WhatsApping with Danny Kaiser אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #130 August 2022 | | 80 Throughout Kaiser’s term as the Tel Aviv City Engineer his private firm continued to be active under the management of his wife and partner, architect Miri Kaiser, who contributed to the advancement of the firm to its position today as one of the leading ones, mainly in the field of urban renewal. The immense power imparted today to local authorities places the person serving as City Engineer in one of the most sensitive spots within Israeli society, a place where power and capital "celebrate" together and do not always pass the social sobriety test. As a result, some of the most respected past mayors personally experienced the atmosphere behind bars. We know each other well, and I'm sure that when you finished your role as the world's most expensive City Engineer, you blessed Hagomel. It is not the imparted power that the municipal establishment has that tempts and yields corruption, rather, the unbearable bureaucracy that exposes people, especially those in the fields of planning and construction to unreasonable, tempting situations. When I was offered the job I decided that no one and no circumstances would make me desert my values. And it was very simple because it was my decision that I would not give anyone the satisfaction to distort the figure that looks at me in the mirror. I must admit that in the cultural atmosphere that Mayor Huldai radiates over the municipal organization, there is no reason chat of the season whatsapping with danny kaiser Dr. Ami Ran why one will find himself tempted or acting in an immoral way. Yes, it sounds good, although I know some in the Tel Aviv Municipality who did not hesitate to leap into the corruption trap… I remember, during the six years of your service, nothing in Tel Aviv could sprout without your blessing and I ask myself how this experience affected your private practice, especially in the urban renewal realm, about which I will soon ask you some questions… Indeed, despite the power and the ability to bring about the changes inherent in the role of City Engineer, especially in Tel Aviv, the fact is that not many architects in the private market are willing to take this challenging job upon themselves. One finds that most of the city engineers today are people who grew within the municipalities. As opposed to most of them, the professional opportunities that came my way since graduating from the Technion were such that almost every decade I was in a situation that allowed me to expand my professional capacity, and it was only natural that the post in the municipality would be part of it. The reader would probably ask you to elaborate ... After graduating from the Technion, I began to work at Ada and Rami Karmi’s office, a place that was a "beit midrash" for architecture, whether it was at the building scale or urban planning. I worked there for five years, and if you also count staying Although architect Danny Kaiser’s "youth-love" is Haifa - the city in which he was born and educated - the adrenaline of Tel Aviv's never stopping 24/7 life flows in his veins. He settled in Tel-Aviv soon after graduating the Technion's Faculty of Architecture, a city where he set up his home and practice. Between 2000-2006 Kaiser left his own firm in favor of the post of City Engineer and head of the Tel Aviv Municipality's Engineering Department - a broad role of powers and tasks under which he was a leading protagonist of some of the planning moves that shaped the continued development of the city, influencing the formulation of its urban vision. there through the nights, you can actually regard it as ten years… I acquired tools for planning there, for uncompromising self-criticism and self-control. I learned from Ada and Rami, each within their own discipline, that behind every idea, hides a better solution, that it is all about the approach, that whether large or small, the way and narrative create their own uniqueness. And what convinced you to spend six years at the municipality? After retiring from the Karmis’, Shamai Asif, who then began his work as City Engineer of Tel Aviv, tempted me to join his department. The work in the boring place with the Tea Trolley seemed to me a stupid thing to do but Shamai’s ability to describe any grey reality as pink, convinced me to stay and take care of the Kikar Ha'Medina Master Plan, promising that I could leave whenever I like. It suited me at the time and I decided that it would help me to decide on my professional future. but?... A new opportunity came up when I was offered to design an office building on the east side of the Ayalon Highway as well as a new neighborhood in the city of Modi'in, for the Ministry of Housing. These two projects convinced me and my wife, Miri, who was then a senior architect at YaskyGil-Sivan office, to joined forces and set up our own office, which luckily prospered with relatively significant projects.
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