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Central Plaza at the Jaffa Port
Client: Jaffa Port Administration, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, 2010
Terrazzo, stained concrete, aluminium stripes, engraved aluminium plaques.
Jaffa Port, which has a long history as a strategic port in the Eastern Mediterranean, functions today as a fishing and yacht harbour, a cultural hub and a tourist attraction. The central plaza of the port was conceived and designed by me concerning the port's geographic and historical context and its present activities. The design combines the spatial concept of a plaza as a physical and social centre and an abstracted map of the Mediterranean and its port cities indicated by metal plaques.
In the picture: The plaza's position at the port's entrance at the junction of the historic route leading inland – the West-East axis – and the port's building's alignment that follows the South-North axis.
Terrazzo, stained concrete, aluminium stripes, engraved aluminium plaques.
Jaffa Port, which has a long history as a strategic port in the Eastern Mediterranean, functions today as a fishing and yacht harbour, a cultural hub and a tourist attraction. The central plaza of the port was conceived and designed by me concerning the port's geographic and historical context and its present activities. The design combines the spatial concept of a plaza as a physical and social centre and an abstracted map of the Mediterranean and its port cities indicated by metal plaques.
In the picture: The plaza's position at the port's entrance at the junction of the historic route leading inland – the West-East axis – and the port's building's alignment that follows the South-North axis.
Layout
The plaza's layout is based on two interweaving radial grids that convey its dual role – a map that emphasizes the historical centrality of the port as a gateway to the Middle East and a piazza that marks the center of the port area. The information on the metal plaques distributed across the map indicates the names of the port cities and their line-of-flight distance from the Port of Jaffa.
Functions
The plaza's dual role as an informational, didactic and playful object and as a meeting point and attractor for diverse public space activities.
Mediterranean port cities map
The interweaving radial grids encapsulate an abstracted outline of the Mediterranean shores. The plaques' locations across the map (including those spread westwards beyond the circle) were determined by the actual geographic relative distances scaled to the map's size.
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