MIUCONFERENCE

Beer-Sheva12-13 December 2005

Beer-ShevaMIUMovement

forIsraeli

Urbanism

The soundtrack was recorded during the performance, at the MIU Conference, of

Singers of the Beer-Sheva chapter of

The first conference of Merhav – the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU), was held on 12-13 December 2005 in

Beer-Sheva with the theme of "Urban Renaissance in

Israel".

The first day included 40 presentations in 14 information packed sessions that covered many of the key issues facing urbanism in Israel.

www.miu.org.il

A special focus was given to Beer-Sheva, the hosting city, by examining its urban history, discussing current challenges and presenting the potential for renaissance in this biblical city.

Speakers included MIU board members;

…Dr. Yodan Rofe, Dror Gershon,

… Hillel Shocken,

…Tamir Ben Shachar and

… MIU chair Irit Solzi.

Guest speakers from the CNU (Congress for New Urbanism) and CEU (Council for European Urbanism) provided the conference an important international perspective.

Neal Payton Principal at Torti Gallas and Partners

... and Dhiru Thadani from Ayers Saint Gross and a CNU board member

... brought not only their vast experience as planners but also their understanding of the challenges facing a fledgling organization such as the MIU.

Harald Kegler an urban planner and a CEU board member from Germany added insights regarding the localization of urbanism to the specific needs of a region.

These honored guests brought examples of urban renaissance from around the world and excited the conference participants with their visions regarding different urban possibilities.

Neal – using the break to make some last minute changes to his presentation

Thirty additional speakers presented on the first day of the conference: Prof. Naomi Carmon from the Technion, Dr. RaseemHamaisi from Haifa University, Prof. YoramShiftan from the Technion, Benny Shalitafrom NTA, Amiti Har-Lev from Mekomot and Prof. Yehuda Grados from Ben GurionUniversity.

350 participants from all over Israel arrived for the first day of the conference.

They packed the main auditorium for the plenary sessions…

… and filled the breakout sessions to capacity.

Leaving “standing room only” (actually –sitting on the floor).

Participants included; political leaders, developers, business leaders, city planners, architects, traffic engineers, sociologists, historians, economists, political scientists and other urban professions, NGOs and citizens who are concerned about the future of their towns and neighborhoods.

Mr. Jacob Turner, Mayor of Beer-Sheva

Mr. Tzvi Wiseler, Chair of Neighborhood Councils Forum of Beer-Sheva

The outgoing City Planner of Beer-Sheva

The incoming City Planner of Beer-Sheva

The future of planning in Israel was represented by 90 architecture and planning students from the Universities of Haifa, Tel-Aviv, Ariel, Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva.

Local events accompanied the conference: students from schools in Beer-Sheva drew the city and their dream city…

… these drawings adorned the entrance to the conference center.

Local ethnic groups sang

…and danced

… and provided lunch.

Heated discussions on Israeli Urbanism spilled over to the breaks between the sessions.

The cocktail party was just one more opportunity to make your point regarding Israeli Urbanism…

The most important event was the planning workshop - Charrette, which took place on the second day of the conference.

Residents, architects, planners and the guests from overseas participated.

These planning workshops culminated an effort that spanned the months prior to the conference.

Local residents and planners from all over the country exercised participatory planning and by doing so, learned about the promise and challenges of such a process, which is relatively new to Israel.

Three projects in the older and more neglected neighborhoods of the city center were chosen.

During this final day of the conference, the vision, objectives, planning options, time table and actions needed to make progress with these three projects were detailed.

Sponsors of the Conference

Thank You

MIUMovement

forIsraeli

Urbanism

www.miu.org.il

Beer-Sheva