Technion Presents a New Plan for Renovating the Nesher Quarry

09/05/2013

25Students Eitai Vander, Yehonatan Hochman and Yogev Bitan, studying landscape architecture at Technion, won first place in a planning competition for renovating the Nesher Quarry. The prize: NIS 10,000

For decades, the Nesher Quarry served as a stone quarry supplying material for the Israeli construction industry for constructing roads and buildings around the country, until it terminated its activities two years ago. Since then, the site was abandoned – “An open wound in the landscape,” according to Nesher City Mayor David Amar.

The Quarry Rehabilitation Fund for and Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, in cooperation with the city of Nesher, approached students at the Faculty for ideas on how to rehabilitate the abandoned quarry. Undergraduate and graduate students studying in different study tracks, worked on the project during the first semester this year under the direction of architect Asif Berman, Professor Shamai Asif and Professor Tal Alon Mozes.

“This was an extraordinary project,” said architecture student Yehonatan Hochman. “We were given an opportunity to handle a real situation, with all the limitations and constraints that come along with it. Just as work on a real site, we had to uncover information on our own. We met with land consultants, we travelled to Hiriya (a former was dump outside Tel-Aviv) to study the site, and were required to provide extensive and in-depth research work.”

“All of the proposals reflected an impressive scale sensitivity and urban landscape context, and offer a variety of practical programs,” said Professor Shamai Asif. “All of the students were happy to turn a hazardous site into an opportunity, and add a layer of sustainability to the city, the Carmel, and the future understanding of quarries in general. The competition was part of a tradition of cooperation with the surrounding communities and our gift/donation to them, on the strategic planning level. In the past few years, we ‘discovered’ the City of Nesher, which has jurisdiction over sections of the Technion, and have enjoyed successful cooperation with the municipality, who has played its hand in assisting all of the involved parties.”

The winning project is “The Quarry Park” – a program to transform the Nesher Quarry to a recycling site catering to extreme sports activities: rappelling, wall climbing, slides, bungee jumping, omega, and more. The team of judges determined that the students submitted detailed high quality planning, and an appropriate use of groundwork under time constrains. The design flexibility of their plan allows for integration of additional future programs.

The project named “Nesher Quarry Rehabilitation” by students Arie Fine, Eran Daromi and Uri Noiman was awarded second place – to renovate the quarry into a family recreation park. Among the different projects that took part in the competition included: “E21” – transforming the Quarry into an industry research center for renewable energy; “The Quarry” – converting the site to a recreation, leisure and retail complex with a focus on recycled shipping containers; and “Steps of the City View” – the transformation of the quarry to a center for research and environmental study.

The members of the judges’ panel were Yossi Wurzburger, the Chairman of the Fund for Quarry Renovation and the Director of Natural Resources Administration in the Ministry of Energy & Water Resources, Yuval Peled, representative of the Nature and Parks Authority in the management of the Fund for Quarry Renovation, Leon Grodski, City Engineer of Nesher, landscaping architect Dafna Greenstein, and architect Uri Cohen from Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Above: The winners (from right to left) Eitai Vander, Yogev Bitan and Yehonatan Hochman, and behind them the plan for “The Quarry Park”. Photographed by: Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office (Shicho Photography Services)