Community Leadership Growth Center

Zipori,  Israel

Program: International Campus including camping grounds, exercise facilities and technological classrooms 
Client: Jewish National Fund
Area: 4,200 sqm
Status: Competition 2020

Concept

The forest's network communication encounter with the Z Generation networks

  • Learn from the wisdom of nature.
  • The web of the "Smart Forest" network as a system that builds communities and branding it as a leading motif in the site design for building a community leadership growth center.
  • A Sustainable holistic approach as a way to resolve the contradictions between man-made and nature.

The Spirit of the Place

  • Putting an emphasis on meeting spaces as an essential part of organizing the building's spaces.
  • Design human-scale building spaces
  • Creating a structure that respects its environment while implementing the sites environment within the design. Thus Maintaining the nature of the vegetative, woody and rich environment, using the streams as inspiration for the design and utilizing the Archaeological Heritage of Zipori National Park by intersecting a mosaic of cultures and presenting the layered archeology.
  • Designing the transmitter structure ahead of modernity and at the same time being true to the roots of the place by embedding the local landscape as an integral part of the design.
  • Symbiotic relationship between the built and the environment.
  • Learning about the dynamism and diversity of nature.
  • Designing a term for flexibility, creativity, openness to change and interdisciplinary.

Community-oriented space

  • The network of activities and the accompanying movement between the various functions creates an opportunity for meetings and sharing among the various users.
  • The spaces between the core functions and the Promenade are designed to be part of the Smart Forest as a formal and informal activity space.

Towards the younger generation

  • Openness to change - Experience smart, intriguing, intense and diverse learning within out design.
  • Creating an infrastructure for dynamic personal interaction.
  • Connection to the Z generation and its commitment to the environment
  • Multi-level dynamic space planning for both formal and informal leisure activities

Adapting to the landscape and the site - a dialogue between nature and structure

  • Addressing the topography of the site as an advantage for creating a continuum between the roof of the building, the residential units and the grove that allows circulation that links the various functions on campus.
  • Utilizing the typography in order to create an amphitheater as an integral part of the landscape development.
  • Using the topography for the design of partially dug buildings, such as the auditorium and support structures of the tent complex to in order to reduce the buildings footprint.
  • Declaring the "smart campus" core as a rich, multi-layered physical meeting that creates opportunities for informal learning and diverse social gatherings.
  • Creating an entrance to the "smart campus" core by connecting the current site entrance with an optional future entrance from the south that will allow future adjustment of the south entrance parking lot.

Design principles - Strengthening the dialogue between nature and structure

  • Creating a complex that functions as a "tree network" that includes "mother trees" and "root systems" that form together with the users' movement a community network and community connection.
  • The design of the building is inspired by the soft topography lines that characterize the rugged landscape.
  • Creating an immediate connection between nature and structure by the continuous movement and visual openness of the structure
  • Utilizing the roof of the building by incorporating a green roof hereby turning it into an active space, as a scenic promenade and as a lookout.
  • Combining islands of vegetation and trees as a complementary part of the shades areas contributes to creating a pleasant and shady environment for visitors and strengthens nature's presence at the core of the structure.
  • Providing a unique characterization for each landscape unit and setting different levels of development thereby creating a variety for the different activities offered.
  • The use of wood in interior design contributes to a warm image and is a reminder of nature's place and importance in our lives