Page 276 - The Architecture of Nadler-Nadler-Bixon-Gil

1960–67
Krauze Memorial House,
Mikveh Israel Agricultural School:
façade, 1967
‫ בית הספר‬,)‫בית קראוזה (יד לבנים‬
1967 ,‫ חזית‬:‫החקלאי מקוה־ישראל‬
273
Youth Centers and
Memorial Houses
Youth Center, Or Yehuda, 1960; the Harry Glickman Youth
Center, Ashkelon, 1963; Krauze Memorial House, Mikveh
Israel Agricultural School, 1967
The youth activity and leisure center in Or Yehuda
was founded following the abolishment of the town’s
ma’abarot (refugee absorption camps). The center – a
single-story rectangle – is based on a grid of systematic
modules, whose inner spaces are defined by the opening
and closing of walls. A series of flat pyramids fabricated
from bare concrete crowns the top of the building with
a sculptured roof that is partially cast over an internal
courtyard around which are an events and theater hall, a
playroom, a library, a reading hall and an office.
The building’s design method was repeated a
number of years later in (among other places) Ashkelon
and Mikveh Israel Agricultural School. The various
building materials used in the construction of these
buildings – concrete pillars, metal poles, building blocks
and glass – were left exposed as part of an overall
Brutalist statement.