From Gund Hall to Israel: Students Offer New Visions

Graduate School of Design students participate in 'sponsored' studio that examined site in Galilee

Israel's Western Galilee experienced two rare occurrences this winter: an ample snow cover on its ancient, terraced hills and the arrival of a team of students from Harvard's Graduate School of Design (GSD). While the snow was an unexpected phenomenon, the students were the guest speakers at a well-planned press conference, at which they presented the conclusions of an intensive, five-month, "sponsored" studio.

The studio began last August, when Carl Steinitz, the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning, and 18 GSD students of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning flew to Israel. There they spent two weeks exploring the complex issues of a 100-square-kilometer area just six kilometers south of the Lebanese border. Two impressive developments are in evidence there -- the Tefen Industrial Park and the residential community of Kfar Vradim -- and a third, Zur Institute, is now under construction. These developments have been created in the past 15 years by Stef Wertheimer, one of Israel's leading industrialists and the sponsor of the studio.

Wertheimer, who served closely under Yigal Allon in Israel's War of Independence, is quick to recognize opportunities where others see only obstacles. From a shed where he began making cutting tools in 1952 for local use, he has built one of the country's most successful export industries: a $250 million enterprise called the ISCAR Group that exports 97 percent of its precision cutting tools abroad for use in the automotive, electronics, and aerospace industries.

In addition to industry, Wertheimer has been concerned with the quest for Middle East peace. A strong export economy is needed to ensure peace in the Middle East, he says. Following this line of thought, he further advocates decrease of American aid to Israel, convinced that declining funds will strengthen Israel's resolve to engage in joint economic ventures with its Arab neighbors. Only when both Israel and its neighbors prosper will a lasting peace be forged. He has been so engaged in the quest for peace that he was one of only three individuals to accompany Itzhak Rabin when he went to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wertheimer's success can be gauged in a variety of ways. His Tefen Industrial Park -- which includes incubator space for new

entrepreneurship, a sculpture garden, an experimental K-8 school, and two museums (one devoted to German Jewry, the other to classic cars) -- has been replicated in two other areas of Israel, and an industrial park based on this model is being developed as a joint partnership between Turkey and Israel in Izmir, Turkey. It is his hope that export-driven industrial parks such as this will be built throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean Basin. He has convinced M.I.T. to help him develop the curriculum of his Zur Institute, an accredited program of academic/management/technical experience in machining that awards degrees in conjunction with Israel's Open University and Stuttgart's Berufsakademie. Still another gauge of Wertheimer's success are the distinguished awards he has received, including Israel's most prestigious honor, the Israel Prize.

But like the best of innovators, Wertheimer knows when to bolster his own strengths, and it is for this reason that he chose to sponsor the GSD studio. His aim is to double the industrial capacity of this region, a move that could eventually increase the population by three or even four times its current size. What better way to investigate both the opportunities and pitfalls inherent in such an ambitious undertaking than to engage some of the brightest young minds in the planning and design fields in a critical study? As with all other sponsors of GSD studios, Wertheimer knew that he could rely on the objectivity of the students, as the terms of studio sponsorship stipulate that no constraints are placed on the way the students choose to approach the problem, nor is any pressure applied for them to arrive at any given conclusions.

From the students' perspective, the studio afforded them the chance to observe how the real world functions, far beyond the confines of the classroom setting. Their initial visit to Israel confirmed the complexity of the issues. Western Galilee sits astride one of the country's major acquifers, a point that must be addressed when reconciling the demands posed by development and environmental concerns. In Wertheimer's case, the situation is not difficult to reconcile, as all of his industrial parks are based on clean, environmentally sensitive industries. The issue of land development is somewhat more complicated: how best to ensure that all residents of the area -- Jews, Arabs, and Druze -- derive benefit from the ensuing development? The students also had to consider how to develop the land while not dividing existing nature reserves and vegetation-rich drainage corridors.

To analyze these issues, the students developed a digital database on a GIS system and advanced 3-D animation software with information gleaned from high-resolution aerial photography, from discussions with professionals and lay people in the area, and from a variety of maps indicating road and settlement patterns, protected reserves, vegetation and geology, and public and private ownership in the area. They also referred to a recently completed, comprehensive study of the region entitled the Galilee Plan, as well as a site plan of the Zur Institute that was developed by Israeli landscape architect and GSD alumnus, Shlomo Aronson, MLA '66. They took into account the fact that Tefen now enjoys the status of an industrial municipality, which has the power to decree that only companies that are environmentally sound, export-oriented, and privately owned will be considered for admission to the industrial park.

The studio's interdisciplinary approach provided unusual insights. All participating students -- from the architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design and planning departments -- had the opportunity to work in all scales and on all aspects of the design problem. The collaborative effort produced a wide range of feasible futures, comprised of various alternatives in the region scale and in the site scale.

At the close of the studio, Stef Wertheimer hosted the Harvard team at a public presentation at Tefen. In a conference room modeled on Aldrich Hall at Harvard Business School (from which two of Wertheimer's children, Eitan and Ruthie, have received degrees), the GSD students presented findings from their months of intensive study. Their audience included several Knesset members and local governmental officials, area residents, a large press corps, and the three Israeli architects who had helped to make Tefen a reality: Moshe Zarhi, Harry Brant, and Shlomo Aronson.

The students discussed the four alternative approaches they had devised to develop the area. The options differed in terms of the emphasis on issues such as centralization or decentralization of industries, the location of a new highway to accommodate increased traffic patterns, the visual impact of buildings located on escarpments, and the mix of new housing.

Common to all the plans, however, was a sensitivity to the environment, with one clear directive: that conservation and water management strategies must be implemented before development. The study urged that care be taken to maintain "the high-quality environment which makes the area attractive both to long-term residents and to those who are creating economic growth." Designed not to be a blueprint, but rather a catalyst to expand the thinking of those who will actually be responsible for the development of this region, the study indicated that the ambitious economic program could be successfully undertaken and that the increased population could be accommodated with thoughtful planning.

SIDEBAR

Sponsored Studios at the Graduate School of Design

The ISCAR studio is not the first to focus on Israel. From 1980-84, the GSD collaborated with the Jerusalem planning community in a series of studies that examined Jerusalem's natural and built environment, as well as its cultural, political, and religious diversity. Professor Carl Steinitz was an integral part of this long-term project, which was directed by Moshe Safdie, who at that time headed the Urban Design program at the School.

Applying classroom knowledge to real-world issues is an important aspect of the training that students receive at the GSD. Over the past two decades the School has offered more than 100 sponsored studios in areas as nearby as Cambridge's Charles River and as distant as China's Pearl River Delta.

Sponsors provide partial or full funding for the studios, which have as their primary aim the intellectual development of the participating students. While the students' findings may not be considered professional services, it is often the case that their innovative approaches to the issues provide important insights and new ways of looking at a specific problem.

Of particular importance is the School's adherence to objectivity and disclosure of the project. Guided by faculty, students decide how to define and solve the specific challenges of the studio project. They are encouraged to proceed in their work with an open mind. Sponsors receive no exclusive information, and all findings of the studio can be publicly disclosed. By undertaking a studio, the School does not endorse the project, the student's conclusions, or the sponsorship.