movingcities.org

On Thursday March 6, we went on a field trip to Be’er Sheva (Beersheba), the largest city in the Negev Desert. In preparation for our research on desert cities we couldn’t miss this one, ‘the Capital of the Negev’. Be’er Sheva is the sixth largest city in Israel and has a population of approximately 200,000. The field trip was organized by architect Yuval Yasky, from the City/State Unit at Bezalel. On the program: Israel longest housing block, the quarter kilometer block, a model neighborhood and the Ben Gurion University. It was hot, intense, architectural and spoke of a belief in a future that never really happened. It seems.

The Quarter Kilometer Block | arch. Avraham Yasky and Amnon Alexandroni (1962)

Model Neighborhood | arch. Nahum Zolotov and Danny Havkin (1962)

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | arch. Yasky and Partners (from 1970s onwards)

Pictures by Bert de Muynck & Mónica Carriço | movingcities.org