Tag Archive for eco-building

Israel plans 1st eco-friendly building contest

 

 JNF sustainable development board member Dr. Orr Karassin explains “A building’s footprint on the environment is huge in its use of electricity & water.”

The competition has 2 tracks, one for professionals & the other for students

By Nitzi Yakov and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel is holding its first eco-friendly architecture competition, in which two winners will have their designs constructed and showcased to the general public.

Israel challenges architects to think green [Illustrative] – Photo: Dan Lavie

The contest, hosted by the Jewish National Fund and Israeli Green Construction Council, intends to raise awareness for eco-friendly construction among the Israeli public and to train planners and architects to think green when starting new projects. Continue Reading »

Mud-brick builders go from the desert to the Waldorf

A luxury hotel going up in Jerusalem drew on the eco-building talents of the members of a tiny kibbutz in Israel’s Negev Desert.

The Art Center at Kibbutz Neot Semadar.

Take the Waldorf-Astoria — a beacon of luxury — and add a group of environmentally conscious mud-brick builders from the middle of the Negev Desert. Though an unlikely partnership from the outset, together they cooperated on a building that is sure to be designated one of Jerusalem’s most inspired architectural works.

The interior design of the soon-to-be-opened upmarket hotel is the work of acclaimed Turkish architect Sinan Kafadar. Knowing that the Waldorf-Astoria is located on the grounds of the former Palace Hotel, Kafadar painstakingly preserved and restored the 1923 building to its original magnificence. Continue Reading »