“Architecture without Architects: Lessons on Communal Building”
Research, Junior Research
2022Princeton University
Advisor: Mario Gandelsonas
Princeton NJ, Arizona
The Kibbutz charm, as a uniquely Israeli communal form, has lived on in National sentiment by commemorating the country’s pioneering vision of its early days. Yet the Kibbutzim (pl.) in Israel have long been discussed and analyzed as places of complex political and social processes. The Kibbutzim, originally seen as a successful experiment in socialist living, experienced sharp economic decline in the 1970s. They have additionally come under scrutiny as physical representatives of an ‘occupational architecture,’ ones whose presence represents a national ‘Zionist’ agenda to conquer the land. The Kibbutz’s impact, despite a turbulent and complicated history, is still worth assessing as the newest attempt at a ‘utopian form of living’, following the preceding models of a Socialist Garden City by Ebenezer Howard and Socialist Networks in the Soviet Union.