Abstract
The studio for Spontaneous Architecture was founded in 2005 at the Department of Architecture in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and was active until 2016. According to the short brief, “At Spontaneous Architecture, students invent experimental straying techniques, explore improvised construction materials, and develop immediate technologies. During the program, the students build the first building in their career and spend there the last night of the semester”. During this decade-long activity, students of Spontaneous Architecture realized dozens of built structures in various sites in Israel and in India: a temporary winter shelter for Jerusalem’s homeless people; an observation tower located in one of Israel’s poorest desert periphery but overlooking one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth; a children’s campus at an agricultural education farm in post-earthquake rural Gujarat; Sanitary off-grid toilets and showers in Tel Aviv’s cut-off and forgotten tent city. All of those projects were public or advocating public causes and communities in need. All of them were self-designed and self-built by the students in zero-to-low budget. Most of the structures were ephemeral; some of them were temporary; few of them are still standing. Spontaneous Architecture is the 2012 recipient of the Arieh and Eldar Sharon Award for Creative Students and winner of the first prize of the AIQ Best Project of the Year 2012 in the students’ category. Studio’s projects have been published and exhibited in the US, Korea, India, Germany, and Israel. Additional information about Spontaneous Architecture is available at http://www.spontaneous-architecture.org/.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design
KEYWORDS
SUSTAINABILITY
