The school that saved Ramle

By Noam Dvir

18.11.10

The new wing of the city’s Orthodox Christian school creates a space that both serves the community and cleans up the crime-ridden area.

Architects like to say that original architectural solutions are born of budgetary limitations and planning constraints. The new wing of the Christian Orthodox school in the old city of Ramle, which was dedicated a few weeks ago, proves the adage.

The wing was built without any assistance from the authorities and is situated on a tiny plot – and nevertheless, it manages to create a commendable educational environment and be a positive influence on its surroundings.

The old city of Ramle is one of the most neglected areas in central Israel. Depite holding a trove of important world heritage sites (such as the White Tower ), the area suffers from crime and violence, is a haven for drug users and contains a number of cases of illegal construction.

After the exodus of the Arab population in 1948, the city was almost completely abandoned and afterward settled by new immigrants and Arabs of Muslim descent. In the 1950s, many members of the Christian Orthodox Church managed to return to their homes; today the community numbers some 3,000 people.

While the old city itself awaits an equitable and necessary development and preservation plan, the community took the initiative and set up independent educational and cultural institutions. About 19 years ago, they also opened a school.

The new structure was built adjacent to the existing school and should alleviate some of their crowding issues. It is a completely private institution that receives no funding from the official institutions in Israel.

The money to build it was collected via a door to door campaign by the community’s leaders; each family contributed what it could, even if it was just a few shekels.

“The main idea underlying the planning was making maximum use of the plot and surrounding area while taking into account the limited financial resources available to the community,” explained architect Dan Israelovitz, who has been working on the project for eight years (together with the engineer Symon Amsis ).

“The plot is extremely crowded and therefore we decided to change the standard perception of school construction. Instead of a spacious two-story structure, we stretched the school upward in order to create a joint plaza for the two buildings. We raised it on stilts in order not to eat away at more space from the yard and we turned the roof into a play and activity area.”
Crosses of light

The urban density also dictated the architectural language of the building. Instead of using traditional local elements such as arches or domes, Israelovitz chose the language of broken boxy structures with slanted walls – made out of exposed concrete or covered with hewn stone.

“Our objective was to avoid a building of huge and scary dimensions, especially given that most of the people using it are children,” Israelovitz said. “We divided the building into a few vertical blocks with slits between them. This enables us to allow natural light and air into all of the internal spaces. In addition, we put in very large windows in all 18 classrooms and so for most of the day there is no need for electric lighting.”

He says the community leaders were not at first enthusiastic about the contemporary design of the building, but over time came around to its charms. At the top of the two main staircases, large crosses were installed in an effort to strengthen the ethno-religious nature of the Christian Orthodox community and to showcase its identity. The crosses are inset in the slanted concrete walls and “filled” with glass.

This architectural detail was originally developed in 1989 by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando for the Church of the Light in Osaka, Japan. Since then, there have been a series of imitations installed across the world.

During the daytime, the sun creates the shadow of a cross on the steps and at night they are illuminated.

During a visit to the school around noon, it is evident that the teaching staff and the children are pleased with the new building.

During the recess, the yard fills with hundreds of children, some of them sitting in cozier nooks that were created under the new building; others played soccer in the large plaza.

The greater density creates a closer, community feeling and allows for encounters among students from all age ranges. The school building manages to serve the Christian Orthodox community throughout the day. After the children and the teachers end the school day, numerous community activities take place there as well as extra-curricular sports and there are plans to also offer computer classes there.

In the evenings, the yard is used for social events, such as weddings and engagement parties – “to bring in a few more liras,” members of the association explain.

This is a fine example of the positive influence that a school can have on a community, a role that most schools in the Jewish community unfortunately do not manage to fill yet.

In recent decades, huge educational complexes were built on the outskirts of cities and they remain deserted for most hours of the day.

The organization’s leaders say the school has had a very positive influence on the surroundings – be it in the decline of the crime rate or the creation of a new educational and cultural center that helps empower the community. In neglected and deprived urban areas such as the old city of Ramle, this is doubly important.

In the past, the school housed one of Ramle’s main drug dealing venues. Before the construction started, the drug site was sealed and razed by the authorities.

The link between architecture and social change is a hot topic in architectural discourse all over the world, but in Israel it is discussed on a relatively smaller scale, mostly by a few organizations and nonprofit associations.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has even devoted a special exhibition to this subject, called “Small Scale, Big Change.”

Educational, cultural and residential projects in Africa and Asia as well as developed countries in Europe and the United States prove that architecture is a powerful force for social change. The school in Ramle is applying this principle on a daily basis.

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