Gerard Heumann, at The Blogs

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Feb 24, 2023, 2:05 PM

Breathing space

In this era of massive building, rapid urbanization and densification, the need to protect our open and natural landscape is critical. The art of urban landscape architecture has become of the greatest importance, urgent and mandatory. Creating healthy, sustainable, attractive...

Feb 15, 2023, 1:47 PM

What residential towers mean for our way of life

A single building type -- "point blocks" -- four to six apartments surrounding a vertical circulation core, continues to flood all of Israel's major cities from north to south on an ever larger scale as if the entire history...

Feb 2, 2023, 4:59 PM

Urban Renewal’s social and environmental impacts

In their mad rush to replace gentrified public housing, building in their place as many new apartments as possible, municipalities have entirely ignored the serious negative impacts of urban renewal, the most important government building program in Israel today....

Jan 20, 2023, 10:53 AM

The true target: Community

Mind-boggling ignorance is propelling the swift uglification of Jerusalem and many other Israeli cities. We ask ourselves: "How can this be happening? Who or what is responsible? Never attending directly to the citizens of our cities, their behavior and...

Dec 29, 2022, 6:25 PM

Our Ministers of Housing and Interior Must Be Professionals

A policy error made in the Ministry of Education can be corrected within a few years while an error by the Ministry of Housing will be with us for generations. Planning and building reflect our social values, affect our livelihood...

Dec 7, 2022, 9:16 PM

A heart for Lev Ram

Bringing life to the Ministry of Education's headquarters in Jerusalem. Proposed here is transforming the enormous, alienating and depressing space, between the Ministry of Education's headquarters building - Lev Ram and the historic Italian Hospital opposite it to the east,...

Nov 30, 2022, 1:06 PM

On Ethics and Architecture

There is little doubt that Israeli architecture, an accurate reflection of Israeli society as a whole, has been going through a major ethical crisis over the last generation. Hope is that the following will help readers to understand what...

Nov 3, 2022, 8:47 AM

Making Herzl Boulevard worth its name

Jerusalem's Herzl Boulevard is an arterial road and public transport corridor of national importance. Visiting heads of state pass through it on their way to Yad Vashem. Extending from the city's western entrance (The Bridge of Strings) through Kiryat...

Aug 21, 2022, 11:43 AM

The wrong thing well done

A view from the Jerusalem Forest, here are the towers alone, with the six-story buildings behind them intentionally kept out of sight. (credit: Prus Architects)

As the Beit Hakerem neighborhood in Jerusalem celebrates 100 years since its founding, the municipality, having abandoned the statutory "Beit Hakerem Master Plan" it sponsored after 13 years (!) (all points to breach of trust and malpractice), is backing...

Jul 25, 2022, 1:11 AM

Public participation in the planning process is a bluff

Prior to being executed, town planning schemes are submitted to the local and district planning and building committees for legal approval, a process that does not allow for public hearings. As there is little transparency, public participation in the...

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About Me

Gerard Heumann is an architect and town planner in Jerusalem.