In the 1960s and 1970s, Israel’s immigrant absorption centers represented a planning approach that combined the immediate need for housing solutions with a broader social vision – a vision of reception, integration, and the creation of new communities. Values such as inclusion, belonging, and communal life formed the foundation of the architecture of that era, expressed through active ground floors, shared spaces, and the meeting points between the private and the public realms.
This project seeks to draw lessons from these architectural and social principles, not out of nostalgia, but from the understanding that they remain relevant and contemporary tools for creating a thriving urban environment.

Today, nearly every city in Israel boasts urban renewal projects – new towers, the addition of housing units, the rehabilitation of old neighborhoods, and infrastructure upgrades. These processes, promoted by the state to encourage densification, maximize building rights, and meet quantitative targets, often overlook the most fundamental social values.

Too often, these projects are disconnected from everyday life: streets become corridors between parking lots, the street frontage is ill-defined, and the urban fabric becomes fragmented. The pedestrian experience is pushed aside, resulting in tall, impersonal towers, devoid of belonging, community, or genuine urban life.

Against this backdrop, the question arises: How can the architectural and social heritage of the absorption centers be used as a tool for designing new urban environments that foster belonging, community, and connections between diverse populations?

This project proposes a new model for urban renewal in which the principles of community, belonging, and human interaction are embedded as an integral part of both the architectural language and the planning approach, aiming to renew not only the built environment but the social fabric as well.