Residents, community administrations and various municipal bodies join together to create more enjoyable and inviting points of interest and public space!

 

For lectures by members of the Urban Clinic:

Architect Yaara Rosner-Manor || Between stability and dynamism

Scaling up Talk about the role of the public sector in changing the form of action from specific policy projects

Hila Bar-Ner, Town Planner || Five approaches to playmaking - Experience from Israel and the world

Architect Tareq Nasser || Playmasing in East Jerusalem

 

Mea Shearim

In Fall of 2016 Hebrew University student and Urban Clinic fellow Ravid Peleg, in partnership with the Jerusalem municipality, Eden, and local community authority embarked on a placemaking project in the ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Mea Shearim is extremely dense with very little public space, especially lacking in open, safe spaces for children to play. Peleg identified an open space that was part of an apartment building used  as a trash dump. With the permission of the building owner and residents, and the municipality, the area was cleared of trash and debris and through extensive public participation and consultation, turned into an open play area for children. Peleg enlisted the help and expertise of local mothers and their children, who decided on building materials, colors, and games for the new space. Upon return visits the space was always filled with kids jumping, playing, riding bikes, and playing games from the new game cabinet.

Sadly, months later the space was vandalized and eventually destroyed, presumably by extreme ultra-orthodox men, who resented the involvement of outsiders and  the “immodest” play area.

 

A project like this one provides many lessons, and questions for future projects. Although the play space was vandalized out of use, other groups have since asked to use and reuse the space, for the first time turning to the community authority. The project was successful in causing residents to view local authorities as resources. In a community as insulated as the ultra-orthodox, this is a victory in itself.

 

The space before and after. Before: September 2016, After: February 2017

 

East Jerusalem

NGO Eden and the Jerusalem municipality along with the assistance of architect and urban designer Haya Mani, an East Jerusalem resident, created spaces in East Jerusalem that reflect Palestinian heritage and belonging in the city. Possible locations were identified based on land availability and access to the public.  Palestinian East Jerusalemite school children participated in placemaking exercises, in addition to  Palestinian artists who contributed designs featuring traditional Palestinian artwork. The result is a space that is both functional, aesthetically pleasing, and culturally significant.

 

Placemaking project in East Jerusalem

 

In addition to the seating corner, a series of covered bus stops were installed that feature benches and snippets of Palestinian history in Jerusalem. The series is meant to educate visitors as well as reinforce Palestinian ownership in the history of the region, translating to increased feelings of belonging in modern Jerusalem. Again, the team worked with Palestinian artists to create authentic, traditional artwork that is true to Palestinian culture.

 

Architect and urban designer Haya Mani in front of a covered seating area in East Jerusalem.

 

The Urban Clinic teamed up with the Heschel Center’s Local Sustainability Centers to hold a networking session on Placemaking at the Israel Urban Forum in Acco in December. The session opened with a poster-exhibition curated by Clil Gross and Haya Mani from the Urban Clinic, based on information collected from about twenty place-makers nationally. Mani, Gross, and Dr. Silverman created the poster format to display the information, which was then used as a catalyst for the first ever national conversation between Israeli placemakers. The Urban Clinic is now analyzing the information presented to identify correlations between the different goals, partners, strategies, budgets, and timeframes of various projects, and more, as the basis for a national discussion within this new network of placemakers.

 

Haya Mani Presents her project: creating beautiful and functional public spaces in East Jerusalem. Photo: Miriam Fisher

 

Clil Gross (second from left) facilitates a Placemaking discussion session at the Acco convention, December 2017. Photo: Miriam Fisher

 

A national network of Placemakers would create the foundation for a placemaking movement in Israel. When individual placemaking activists can contribute to and benefit from their peers though the platform of a learning network, we will begin to see placemaking not as one-off projects, but as a shift in planning strategy. The Urban Clinic is now laying the groundwork for a national network of placemaking. One key partner is the Israel Association for Community Centers, and we are looking to develop pilot projects in Arab community centers and elsewhere. Other partners who have already signed on include the Community Organizing Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the JDC’s “Mutav Yahdav”/Collective Impact program, leading placemakers from Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Eilat and Tel Aviv, and the environmental education division of the Ministry of Environment.

 

 

Dr. Emily Silverman introduces the National Placemaking Network at the Israel Urban Forum in Acco, December 2017. Photo: Miriam Fisher