anymore because of all the problems that this type of architecture creates - dampness, crowding, lack of ventilation, to mention a few ills.

Slide 47: Now we are in the new period. After 1967 the architecture of public housing changed completely. The Ministry of Housing had been condemned for many years for building ugly and monotonous square housing boxes all over the country. The same boxes were built in Ofakim, and in Eilat, and in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem. They were criticized for destroying the urban quality and so after 1967 the policy of the Ministry of Housing changed and there was an attempt to create something different from the houses of the 1950s and the 1960s. They approached some of the better architects in Israel and asked them to design a different type of housing - this again is typical of the period, and could not happen today.

These architects were ambitious and wanted to create something new. What did they do? In a very simplified way, they all turned to the Old City for inspiration. There they discovered the medieval architecture, the gates, the courtyards, the many arches and recesses, etc. So, the period of the 1970s is what I call the Neo-Oriental architecture of Jerusalem. It applied not only to Jerusalem but was dominant all over Israel in the 1970s. Many of the housing projects that were built are similar to those of Gilo and Ramot (suburbs of Jerusalem). This is one of the best examples of courtyard housing projects built in the early 1970s. This building was constructed entirely of pre-cast units, also an invention of the late 1970’s which was supposed to make building cheaper and faster, but hadn’t really proven itself because there were a lot of problems in the joints and so on. This is definitely a "period piece" and should be judged as such.

Slide 48: This is the Zion Gate (an inspiration for the shapes of Gilo building).

Slide 49: These are all pre-cast units all joint together rather unsuccessfully.

Slide 50: The Supreme Court building in Jerusalem. It is one of the most successful buildings designed in Israel in the last 50 years. It is a beautiful building both in its exterior a interior. It employs elements which come from various historic periods and styles, which are featured in the history of the architecture of Jerusalem.

Slide 51: Pre cast housing units in Gilo; in their texture and scale, these structures are trying to imitate those of previous periods.

Slide 52: A courtyard in the Armenian quarter, a very beautiful building.

Slide 53: A courtyard in the Mormon's center on the Mount of Scopus. This building, along with that of the Supreme Court are two of the most successful buildings built in Jerusalem in the last 50 years. It was designed by two architects, David Resnik of Jerusalem and a Mormon Architect, Ferguson, from Salt Lake City.

Slide 54: Typical Post-Modern architecture in Jerusalem - just like anywhere else in the world. The Jerusalem Mall in Malha- it could be a mall anywhere else in the world.

Slide 55: The High-Tech Industrial Park building in Malha, which looks like any High-Tech building in any other county.

Slide56: I do not know if you are familiar with this very strange housing project. It was designed in the early 1970’s by Architect Zvi Hecker in Ramot. This is a another "period piece" - a completely crazy project, not very pleasant to live in, but was the result of the aforementioned attitude of the Ministry of Housing which was condemned for the construction of ugly monotonous buildings. When in the 1970s, the Ministry of Housing felt that they had to give a free hand to architects, one architect who made good use of such freedom was Zvi Hecker who designed this.

Slide 57: I do not want to go through the philosophy of Zvi Hecker towards the design of this building, but suffice it to say that it is very difficult to live in a room where the walls slope away from you at 45 degree angles. You can imagine how useless would be the triangular space between the cupboard and the wall behind it, or the difficulty of putting the fridge in the kitchen. Interestingly, Jewish Orthodox families occupy most of these apartments. Previously, they had lived in a one and a half room apartment with their eight or so children; for them even this odd architecture is a significant improvement on previous living conditions. Furthermore, the occupants have made interesting adaptations for dealing with these very awkward spaces. For instance, children's beds can be bunked in a convenient stair-like fashion. Personally I do not like this project, but without trial and error, you can not progress in anything. Zvi Hecker took an opportune chance provided by the Ministry of Housing and made use of it; nevertheless, the fact that certain families of a specific sizes and mentality and culture moved into these apartments facilitated, somehow, having occupants in these buildings.

Slide 58: Again, modern Jerusalem, the Hebrew University and the Old City.

End of Slide Show

Questions & Discussion

"Shinuy and Pinuy (Hebrew for Change and evacuation) Plan: The basic idea, which I do not think will ever be implemented, is that the very run down neighborhoods built in the 1950s like Qatamon be demolished. The houses are in very bad condition, and considering both the low density of these areas and the high real estate prices in Jerusalem, the Ministry of Housing prefers to build new housing projects in their place. There are all sorts of plans for these areas, but I do not believe that it will happen in the next twenty years. There are financial problems in moving people out, and having to provide alternative housing for them.

I think eventually some buildings will be demolished and some buildings will be built in their place, but this will happen only if a number of families join together and manage to move to a new house somewhere else. It is a very gradual process, and not one that can be undertaken by the government on the large scale that they are talking about. What the government can do is subsidize and find for them another place, but not on the scale they are speaking of now, hundreds of units being replaced by new dwellings.

Participant: Why don’t you take a case study of Sho’fat Refugee camp, analyzing how it has been constructed and how it can be developed? Can you come out with creative thinking on improving Sho’fat’s future? Is this an invitation for you young architects to think about it and write about it?

Participant: We react to clients! But I think it is a very good idea.

Participant: Consider PASSIA as your client. Can we use this as an initiative? Are you willing to cooperate?

Participant: We are willing if you finance.

Participant: Can you tell us about the reconstruction of Jewish quarter in relation to the Old City as a whole?

The basic problem of the Jewish quarter is very simple. It is pure politics. Shortly after 1967, the Israeli government decided that 600 Jewish families should be re-settled in the Jewish quarter. It was a political decision. They went to some good architects and told them to try to design a new quarter on the basis of the historic alleyways for 600 families. As the area was very limited, the buildings had to be three or four stories high. The volume and the height of construction, the buildings lines and everything that goes with it is the result of that decision to accommodate 600 dwelling units.

In my opinion, 600 dwelling units was a highly exaggerated number; it could have been much lower. However, given that 600 dwelling units of 80-120 m2 each had to be constructed, I believe that the solution that was built is reasonable. The ideal arrangement would have provided two story buildings for only 300 families, but in relationship to the political guideline, I think that the solution they adopted is reasonable.

Participant: Since then everything that has been built in Jerusalem is based on political decisions.

All planning in Jerusalem is Political. There is no doubt about that.

Participant: So what is our role as architects?

I want to make one thing very clear. Israeli Architects, within the political framework, account for only 5-15% of the whole story because the planning of Jerusalem is guided by politics. In the early 1970’s there was a big public discussion about Ramot. In the original plan of 1968, Ramot was to have been an urban semi-rural development of 2000 dwelling units; in fact, 15,000 units were built. There was a big argument and a strike against the Ministry of Housing, and architects who worked for the Ministry were fired afterwards. They had rebelled against the Ministry of Housing, but the governmental decision won out.

I could tell you another story. Ramat Eshkol, after 1967, was a "nowhere" for Israelis. It was very difficult to get people to move to live in Ramat Eshkol, and the government had to subsidize the cost of the apartments, so they almost cost nothing. Interestingly though, some of the buildings there have arches on their balconies. The facades of these balconies are either fair face concrete or ceramic tiles, and are rather ugly. These ridiculous arches came about because some Knesset members had asked Mr. Bentov, the Minister of Housing at the time, what the new housing units of Ramat Eshkol would look like. Not knowing what else to say, he replied that they were going to look "oriental". When he informed his architects of this proclamation, they didn’t know what to do. The original design of the buildings, designed for Tel Aviv and for rapid construction, were all plain blocks covered with stone. Now they had to give these square building some oriental element, so they put these arches on the terraces of the buildings.

Participant: How about the future for you and for us. We are now building our new architecture. We found ourselves in the post-modern era, which is trying to look for inspirations in the past. We try to make our gimmicks like this story.

You are not much more successful than we are. Look at the villas in Beit Hanina; you don’t know where they come from. They may as well be from Switzerland, with these pitched roofs to accommodate the heavy snows in Jerusalem! I am not beingcynical; I haven’t been to Jordan but I was told that these villas are replicas of others there, but the thing is that there is no great building culture behind them. They are just different, and they have no architectural culture. You have to ask yourselves as Palestinians what identity you want your architecture to create in this modern period.

Participant: We have to look at identity and heritage.

Participant: I think we need another session just to talk about the future identity of the Palestinian architecture.