גיליון 105

2016

מאי

105

אדריכלות ישראלית

מצוקת הדיור

an opportunity to live in a private house,

while creating an un-oppressive continuum

between Tel Aviv and Rosh Ha-Ayin.

David

Kroll

suggests conditioning

the selling of state owned land on the

construction of affordable housing. If we

adopt the idea for land owned by the Israel

Lands Administration, a large number of the

luxury towers could have been inhabited by

ordinary people, rather than by the super-

wealthy upper echelon.

GL Hearn

from Capita

Real Estate

maintains that the use of only 4% of the

green belt surrounding London along the

M25 could supply the entire metropolitan

housing demand by 2050. A by-product of

such an action may be the halting of the

suburbanization process, while limiting the

spread of construction towards agricultural

areas. Leaving aside the fact that this would

make real estate agencies like Capita

richer, it should be noted that in Israel no

effective action is taken to stop the creeping

annexation of agricultural land, since the

municipalities

themselves

encourage

construction by real estate developers - and

the last thing that interests them is affordable

housing.

Brendan Cuddihy, Arup, and Rupesh

Varsani, Craigewan

claim that proper public

transportation to distressed neighborhoods

would increase their attractiveness, draw

stronger populations, thereby reducing real

estate pressure on areas in demand. This

is not a new solution, of course, and it has

proven itself in many parts of the world.

However, Israelis have not as yet realized

the potential of public transport, which to

this day consists of clumsy outdated buses

and trains.

Pitman Tozer, LB Enfield

and Naked

House suggest purchasing or expropriating

plots or long uninhabited houses for the

redesign of affordable apartments. Not sure

that such action would be acceptable here,

but something of the kind might.

DRMM Architects

suggest reducing and

shortening the constructionprocess adopting

conventional office construction methods -

i.e., by only building core/envelope towers

with basic infrastructure. This method would

enable tenants to gradually design their

apartments according to their ability and

changing needs. A brainwave that would

add human content to synthetic residential

buildings and give residents a real sense of

home.

There is no doubt that not all these ideas

could be implemented either in London or

Israel, but clearly a judicious adopting of

some could flood the apartment market

with affordable housing and neutralize

dependency on sophisticated real-estate

agents whose sharp eyes are fixed on

the rapidly diminishing available land. In

this way, it would be possible to ease the

enormous social gap between the owners

of luxury homes, home-renters with no

economic horizon, and young couples who

go into debt for a lifetime just for the sake of

owning something.

As for construction costs themselves,

here are some worthy ideas:

Self acquisition groups

could reduce

construction costs, allowing a great deal of

industrialized design and construction, not

to mention prior filtering of neighbors - not a

marginal factor that in time saves headaches

and troubles. But, beware the entrepreneurs

who take over, promising mountains where

there aren’t even hills!

This is the place to urge Local Authorities to

waive all unnecessary architectural whims,

such as tiled roofs, decorative artificial

stone walls and arches, just because some

unimaginative amateur dreamed them up

fifty years ago in Kfar Saba, or Kfar Bara…

However, although it may sometimes seem

unnecessarily annoying, implementation

of building permits with regard to details -

particularly those that seem unnecessary

- saves expensive maneuvers and

unnecessary fines.

Problematic plots

in terms of topography

or site are not necessarily disadvantageous.

It obliges architects to think harder for

creative solutions that ultimately prevent

unnecessary gimmicks and tricks in favor of

creating architectural interest.

In general, never save on planning.

Architect’s work hours are the cheapest yet

most effective element in the construction

process.

In this context:

Avoid shortcuts

when

implementing work plans; someone has

invested his soul in them. If necessary,

contact the architect who will do this for you.

Use recognized construction materials,

even if they are more expensive, they will

return their value very quickly with easy

maintenance.

Hire only registered professionals

Moonlighters are not cheaper, they are just

moonlighters.

Define your needs

precisely and implement

only necessary details. All the rest might

prevent future development.

Never re-invent the wheel.

Building

technologies that have passed the test

of time are not necessarily banal. They

save the use of ridiculous and expensive

experiments.

Don’t refrain from using

second hand

items

: they inherently add patina to your

synthetic building, and no less important - a

contextual connection to the place.

And apropos place

- anyone who feels they

have to live near the beach, must note that

harsh weather conditions render building

and its maintenance more expensive.

And finally, refrain from

over using

fashionable

elements; they lose their

appeal in time.