Page 322 - The Architecture of Nadler-Nadler-Bixon-Gil

1961–63 Housing blocks, Talbiyeh
(block 30010), Jerusalem

Two of the three residential buildings, situated at the
corner of Klein and Hamagid Streets in Talbiyeh, an
affluent neighborhood that after 1948 held the unusual
combination of grand Palestinian villas (populated by
the young State’s governmental, military and academic
elite), governmental and cultural institutions (such as
the President’s Residence and the Jerusalem Theater),
and public apartment buildings built on vacant plots.
These apartment buildings stand side by side enclosing
a shared internal courtyard, serving as a secure area of
communal interactions. Both buildings rise three stories
above ground level and each is organized around two
entrances leading to two three-room apartments on each
floor. The apartments’ floorplan is simple with room sizes
easily altered.

The buildings’ facades are clad in hewn stone,
with only the relatively closed ground level covered in
natural stone. The ground level retreats from the outer
border of the higher floors thus contributing to the
buildings’ light appearance. Strips of exposed concrete
emphasize their massive horizontality, fragment their
cubic appearance and expose their internal structure, all
part of an act of architectural integrity that avoids hiding
behind covers.

View of a block from
the street corner, 1963
‫מבט על אחד הבניינים ממפגש‬
1963 ,‫הרחובות‬

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