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Gerard Heumann

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Oct 19, 2025, 2:52 PM

Rebuilding Gaza

Needless to say, any plan for rebuilding Gaza must be predicated on the demilitarization of Hamas and its ousting. Only then can the proposed temporary governing authority – the newly named "Board of Peace", proposed by United States, be...

Aug 12, 2025, 5:27 PM

AI – Just the beginning

A monumental technological revolution, language-based, that will affect every conceivable facet of our lives has already taken hold, its full impact not yet understood. People are presently confused, their future uncertain, concerned over how AI will affect their positions,...

Jul 27, 2025, 4:50 PM

Geddes Plan for Tel-Aviv centennial

Tel- Aviv's first mayor Meir Dizengoff, recognizing the need for professional planning for his fast-growing city, commissioned Scottish sociologist, biologist and urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes, who had already worked in Jerusalem and Haifa and was sympathetic to the...

Jul 3, 2025, 11:46 PM

The travesty of residential towers in Jerusalem

Morality and politics bear an uneasy relationship. Most politicians push and scramble for self-advancement and position. Once elected, assuming they're ignorant, they have the power to undo what has been done over centuries with great love and care, expense...

Jun 3, 2025, 6:17 AM

Numbers are all they know

Almost without exception newspaper articles on real-estate in Israel, on the net or statements by national and municipal government officials responsible for planning and building- spew numbers - the number of recent sales or rentals, the number of apartments...

Apr 14, 2025, 3:20 PM

Why people won’t give up their cars for Jerusalem’s light rail

The Jerusalem municipality, under the leadership of Mayor Moshe Lion, an accountant, is allocating billions of dollars in public monies (a price tag sure to go up) on its transportation master plan, building three light-rail lines – red, green...

Feb 17, 2025, 4:06 AM

Implementing Trump’s vision for Gaza

Trump's Gaza "Riviera" plan, shocking to many, for transforming Gaza into a tourist attraction, hopefully on the model of Nice, France and not Las Vegas, must of course be preceded by agreements with countries willing to accept and resettle...

Jan 1, 2025, 2:10 PM

The social mission of architecture

Architects have the responsibility not only to create physical forms but also to serve as advocates for improving social conditions, especially at this time when Israel is rapidly being transformed by a tidal wave of residential towers inappropriate to...

Dec 23, 2024, 4:33 PM

Restoring the status of the architectural profession

A cluster of major problems have led to the loss of the status of the profession of architecture in Israel. As if "geographers" and architectural technicians taking over positions previously held by architects weren't enough, most recently lawyers were...

Dec 8, 2024, 4:41 PM

The man who made public life the primary goal of urban design

Largely unknown to city and transportation planners in Israel, public life never high (or non-existent) on their agenda, is world-renowned Danish architect, professor and author Jan Gehl. He credits Jane Jacobs, whose book "The Death and Life of Great American...

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About Me

Gerard Heumann is an architect and town planner in Jerusalem.