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The Energy Line

ECOWEEK 2010 - Projects in the Middle East

WORKSHOP Assignment: ECOWEEK 2010 Workshop group W5 dealt with the ‘greening’ of Keren Kayement Le-Israel (KK”L) street in the Old City of Beersheva, a project that was carried out in cooperation and with the feedback and guidance of the Municipality of Beersheva.

WORKSHOP Leaders: Michael Sorkin (Architect, USA), Omar Yousef (Architect, Palestinian Authority), Mati Kones (Architect, Israel). Consultant: Oren Yiftachel (Geography Department, Ben Gurion University).

WORKSHOP Team: Haran Adi, Yerofeev Orit, Sahar Qawasmi, Caroline Charvier, Leef Michael, Zelda Elalouf, Wasim Abu El Hija, Mahammud N. H. Jaber, Abdelhamid Qneibie, Mohammad Suleumiyya, and Ofir Etgar.

The Energy Line During the Ecoweek 2010 session, the group studied the Karen Kayemet Le-Israel (KK”L) street, located in the old city of Beersheva. The group met the City Architect of the Municipality of Beersheva, who emphasized that the Municipality was seriously considering the idea of giving the Old City center a new breath, such as by turning KK”L street into a ‘green’ street.This street is used half for pedestrian and half for vehicular traffic.The group decided first to turn the street into a pedestrian pathonly. The design approach of the project included different ideas.The concept of the ‘Energy Line’ refers, in its design, to Rothschildstreet in Tel Aviv, which involves a bike road and pedestrian streetin the middle of the road (similar to the Ramblas in Barcelona),surrounded by lawns and trees. The idea of the ‘Energy Line’ is ananalogy with Nature, using the symbol of the tree. This symbolrepresents Nature, health, growth, it’s environmentally-friendly andat the same time, it’s also the symbol of the city of Beersheva.The group conveyed these ideas by designing the ‘Energy Line’ asa line of trees, each tree with a specific function such as collectingrainwater, shading the street, generating energy and lighting (withsolar panels and led), recycling, etc. The project also suggestsdifferent ways in generating energy, turning mechanical energy intoelectricity, such as by using a park with sportive activities, and alsoproviding the infrastructure for the recycling of cooking oil to becollected and processed into bio-fuel.The ‘Energy Line’ can also serve as a connector between the OldCity and the new city, by connecting the ‘Energy Line’ to urbanpoints of history, community, etc.


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