קולוקווים Opaque Communication: The Central Telephone Exchange Buildings . את מי הם מייצגים? מסע בעקבות האינטרסים האישיים מאחורי ועדת התכנון המקומית תל אביב

ביום חמישי הקרוב, 23.4,  ירצו במסגרת הקולוקוויום המאסטרנטים שלנו לאדריכלות, אורן אלדר ואייל מגדלוביץ, על נושאי המחקר שלהם:

נושא המחקר של אורן אלדר: Opaque Communication: The Central Telephone Exchange Buildings

נושא המחקר של אייל מגדלוביץ: את מי הם מייצגים? מסע בעקבות האינטרסים האישיים מאחורי ועדת התכנון המקומית תל אביב

הרצאותיהם מתקיימות במקום הרצאתו של הדוקטורנט זיו לייבו שבוטלה עקב הקורונה.

להלן תקצירי ההרצאות של אורן ושל אייל.

הקולוקוויום יתקיים דרך ה- zoom בשעה 10:00. פרטי הפגישה  :

https://zoom.us/j/509182602?pwd=Rm5RT24rS2dJMElQRndlUVZucFgwQT09
 

Meeting ID: 509 182 602

Password: 343235

אורן אלדר:

Opaque Communication: The Central Telephone Exchange Buildings 

This research focuses on the Central Telephone Exchange Buildings (CTEB), a 20th-century typology of buildings, which is currently disappearing from the Israeli environment, as well as throughout the world, as its historical function has come to an end due to technological advances. These buildings acted in double fashion: on the one hand, they were “Black Boxes”, i.e opaque buildings erected mainly to house machines; while on the other hand, they served as public buildings - originating in the historical connection between the post and telephone services. As such, they were placed in the centers of Israeli cities. 

Thus, the research questions in what manner the design of these buildings expressed and corresponded to their double function both as a public building and a concealed “black box”, and how it challenged the notion of the facades, as perceived in the architectural historiography.

איל מגדלוביץ:

את מי הם מייצגים? מסע בעקבות האינטרסים האישיים מאחורי ועדת התכנון המקומית תל אביב

In 2016, the Tel Aviv LPBC approved entrepreneur Israel Levy's request to convert a building he owned, in the center of Tel Aviv, to students dormitories and a police station. A detailed examination of the plan discovered hot-tubs in the dormitory balconies, which raised doubts about the real purpose of the building. Additionally, the approved land-use for this lot did not include a police station. Following these discoveries, local residents and city council members objected to the plan and proposed an alternative plan for the lot, this fight that has been going on to this date. The gap between the allowed land-use of the lot and the approval of the above plan raised questions regarding the integrity of the interests that were involved in this process.

While some work refers to the "broad interests" (that do not bring direct or indirect gain to a particular person or a distinctive group) that shape the decisions of planning committees (Alfasi and Portugali, 2009; Feitelson, et al. 2018; Margalit, 2014), other focus on how the administrative structure of local authorities in Israel, and local planning committees, in particular, enables the influence of private interests on the decision-making process and are thus fertile grounds for corruption (the Israeli Institute of Democracy, 2017). In this study, I choose not to deal with clear-cut corruption in the Israeli planning system, but to focus on the grey area, namely, planning decisions of the Tel Aviv LPBC, that are legal on the one hand but raise questions regarding their ethics and representation of public interest on the other. Due to data availability, this work will focus on the years 2016-2020.