Technion graduates won first prize in the Innovativeness in Architecture and Sustainability Buildings Competition held in Italy

In the competition in which young students and architects from 36 countries from around the world participated, presenting 200 innovative architectural projects: Technion graduates won first prize in the Innovativeness in Architecture and Sustainability Buildings Competition held in Italy

They submitted an urban and architectural project for development of open and neglected spaces found in the seam between the cities of Nazareth and Nazareth Elite. A conference center, train station, walking trails, hotel and parking lot will be built at this location to improve the lives of residents and bring life into the area

The winning project, C-Park, won in the category of Planning in Concrete for Students, beating 70 other competition entries. The reasons cited for the project’s winning were its innovativeness in using concrete and the way the design functions on a number of different levels.

The two graduates, both residents of Nazareth, as part of their final project, conducted an extensive geographic study of the area of Nazareth and Nazareth Elite and consequently drew up an urban and architectural plan for the seam between the two cities that includes a conference center, a train station, walking trails, a hotel and a parking lot, all of which are intended to improve the lives of residents and “bring life to the area,” in their words. “Between the cities there is a continuum of open spaces, most of which are abandoned and neglected, between the road skirting Nazareth and the city’s municipal border,” explains Rosan Qubti, the architect designer. “These areas are characterized by their lack of identity; neither of the two cities has any plans to build there and our project proposes to transform this continuum into an open city, a new type of space, open and inviting that will function at many levels, in order to bring people to metropolitan Nazareth and make it more central.”

 “After completing our project we submitted it to this competition and within two weeks received the exciting email informing us that we had won the Concrete Competition for Students,” relates architect Samer Hakim. “We were invited for the three days in Italy, where we attended the competition and exhibition.”

The project was executed in the framework of a joint studio between the Technion and the University of Leuven in Belgium, organized and conducted by the architect Els Verbakel, who chose to focus on Nazareth and Nazareth Elite. Students from the two countries proposed new ideas for developing sites in the area and the studio was held in cooperation with the municipality of Nazareth. As already mentioned, the project by Qubti and Hakim was chosen to represent the studio in the competition. “This is an impressive and inspiring achievement for the Technion,” sums up Els Verbakel.

The two intend to present the project to the municipality of Nazareth Elite, in whose jurisdiction most of the sites fall, in order to see it implemented.

Above: Rosan Qubti and Samer Hakim with their award, in Bologna, Italy. Photo: Technion Spokesman