Israeli "Islands In The Urban Stream" Design Conference

(A blueprint for Park Holot, a sand dune park in the Israeli city of Holon)

Sustainable designers take note. Next week, April 30, a hip urban planning conference will be taking place at the Israeli Design Center in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Organizers of the conference say this conference will examine park planning and nature conservation in the urban arena. Designers, architects, landscape architects, conservationists, environmentalists and cultural experts from Israel and abroad will be attending.

2008 was a watershed year in human history; according to the 2008 UN report this was the first year in which most of the population of the planet, roughly 3.3 billion people, lived in cities.

It seems that we now stand at the precipice of an era in which a large percentage of humanity will no longer experience the wild natural landscape of old. A new reality is taking its place, a reality where urban Man (homo-Urbanus) knows only manmade landscape, one designed and maintained by human culture.

The basic working principle of modern-day ecology is based on the idea that human communities are unstable and constantly in flux. Different communities each take their own path and so human intervention in deciding this path does hold the possibility and the hope of determining our fate. This dynamic and unpredictable reality presents landscape and environmental architects with a complex and important challenge. 

They must create a strong, indomitable spirit of living, breathing nature inside the ever-expanding and evolving urban space. In this way we may, perhaps, manage to moderate and restrain the human tendency towards “conquest” of the earth, the sense of ownership of it, and the damage to the environment and its delicate ecological structure.

In this design conference the key speakers are environmentalists, designers and landscape architects lecturing on various projects they have been involved in in Israel and around the world. They will review contemporary and future trends in this field of study.

Among the key speakers: Landscape architects Tilman Latz (Germany), Michael VanGessel(The Netherlands), Keren Tamir from the Field Operation Company (USA), the author and environmentalist Tsur Shezaf and the international artist Dani Karavan.

The Holon Municipality will present the initial stages of the conceptual development of Park Holot (Sand Dune Park), a project soon to be completed in the city.

For detailed information about the speakers and lectures of the “Islands in the Urban Stream” conference please click here

The conference is sponsored and supported by the “Beracha Foundation” and the Municipality of Holon.

The program of the day is:

 
 Ariel Sharon Park – from lecture by landscape architect Prof. Peter Latz

Conference programme

12:00-12:30 – Registration and light refreshment

12:30-12:40 – Greetings and opening remarks/Holon Mayor Mr. Motti Sason
Art Director of Design Museum Galit Gaon
Chairman of Israeli Association of Landscape Architects – Landscape architect Gil Har Gil

Morning session – Tree/Stream/Shore

12:40-13:10 – City Wild Life – Amir Balban – Urban Nature Coordinator, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel

13:10-13:50 – Ariel Sharon Park / Landscape Architect Prof. Peter Latz (Germany)

13:50-14:30 – Recycled Nature – From Reeding Beach to the Slopes of Jaffa / Landscape Architect Aliza Braudo and Ruth Maoz

14:30-15:00 – Cities and Sands – An ecology of Meeting Points- Dr. Yariv Malihi, Central District Ecologist, Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority

15:00-15:30 – Break for coffee and light refreshments
Tours of the Material Library

Afternoon session – Man /Sand/Home

Opening remarks for the session – Municipal CEO Hannah Hertzman

15:30-16:00 – Nature, Urbanism and the Spirit of Man  – Dr. Ahuva Windsor – Environmental psychologist

16:00-16:20 – Holon Planning – Between green neighborhoods and golden shores /Holon City Engineer Mimi Peleg

16:20-16:50 – Blueprint for Park Holot in Holon – Landscape Architect Barbara Aronson

16:50-17:30 – Thin, Thick and Thicker / Landscape Architect Keren Tamir, senior partner in the Field Operation Company (USA)

17:30-18:00- Break for coffee and light refreshments
-Tours of the Material Library

Evening session – City/Sculpture/Story

18:00-18:30 – The Natural City / Tsur Shezaf – Author, Journalist, Photographer

18:30-19:10 – “My experience in creating in the urban, public and natural landscape” / internationally known sculptor Danny Caravan

19:10-19:50 – Invisible Work / Landscape Architect Michael VanGessel (The Netherlands),

*There may be changes to the conference schedule!
Consultation: Landscape architect Tali Veksler, Israeli Association of Landscape Architects
Management and organization: Amnon Silber, The Israeli Design Center – Mediatheque Holon
Production and organization: Inbal Yahav, Liron Dan
Graphic design: Keren & Golan Studio

To order tickets in the Mediatheque booking office: 03-5021552 or 03-5021538
*Limited seats, please order tickets in advance

Ticket price:
Normal – NIS 130
Students and members of academic faculty – NIS 90
*Price of ticket includes: Participation in lectures, tours of the Material Library, coffee and light refreshment during breaks

The Israeli Design Center – Mediatheque Holon
6th Golda Meir St. – For a map to the Center

::Israeli Design Center