Abstract

The ‘Revision Plan’ of Kfar-Saba was to a large extent a virtual image, present in its entirety only in the town architect’s imagination. However, it successfully transformed Kfar-Saba (Israel) of the 1980s from practically “nowhere” into the symbol of quality of life. The present research shows how and why this unprecedented procedure worked in its specific context. Further analysis reveals that some of the revision features, namely meeting social, economic, and political challenges by (re)planning and (re)imaging, have been part of a recurrent pattern in Kfar-Saba’s history. The study is thus both an account of the contribution of architecture to place (re)making and a deconstruction of manipulations of meaning, history, and images. As such, it may be seen both in the tradition of phenomenological place making and in the critical tradition of unveiling the crisis of representation of the city. The importance of the research lays in its inclusiveness: manipulated imaging and promotion of hidden agendas does not diminish the merits of architectural place making, and vice versa. Both aspects are interwoven in the lived, perceived, and conceived dimensions of the place.