Architecture Development in Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century

Jerusalem dates back to more than five thousand years and this is one of the oldest cities in the

world, “Jerusalem” in Hebrew name (Yerushalayim) means “City of Peace”. Jerusalem has two

parts: Shalem and Yira: The first part Shalem means (peace), the second part is (Yira) that means

(City).1 Jerusalem in the Arabic language called Al- Quads (the sanctuary) that means the

glorification.

Why Jerusalem?

Why was chosen Jerusalem not another city? This region with special and original architectural

statements and the expressions of this holiness for each of the religions, it presents the

importance of Jerusalem in the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Jerusalem is a place where each period of history has expressed its values and its way of

building. Cities, like all social reality and historical products not only in their physicality but in

their cultural meaning, the basic dimension in urban and architecture change is the debate

between social structure and historical actors, the significance of spatial forms, the content, and

destiny of cities in relation to the entire social structure and city is what a historical society

decides the city.

This contemporary town-planning does not try to emulate the city forms of the past; it produces

instead a new kind of open-ended and dynamic city form whose essence is to be found primarily

in its inner process, and in its external appearance. The philosophical depth of this concept

makes it a worthy successor to Jerusalem’s development.

The Research Methodology is according to the following:

– Synthesize from the reader’s a perspective on research, which can be applied by

investigating the sequence of time and periods, where each period impacts on the

architectural side of the Jerusalem city and synthetic fabric of the city.

– Definition of Jerusalem city will be on a general view and architectural conditions of the

twentieth century in particular.

1 Shipler D., K., MA, Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, New York : Penguin Books Publisher

2003, p.75

– The period of the twentieth century will be divided into stages, and the rule of Jerusalem

city during this period and how affected each period was by the physical character of the

modern and ancient city.

– Understanding Historical Research Methods in Architecture.

– Discussion of the personality of Jerusalem city, and of the view of the general character

of this city between the past and present.

– Making inquiries about the research, and incorporating own opinion in the research the

commonalities of all researches, thus there is a need to understand a broad research

methodology.

The analyses divided the perception of the city into two categories, the static panoramic views,

and the perception gained by moving through the city.

The skyline diagrams produce a ‘composite skyline diagram’ of the city from its major

viewpoints. The analysis to determine the kind of forms and grouping which characterize the

composite skylines, and to discover the key elements in the city’s large scale form. The analysis

of spaces, sequences, and key views aided in the development of an open space and pedestrian

system for the central area, and its visual space was defined and key viewpoints and movement

sequences.

DemographicsThe population in Palestine has been divided into two main ethnic groups. (The Arabs and the

Jews) For study of demographics of Palestine has been divided into two distinctive territories.

The West Bank and the Gaza strip, as well as the history of Jewish emigration to Palestine in the

1930s, Arab population also increased at an exceptional rate. About 18,000 non-Jews entered

Palestine between 1930 and 1939. In the same period, about 5,000 non-Jews left.

Jewish population during the Mandatory Palestine is listed in 1922 (83,790) Jews in Palestine

and listed in 1931 (174,606), the numbers of immigrants entered immediately after the state was

declared, immigration of 216,000 Jews was recorded for 1930-1939, about 483,000 Jews

immigrated to Palestine between 1919 and 1948.

The relative rates of growth of the Muslim, Christian, and Jews population in the city changed.

The Jews population, which had been the smallest at the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish

sector increased rabidly to comprise more than half the city’s inhabitants.

Development Neighborhoods in Jerusalem in latter Part of the Ottoman PeriodThe Old City is architecturally more homogeneous than the New City, limited of buildings types

proved possible in the Old City, This range results from differences(in cultural-religious, in

material demands, and economic ability) the many and diverse ethnic, national, and religious

groups that have established the new neighborhoods outside the walls.

The location of the Quarters depends on many factors:

Holy sites: The concentration of Muslims around al-Haram al-Sharif (The Temple Mount),

Christian sects around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the western wall which had been one of

the factors in determining the location of the Jewish Quarter and the various Jewish communities

clustered around their particular synagogues.

Availability of Land: Each newly-arrived group in the populated city had to make do with

unoccupied land.

Defense: Throughout various periods protective walls were deemed essential for the inhabitants’

security.

Microclimate: The preference for health, elevated, well-drained sites was an important

consideration in the location of the city quarters. This was one of the factors in the development

of the Christian Quarter.

Central squares: which reflected a common economic or social focus on a nearby religious

building, and served as natural meeting points where the different cultural activities took place.

Religious buildings: in Jerusalem were not places of prayer but also ethnic symbols of secular

nature and centers of group activity.

Building Density

The density of the built-up area is another criterion for distinguishing between the residential

areas in the quarters of Jerusalem. For Example, the southern part of the Jewish quarters was

thickly occupied, and there were more small houses than in other crowded quarters like ( Bab

Al-‘Ammud) ,(Bab Al-Silsila), and (Bab Al-Hutta) neighborhoods. The reason for this may the

sense of security derived by the minority groups from the agglomeration of housing, or may lie

in the economic condition of the inhabitants.Where these proliferated, the population density was

lower, for people also lived in public buildings; this was the Latin Catholic neighborhood in the

northwestern part of Christian Quarter.

When one looks down and upon the compact mass of houses so closely crowded together there is

no appearance of streets at all, and so the city looks solid.

The appearance of houses and courtyards

In Jerusalem, the houses adjoined each other and variants like the usual arrangement in the

traditional Middle-Eastern cities was for houses or apartments to cluster around an inner

courtyard, in Jerusalem houses formed rows along alleys.

The houses varied in size, which reinforces the earlier observation regarding the absence of class

segregation in the quarters of Jerusalem, and the courtyard differed and some houses had no

courtyards at all2.

The most changes appearance of the quarters toward the begging of 20th century Jerusalem began

to acquire more of European character, mainly due to the influx of westerners, the new

construction was in a different style, with large, glazed windows, and wide doors, the most

noticeable innovation was the introduction of red-tiled roofs, in the spirit of the times, clocks

were installed on some of the buildings.

The Neighborhoods in latter Part of the Ottoman Period

The development of the built –up area outside the Jerusalem old wall city walls comprised:

1. Jewish residential neighborhoods like (the Georgain House), (Bet David), the one

Christian neighborhood was the German Templer Colony.

2. Christian public building, most of them constructed by Protestant bodies, like the

English hospital, the Catholics built the paternoster Church.

3. Individual residential houses built mainly by Europeans, some by Jews, also by

Muslim Arabs, it was at the request of latter families that the authorities were

induced to open this city gate.

4. Agricultural cultivation in suitable lands north of the city reflected the

improvement in public security, which also entailed the opening of the old city

gates.

Another factor that influenced the construction of new neighborhoods outside the walled city

was the improvement in transport facilities, so the aspiration to live outside the city increased.

2 Hopkins, I.W.J.”The Four Quarters of Jerusalem”, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 102(July-December 1971),

pp.68-85

In some cases they preferred to remain near the old City walls and the quarters of their

coreligionists within the city: the Muslims near the Muslim Quarter, and the Christians near the

Character of new construction

The construction were decorative, structural cast-iron components imported from England, and

the flat, slightly sloping roofs for collecting rainwater, it was an English influence. The Central

building of the Schneller’s orphanage shows typical South German influence in the tower of the

façade. Russian Compound, in the Muscovite style, its mark on the builders of the subsequent

Russian complexes in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestine

Types and initiatives of construction in Jerusalem

The Jewish neighborhoodsThe principal forms of organization in Jewish neighborhoods were:

- Ethnic community neighborhoods

- The religious charitable with buildings donated by private philanthropists for the needy.

- “Kolel” neighborhoods populated by residents from a particular country or city in Europe

and administered by a committee.

As the New City grew, residents relieved the housing shortage by erecting extension in the

courtyard, or adding a second story, with the result that single-family dwellings evolved into

two, or even three family homes. The character of the houses and their style: the thickness of

exterior and interior walls and the roofs; and the building materials to be employed.

The type of residential structure, typical of the kolel, the philanthropic motivated neighborhoods

were often designed as row-houses, and most had two stories with a long porch onto which all

the apartments opened running along one side, the size of the rooms and their design depended

on the funding available to the builders took the one or two story communal row housing.

The Christian NeighborhoodsThe new Christian neighborhoods were a few in number, they built many substantial private

homes, the fine residence by the Swiss-German architect Conrad Schick, buildings built privately

as commercial enterprises, or by construction companies included post offices, hotels, shops, the

Jerusalem railway station ,and other. Most of these Christian structures were built extensive,

central locations, and elevated, one of the most characteristics of Christian institutional

construction was the German Schneller Orphanage and the Russian Compound were enclosed

within high stone walls and iron gateways; they manifested the particular European power’s

influence in the holy land.

Most of houses were laid out along a grid of wide streets that divided the neighborhood into

large lots, only some of the Christian residential neighborhoods were planned, usually

encompassed by a stone wall, few houses had inner courtyards but all had large exterior yards

with water cisterns.

The Muslim Neighborhoodsuntil 1870s there was no new Muslim public buildings or private buildings outside the walled

city, except for a few individual houses that later became the nuclei for new neighborhoods such

as (Bab al-Sahira), (Wadi al-Joz), and Musrara, the poor Muslims and those of the middle

classes, in view of their financial condition, do not leave the Old City, only wealthy families.

The old center is a mix of structures built atop one another along the length and the slope within

a limited area, while new building takes place along the ridgeline, the village center seems to be

a stone monolith, but up close the separate units become apparent, the light cluster of small

blocks, inhabited by extended families and usually grouped about an inner courtyard.

The most important example of Muslims house in the al-Husaini neighborhood is Villa of

Rabbah Effendi, it was two story stone houses with a cellar, it had narrow veranda led from the

entrance to the large halls on the ground floor from where one could pass to square, stone paved,

inner courtyard. Today the complex serves as the American Colony Hotel, because of the close

relation between al-Husaini family and the American Colony, The American Swedish Colony

people made structural changes and additions to the original buildings.

Jerusalem during the British Mandate

In December 1917 ended 400 years of Ottoman rule, the Jerusalem’s population required

emergency measure, and the British acted quickly to improve living conditions. The economic

life of Jerusalem gradually revived as the employment situation improved, with many inhabitants

now working for the army and government, and the British administration also repaired or

opened government hospitals and clinics. A city building code for Palestine was prepared, urban

planning and building committee was also formed in Jerusalem, with the declared purpose of

creating the basis for city planning, and construction work , without government involvement in

its implementation. British rule contributed greatly to the cultural development of Jerusalem, law

school, music school were established, various cultural societies were formed.

Zoning

Zoning tables with schedules were prepared for each town plan, detailing permissible land use,

density (including, for instances, building height), and the space around buildings. Zoning laws

were first introduced into Palestine in 19223.

Unsightly Buildings Control

The problem of ‘unsightly buildings’ seemed ‘theoretical’, the definition of ‘unsightliness’; this

focused on buildings being constructed to the permitted height (which could be different to the

height of those around them). The 1936 Town Planning Ordinance only empowered District

Commissions to limit building heights, not to control the ‘rate of vertical construction’, in order

‘to prevent the erection of tall buildings on plots adjacent or near empty plots or plots upon

which there are buildings of one or two floors4.

British Mandate encourages traditional stonemasons and building in stone. After a case against

the Jerusalem District Commission in 1939, the Commission made it ‘obligatory’ for building in

the Jerusalem Town Planning Area to be carried out in stone; thus giving the city it’s most

characteristic façade. In Jerusalem in 1943, for example, there were 101 building and town

planning contraventions.

Housing and Reconstruction

3 Shapiro, S., Planning Jerusalem: The First Generation, 1917-1968, in David H.K. Amiran, Arie Shachar and

Israel Kimhi (eds), Urban Geography of Jerusalem: A Companion Volume to the Atlas of Jerusalem, Jerusalem:

Publisher Massada Press, 1973, p. 143

4 CS to All District Commissioners, 13 January 1944: and Extract of Minutes of Sixth Meeting of the District

Commissioners’ Conference, Gaza. 28 January 1944: ISA/CSO2/Z/1/44/561. Also Section 14(2)(1) of the Town

Planning Ordinance, 1936: R. Newton, Acting District Commissioner, Jerusalem, to CS, 31 December 1934: ibid.

The 1938 Amendment also concerned building appearance and use: Fruchtman, ‘Statutory Planning’, p. 140 and p.

472, f. 59, re Draft Town Planning ham, Legal Draftsman: PRO/CO733/338/75891

By 1940, an acute housing shortage had arisen, brought on by the population natural increase,

immigration, repercussions from the Arab Revolution, and wartime building restrictions, It

feared that aiding cooperative housing societies would mean aiding individual builders, making

it impossible to refuse financial assistance to municipal housing schemes5.

Housing Shortages

In Jerusalem’s urban area, 60 per cent of the buildings were constructed by the Jews, compared

with only 40 per cent by the Arabs.

The summary of the Arab Sub-Committee’s findings was based on the Mandatory Government’s

ideal of an average of two persons per room, and indicated the Arab area’s rural population lived

in conditions of ‘severe overcrowding’ with four or more persons per room.

The Emergency Building Scheme, 1945

The first urban master plan for Jerusalem was submitted in June 1918. The plan was drawn up by

the architect William McLean, Allenby sent for the City Engineer of Alexandria, Mr. W.

McLean, to recommend a town plan for Jerusalem, bearing in mind the need to preserve the

architectural traditions and historic monuments of the city.

McLean’s report and proposals, which were formulated four areas6:

- The Old City within the walls.

- Areas immediately abutting the outside of the city walls

- An area north and north-east of the Old City: building was to be allowed only with special

approval and designed with the general scheme.

- An area north and west of the Old City: this was to be the region for future development, and

indicated in a general way the future roads.

At the request of General Allenby In 1922, Jerusalem’s city architect and advisor to the

governor, Charles Ashbee, together with Geddes, the 1922 Plan, more clearly defined zoning

was proposed. The zones were to be the Old City, which was to be preserved; the protective zone

of public and private open spaces around the Old City, residential and business zones, and

workshops, factories and industrial zone.

5 ***, Social Welfare, Annual Report, 1944 ,Jerusalem: Palestine Government, 19456 McLean, W., H., Jerusalem’s first planner (1918), ‘The Preservation of Jerusalem: The Old City and the New’:

Letter to the Editor, Publisher Glasgow Herald, 1938, p.18

The 1930 Scheme introduced zoning regulations for these areas, proposed a network of roads,

and designed a few, relatively small, public open spaces. The 1930 Scheme was an important

step forward in the regulative town planning of the Jerusalem region, by dividing the area intro

well-defined residential, commercial and industrial zones and taking into account the needs of

the growing Jewish and Arab communities in different quarters of the city, as well as

archaeological sites which were to remain free of building.

The 1944 plan placed the main emphasis on the developing suburbs and the areas outside the

wall. The key sections of this scheme covered communications, zoning, architectural control and

open spaces.

Populaţia Ierusalimului în funcţie de afilierile religioase, 1922-1946

An Total Evrei Creştini Musulmani Altele1922 62,700 34,100 14,700 13,400 5001931 93,100 53,800 19,300 19,900 1001946 164,400 99,300 31,300 33,700 1001922 100% 54.4% 23.4% 21.4% 0.8%1931 100% 57.8% 20.8% 21.4% 0.1%1946 100% 60.4% 19% 20.5% 0.06%

Sursa: Schmelz, Modern Jerusalem’s Demographic Evolution, p.28.

Development of the built –up area During the British MandateThe built-up area was about 7 km2 including the 1 km2 of the Old City7, Urban boundaries of

Jerusalem were readjusted several times during the mandate period, in 1918-1919, only general

guidelines were prepared.

The new boundaries facilitated detailed planning and gave a statutory basis to building permits

issued to the many new neighborhoods established during British rule, by the end of the Mandate

there were three categories of Jerusalem’s urban boundaries:

1. The first boundary lines were smaller compared to that of 1924, including only the part of

neighborhoods encircling the city where the Jerusalem municipality could collect

property taxes.

7 Biger, G.,Urban Planning and Enforcement of Building Codes: Jerusalem under the British Mandate and Today.

Jerusalem: Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 1981, p. 255-278

2. Administrative boundary delimited by the government tax authorities(included all of the

Jerusalem neighborhoods and most of the surrounding villages

3. Defined the area under the authority of the Jerusalem Town Planning and Building

Commission8.

The new construction was also made possible by additional factors: Construction of

asphalted roads in 1926, all these made life easier for the residents who lived at a distance

from the city and commuted to work. And the extension of water supply pipes to the

more distant neighborhoods, and the operation of public transport was increase.

Another factor which spurred the development of the city and neighborhoods, including

public buildings and commercial centers, was the large amount of the land that became

available for purchase at the beginning of the 1920s.

Neighborhoods during the British Mandate

There were added 102 neighborhoods built outside the city walls during the final years of the

Ottoman regime (24 Arab, Christian, and mixed, 78 Jewish), but during the Mandate period 63

new neighborhoods were added to Jerusalem, the pace of construction peaked in the 1920s, by

1929, 33 new neighborhoods had been established, and plans were drawn up for another eight

that were built in the 1930s, in the first of Mandatory regime 1,500 apartments were constructed,

doubling the number in Jerusalem in 19189.

New methods of quarrying and stone-cutting made building possible in the hilly areas in the

western part of Jerusalem, that was the transforming Jerusalem’s character as the city’s skyline

grew higher, and the cement building blocks and reinforced concrete permitted construction of

taller buildings, the average height of each story was 4m, in residential buildings of over 15m,

for local planning and building commission set a maximum 11m, officially no more than 25m.

The first mandatory town plans were based upon the premise that the Old City and its

surrounding landscape constituted an organic unity and that within this unity, the area was to be

protected from the encroachment of urbanization by marking off a large open area, a ‘green belt’

8 Biger, G., Early British Contributions to the Development of Jerusalem, 1918-1925 in Studies in the Geography of

Israel 9, 1976 , p. 111-1239 Biger, G., Urban Planning and Enforcement of Building Codes: Jerusalem under the British Mandate and Today.

Jerusalem: Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 1981, p.44

around the Old City. The major portion of new urban development was to take place to the west

of the Old City.

Jewish Neighborhoods during the British MandateThere were two types of new Jewish neighborhoods : The traditional Jews, including the very

orthodox groups of the Old Yishuv; and the modern neighborhoods of the more secular Jewish

sector (office workers, teachers, and professionals), many of those modern neighborhoods

established building societies, similar to those formed at the end of the Ottoman period.

Private construction reflected the builder’s whims and financial circumstances, and there being

no standard plan and appearance little economic risk in view of the high demand for housing,

among the neighborhoods developed in this way.

The new neighborhoods allocated more space for public use and more for wider roads between

the lots, each house having a private entrance, also in contrast to the neighborhoods of the

Ottoman period.

Rental apartment became more common in the 1930s, the construction of large buildings in

which all but one apartment that was retained by the owner for himself were rented out.

The most pervasive idea of the period was that of the “garden-suburb”. Several of the garden-

suburbs, idea was developed by the British architect Ebenezer Howard, several principles of the

garden-city idea were adopted in Jerusalem during the Mandate period, and were applied to a

number of new neighborhoods, like Talpiot in 1921, Rehavia in 1922, Bet hakerem in

1923,Qiryat Moshe in 192410.

Another kind of neighborhood made its appearance in 1930s, is workers neighborhoods and

workers cooperative housing11, the idea of this type of neighborhood originated in European

post-World War I social ideologies, because of need for immediate housing solutions following

the war dovetailed with socialistic ideals, assurance was placed on the housing needs of the

working man and woman and their family, and the quality of their life.

10 Kendall, H., Jerusalem City Plan, Preservation and Development during the British Mandate, 1918–1948, London:

Publisher His Majesty ’s Stationery Office, 1948, p.3511 Kark, R., The Development of the Cities Jerusalem and Jaffa from 1840 until the First World War (A Study in

Historical Geography ), Ph. D. dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Hebrew 1977, p.25

the plans in these neighborhoods were based on the “inner courtyard”, concept focus of

cooperative , communal living, in Jerusalem the planners were prevent by the negative

connotation of the courtyards, in the traditional neighborhoods where there was little privacy.

“Workers Housing”, they became the accepted model for socialist style accommodation in the

countries , in Jerusalem , ninety-Five families, the principle behind this type of housing were

simple: Economy and Functionalism in building.

Rehavia is the most interesting of the garden neighborhoods; the concept of the symmetrical

road grid was realized by architect Richard Kaufmann in his plan for the Rehavia garden

neighborhood. Rehavia in the 1990s remained, in some degree, a “nature preserve” for an all but

vanished world, Rehavia’s tree-lined streets remained as aesthetic treat, its buildings forming a

virtual catalogue of Mandate Period architecture12.

Christian and Muslim neighborhoods during the British MandateThe Qatamon neighborhood show a grid of building lots demarcated by stones, with intersecting

paths, but only five houses constructed in Qatamon by 1914, the resumption of construction

activity in Jerusalem after the war, particularly from 1924 on, much money was invested in the

building of these neighborhoods, mostly by Christian Arabs. The Baq’a neighborhood developed

east of the railway line, the main building activity in Baqa’a occurred during the 1920s.

Arab construction took place in four affluent neighborhoods in Manilla , north of the Old City

and in the southern sector (Talbiyeh, Katamon, Abu-Tor, and Baka)but also at the center of

town, in the Old City, Arab residential building differed from its Jewish counterpart in overall

neighborhood structure, in the specific house plans and architectural elements.

The most beautiful of the Arab buildings north of Damascus Gate in the Nashashibi Villa, built

in the late 1930s, the al-Araj building, it did function as a hotel for a number of years during the

Mandate Period.

The British plans aimed at enhancing the sacred character of the city and preserving it as a living

museum, from new industrial and commercial development. Jerusalem changed fundamentally

under the British Mandate, from a relatively small town it grew into a fairly large city extending 12 Biger, G., The Development of Jerusalem’s Built-Up Area during the First Decade of the British Mandate, 1920-

1930, Jerusalem: Publisher: Izhak Ben –Zvi, 1981, p.45

far beyond the ancient walls. Its far flung neighborhoods broke through the ring of the built up

urban area, and filled in the remaining empty spaces.

Public Buildings and Urban Development

The beautiful example by using the International style with Classical elements is the National

Institutions Complex, the leaders of the state in the making orated from representational

balcony which sets off the entrance. The National Institutions Complex (1928-1936), architects

Yohanan Rattner.

Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus architect: Erich Mendelsohn, built in 1938, Hadassah was

considered the last word in hospital design and an impressive example of International Style

functionalism, The major renovation and modernization carried out by architect Ya’akov

Rechter, who preserved the original design, Hadassah Hospital reopened in 1979.

The official residence of the British High Commissioner is Government House one of the most

striking of the eclectic creations, Government House was constructed of stone quarried largely at

the site itself, built from 1929 to 1933, the building was designed by Harisson.

The YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Associations), It was designed by the noted American

architect Arthur Loomis Harmon opened in 1933 after seven years of construction . Concept also

played a role in the actual construction of the YMCA headquarters is the “Return to the

Sources”, a project on which Jewish builders and stonemasons worked alongside Christian and

Muslims.

Building in Stone in Jerusalem

Stone has always “trade-mark” and a common denominator uniting all the building styles of the

various periods, British Governor Sir Ronald Storrs enacted a bylaw requiring dressed natural

stone for all Jerusalem construction.

The controversy for using stone and technology form, essentially over the “purity” of

construction in stone and the extent of the need for consistent and exclusive use of this material,

the controversy in its Jerusalem context has, of course, dealt with the manner and form of

preserving the historic city.

The controversy over the extent of “purity” of use of stone is good, but not for contending with

the highly important practical need to preservation of Jerusalem’s unique character, and it has

been proved that stone is unsuitable by character and planning possibilities for high-rise

development. High-rises made of stone blend into the municipal landscape owing to Jerusalem’s

mountainous character, where many tall structures appear angles four or five stories high from

different angles of view.

Glass development is unfavorable in Jerusalem for climatic reasons, buildings require summer

air-conditioning and winter heating at a cost far greater than one would pay in conventional

stone, and severe problems of opening, closing, replacing and correct maintenance in sealing and

cleaning terms, the over illumination problem with large windows, as stone does not: stone “lasts

forever”. But Stone should not be hauled more than six to eight stories up.

The project’s front façade and earmarked for preservation as an architectural and historic

landmark, this project ultimately approved as a stone building with relatively little glass.

For other people, Stone as an exclusive material denies the architect freedom of expression and

creativity; use of other materials must therefore not be banned in specific locations, Glass may

contribute to development of the city center and may constitute a new architectural element

which would add life and variety to the great “pile of stone” which surrounds the city.

Architecture Development in New Jerusalem after 1948In December 1949, when Jerusalem was officially declared the capital of Israel, the population of

its western sector stood at 100,000 Jews (plus a few thousand Christian and others), and the

65,000 residents of East Jerusalem and the Old City.

Jerusalem architecture in the 1950s also reflected a rash of state needs, both functional and

representational, all of them arising from the city’s new role as the capital of Israel.

The Knesset (Parliament) building (dedicated 1966) was designed by architect Joseph Klarwin.

New construction and increasing the city’s build-up area by 50 percent during the 1950s, the

design of the Knesset, and later the President’s Residence, were basically disagreements over the

relationship between the desired shape of its official buildings and the Jewish state’s democratic

system.

The Master Plan of Jerusalem in 1950

In the 1950 Master plan there was an attempt to find an organic solution for the different urban

problems and at the same time have the city serve the main functions as capital of Israel and as

spiritual fount, its development as a political, cultural and religious centre with a firm economic

base, providing for the establishment of light industries and the development in the city, the area

covered by the Master plan was 60% larger than the principal area within Israel’s boundaries at

the time.

The outline of the 1950 Master plan’s principal features:

Residential Areas: The city was well suited as pleasant and healthy locations for a residential

zone and should be added to the municipal area.

Industrial and Commercial Areas: The plan provided for a commercial centre within the city

and industrial zones in the outskirts.

The Government Centre: The Old City and New Jerusalem were expropriated and designated

as the location of the future buildings of the Knesset, and the new campus of the University and

the government ministries.

Communications: The network of communications suited to the mountainous terrain, two main

roads in west and north would be direct access to all parts of the city.

Open Spaces and Parks: The sequence of green strips separating the neighborhood units. The

centre of the green belt would be Mount Herzl.

The Master Plan of Jerusalem in 1959It broadly followed the original guidelines laid down in the 1950 Master plan for Jerusalem.

The outline of the 1959 Master plan’s principal features:

Residential Neighborhoods: In the east and centre of the town, which for the most part were too

densely populated, were subject to reconstruction and renovation based on detailed plans.

Industrial Areas: Jerusalem zones were to be limited to light industry; zones were located

mainly in the north of the town, and in an additional area in the south.

Building Regulations: The zones to which this regulation applied had to be reduced. The city

therefore divided into building zones of natural stone, artificial stone, and concrete with the

stucco finish in the suburbs.

Communications: the Old Jaffa Road and the Security Road entering the city were marked in

accordance with the Regional Plan, the Main traffic arteries between the various quarters.

The Master Plan of Jerusalem in 1968The plan on the assumption of organic interrelation between three urban entities:

- The continuous, highly populated urban ring which spreads around the historical center

up to a well-defined.

- The historic nucleus which includes the Old City of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives

and a surrounding park system.

- The metropolitan area which includes low-density residential areas, agricultural

settlements, small townships and especially vast nature reserves.

These are: the preservation of the Old City, the establishment of a park surrounding the Old City

and the use of stone as a cladding material for buildings.

The general layout consists of four areas:

- Residential zone comprises the city proper of open landscape which separates the

compactly built city from the metropolitan area and prevents the continuous of the

city.

- The entire metropolitan area with its various settlements.

- The historic nucleus surrounded by a park covering the valleys of Jehoshapat and

Hinnom and the Mount of Olives.

- Forms the internal city, containing within its boundaries the government centre,

educational, religious and cultural institutions and central commercial and social

facilities.

The area was in use in 1967 was 36.5 sq.km, and It is assumed that 26 sq.km of the unused

land will be developed in 198513.

The system of arterial road is containing on:

- Roads, which historically converged on the Old City, were shifted to the brink of the

central urban complexes, serving them tangentially.

- The net of road within the city takes the form of an orthogonal grid, spaced according

to the requirements of an efficient bus service.

13 Sharon A., Brutzkus, A., D., Sharon, E., Planning Jerusalem: the Old City and its environs, Art editor and design:

Chava Mordohovich, Jerusalem: Publisher Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973 p.135

The intend Outline Scheme to present the Old City and its environs

The general lines along the area of the Special Zone (the Old City and its environs) should be

developed, the specific purpose of preserving the special character of a zone composed of unique

historical, architectural and landscape values, the development aims for this area are proposed to

united city of Jerusalem, the area covered by the Outline Scheme of the Special Zone is 10,5

km2 , the location of the Special Zone is the north-west, near the Old City between the Jaffa Gate

and the Damascus Gate.

The residential quarters of Jerusalem are located to the south-west and north-west of these

centers and contain larger resources of land still not built upon and suitable for additional

residential neighborhoods and industrial zones.

Modern Architecture and New buildings in Jerusalem After 1948

The key development in the 1950s and early 1960s was the transition, from provisional solutions

that reflected a primal, formative era to structures of a sovereign nation, and gained approval in

1959, this plan, which underwent nonbinding modifications after 1968.

The period of divided Jerusalem displays the International Style, the Jerusalem International

Style was primarily international and secondarily “Jerusalem”, as practiced in the post-1945 era

and imported for adaptation to Jerusalem’s local needs and materials, the basic form of many the

buildings was that of long , like boxes.

The Hebrew University built in the 1950s, in Jerusalem’s largest showplace of buildings in the

postwar International Style, The campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at Givat Ram.

Some elements built to resolve building problems like “Bridge tenements”, built in Jerusalem’s

western neighborhoods in the 1960s, were supposed to solve the problem of dense construction

on steep slopes without the need for an elevator. A bridge connects the building’s middle floor

with the street it was designed by a Ministry of Housing Planning team.

“Beehive” public-housing projects, of both the pentagonal stone-clad, prefabricated concrete

walls type and as meandering zigzag structures, were built in Ramot in northern Jerusalem, by

Architect: Zvi Hecker, the exterior walls of these residential buildings have an outward slant are

made of prefabricated concrete element thinly clad in uncut stone.

The second major complex, the 550-room Hyatt Hotel, built in 1987, was originally planned as

a 22 floors tower that would have dwarfed its entire surroundings and irrevocably altered the

city’s skyline, designed by the architect David Reznik.

Hall Plaza, inaugurated in 1993. This project, which changed the physical scale of the urban

core, stands at the meeting point between East and West Jerusalem. City Hall Plaza comprises a

public square surrounded by two new office structures and ten renovated historical buildings.

One of the most important and impressive modern architectural creations in Israel is the

Supreme Court Building built in1993, A strong horizontal thrust integrates the building into its

environment. “It is an urban island” say the architects.

The building of the National Park around the walls contributed significantly to the city’s

changing face. The National Park is the “green revolution” waged during the early 1970s, Part of

the “Cultural Mile”, the most important section of the National Park around the Old City walls,

and accommodates many of Jerusalem’s cultural centers and leisure facilities.

Architecture Completion of Jewish Quarter in Old City

In 1967, most of the buildings in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter were found destroyed. The

Government, aiming to maintain the historic continuity of Jewish presence in the Old City,

decided to renew the Jewish community inside the walls, It impressed by the preservation and

reconstruction measure used in the Quarter, with their integration of highly important

archaeological sites uncovered, at the same time, the Quarter has been graced with a residential

neighborhood of 600 dwelling units, about half of the Quarter’s dwelling units are flats in old

building which were reconstructed on modern basis; the other half are new buildings,

Construction in the Quarter is based exclusively on natural work with use materials like stone,

wood, and iron.

Architecture Completion and Rehabilitation of Muslim Quarter in the Old City

In Muslim Quarter reconstruction has been proceeding slowly because of political reasons. A

resting point for pilgrims and tourists was completed at entrance to Via Dolorosa in 1982,

designed as small garden with staggered stone seats on stone paving which incorporates large

pavement stones.

The New Neighborhoods in Jerusalem since reunification in 1967

The city center have created new “ramparts” designed primarily as a political barrier against any

possible repartition, the two rings of new residential neighborhoods, the first ring includes

Ramat Eshkol and French Hill in the north, and the second includes Gilo and East Talpiot in

the south along with Ramat Allon and Neve Ya’akov in the north.

Planning principles in the quarter of JerusalemThe plan has to fully integrated system of residential, commercial, business, and recreational

activities, with traditionally conceived urban spaces: the street, the square, the alley, the public

park.

1. The houses as opposed to the concept of isolated “Block in the Park”, the house

will define the public spaces.

2. Dwelling Types: to provide a wide variety of dwelling types in order to attract

various groups of population.

3. The city as a Grid, the net work of streets, the “Green Grid” all open spaces are

linked by diagonal foot-paths radiating from the main park at the summit.

4. The Street, the traditional function such as channel of motor and pedestrian

traffic, and access to the houses.

5. Classification of Street Types.

The Jerusalem Roads system

The planners began the general guidelines of the master plan in greater detail, they realized the

various bodies involved in planning and execution disagreed on almost every section.

The road system took place of an Outline Plan drawn up in 1976, this scheme could not

find its way to a positive conclusion because the planners had gone into technical details, and it

is the second plan, the third plan transformation in 1981, interested parties reached an agreement

under which road development plan, surviving remnants of the original system included

segments of Highway, that the radical upheaval in the planners of considering the topic of roads.

Jerusalem’s road system is radical in nature thereby, massive development in North Jerusalem

will render Ramallah road in the Givat Hamivtar area impassible within several years.

Planning and Building in Arab Neighborhoods in East Jerusalem

The planning right for Arab communities in the early years of Israel state, the military

government was the deciding factor in planning and housing policy in the Arab sector. Israeli

Planning is connected with the larger political, national and economic context which results in

continuous division among large segments of populations of “Arab communities”.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the state land was used for construction of 700 Jewish settlements,

creating the housing infrastructure for the Jewish immigrants who continued to transfer into the

country. Moreover, since the end of 1970s Israel’s government has used a type of leasehold

tenure to limit land speculation, that the owners of private land add extra weight to strengthen the

right for their private land14.

Jerusalem’s Arabs After 1948Before 1948, the Palestinian Arab community of West Jerusalem, which numbered about 28,000,

was one of the most prosperous in the Middle East; West Jerusalem’s Arabs lived mainly in the

southern part in beautiful residential quarters from Talbiyya down to the German Colony15. In

1974 they owned 33.69 percent of the land in what was to become West Jerusalem. The Jewish

population, which numbered about 95,000, and owned 30.04 percent of the land, lived mainly in

West Jerusalem’s northern and western neighborhoods.

After 1967 the Arab population grew rapidly, from 60,000 at reunification to 140,000 in

1990. The result was mainly of international migration from the West Bank and improved

economic conditions. If this construction had taken place in the rural-urban sections of the city,

such as Shuafat in the north and Beit Hanina, the Arab population had developed a potent

strategy of “clinging to the land” in order to create physical-political fact as a counterbalance to

Jewish settlements.

Mostly all the Arab residential construction belongs to the single-family type. In many cases,

these lavish villas, scattered along the Jerusalem-Ramallah road, differentiated according to the

14 Martens, K., Participatory Experiments from the Bottom up: The role of environmental NGO’s and citizen groups ,

in European Journal of Spatial Development, Refereed Articles Nov. 2005 no.18

15 http://www.badil.org/phocadownload/Badil_docs/publications/Jerusalem1948-CHAP4.PDF

economic circumstances of the builders, displayed the pitched roofs, stone arches, and “majestic”

external staircases during the boom years there (1972-82).

The Israeli neighborhoods are regulated to have much urban density than the Palestinian

ones, which limits the level of city growth in these regions; the political environment has created

a situation with too few homes housing the rising Palestinian population. Many young

Palestinians are forced to live with their families in overpopulated conditions or simply leave the

town, which has caused high prices on the housing market. Squatter Families in East Jerusalem:

we can see the Palestinian local authority building squatted by many families in East Jerusalem

as the self contradicting architectural symbiosis of formalism, out of the physical output of a

hopeless political climate and control anarchy.

Communal housing: Walls were built along the balconies overseeing the atrium to create smaller

spaces for bedrooms and kitchens; expansions were added to the building function as kitchens

and living rooms. The many additions carried out by the families have a various informal

architectural reflection.

Illegal building is especially noticeable in areas remote from Jerusalem such as A-Ram in

North-Jerusalem, which belongs not to Jerusalem but to the West Bank. Illegal construction has

proliferated, with many residents taken to court with fines. Building laws are almost wholly

enforced in those areas, and residents have no way to submit requests for building permits in the

absence of an official Master Plan. The result is an accelerated pace of illegal development

almost everywhere land is available.

Most development is concentrated in semi-urban areas in eastern Jerusalem such as A-

Tur, El-Eizariah and Silwan; and in the north in Beit Hanina and Shu’afat. These areas knew no

orderly planning under which public buildings, roads, parking areas, public parks and other

services conventional in Western Jerusalem might be built; most development there was

spontaneous and unplanned, with existing land ownership.

The Arab population has developed a strong tendency to “stick to the land”, so the Arab

states lend organized to support to Arab development in Jerusalem as their response to the

massive building of the Jewish neighborhoods in particular, and Jewish development on the West

Bank in general. Government planning policy seeks to accelerate planning in the Arab areas by

dividing it among a number of planning teams working concurrently, and preserve the existing

demographic balance: 70% Jews, 30% Arabs. This change in distribution of the Jewish and Arab

population may bear positive consequences in erasing the buffer between an Arab East and a

Jewish East. Most Arab development is to be west of the Jerusalem-Ramallah highway,

alongside development of the large Jewish neighborhoods on its eastern side.

East Jerusalem and the old city became under a single political control, the Israeli control.

As a result and for security reasons, new hasty decisions about the exact boundaries of the

reunified city were made by politicians and military officials but not by planners. A new formal

guided master plan was introduced; the aim was to solve the problem of urban growth.

Jerusalem Population

Year 1922 1946 1967 1983 1996 2002

Jews 34,100 99,300 197,700 306,600 412,000 458,600

Palestinian

s

28,100 65,000 68,600 122,400 168,500 221,900

Source: (1922, 1964):“British Mandate Census”, (1967, 1983, and 1996): “Israel Gov’t Census”, (2002): Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem

Building Percentages and Housing Capacity

Areas of Palestinian building in East Jerusalem are allocated low percentages of 10-50 % in one

and two stories only16. On the other hand, the building percentages in the Jewish region can reach

200 % and eight stories. The Ministry of the Interior (1993-1995) declared that 800 illegal

structures were built in Jerusalem by Arabs, and 957 by Jews. About 25% of the illegal Arab

constructions were demolished17, while only 4 % of illegal Jewish constructions were

demolished. Indeed, the Arab neighborhood plans are similar to each other and prepared in the

same way.

Many settlements were established on the lands that were classified as green area, where

the Palestinian were prohibited to build on these lands. In this way planning policy serves as a

tool for controlling the Arabs and preventing their 'expansion', while on the other hand

16 http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/opt_prot_btselem_policy_of_discrimination_may_1995.pdf

17 idem

promoting the massive establishment of Jewish settlements and preserving of land for future

development.

ConclusionJerusalem is a city of panorama, a mosaic of diverse communities. Commonly shared

with open and public spaces, it is a “transparent city”, following the topography, linked in

sequence, leading ultimately to the Old City. At the same time the city is introverted, and private.

Their built ensembles reflect their life, through the awareness of total form, and of the meaning

incarnate in that form. The skyline is thus the community’s built expression of its scale of values,

using the human scale, and the scale from the rhythms of the hill. The City has visual harmony

structures of religious and public significance, marking the skyline of the city.

The development of Jerusalem and the surrounding region reflected the political,

regional, and international processes that affected the Middle East and Palestine in particular.

Jerusalem with the surrounding villages and the population became manifest in the expansion of

the built-up area. The tremendous growth in the volume of construction during the twentieth

century of this period was due to the mounting population pressure in the old city and outside the

wall.

The development in the 20th century of the planning patterns and building styles of new

neighborhoods attested to new cultural norms, and aspirations to the modernizing and improving

of living conditions. The best measure of the development of Jerusalem at the end of the

Ottoman period and British mandate was the growth of the built-up area, and the physical

development of the city. Ethnic and religious segregation in residential quarters: Jerusalem city

was usually divided into areas of ethnic and or religious groupings, with emphasis on privacy

and security in each quarter; each quarter enjoyed some administrative autonomy, and had its

own public buildings such as a mosque, synagogue, church, and small market.

The development of Jerusalem in the 20th century conceptualized in many ways compared to

other times, as a traditional Middle –Eastern city in subject, but with touch of western processes,

and as a traditional preindustrial to semi modern city, these categories were traits as well as

distinctive characteristics.

The character of change treatments reflect as different scholarly disciplines, differentiations

between the traditional and modern city, oriental and the western city showing norms of

economic rationalism, and the tendency to the old culture.

Jerusalem city is showing signs of modernization and the changing to semi-colonial city that

illustrates the make-up of its population. Constructed type characteristics are apparent with their

political, ecological, religious, and educational structures, but the political structure is the most

strong and important determinant in Jerusalem’s development and urbanization, than appearance

in the urban city.

The name of the “City” did not fit Jerusalem until the end of the Ottoman period. It was about

walls and gates, and after that Jerusalem was only functionally integrated in the state; the

relationship between the rise and fall impact on growth and decline of cities can be established.

The changes did not only come from the city itself, but reflected external processes affecting the

entire the twentieth century.

Western powers, foreign immigrants, and a growing population were promoted in Jerusalem and

reflected directly and indirectly on modernization and traditional social forms of dynamic

changes that occurred there. To study the city in the Ottoman period, British Mandate, and in

modern times, all these stress the nature of the complementary relationships between religious

factors, social structure, and geographical forms.

The individual’s identification did not relate to the city’s boundaries; the three main religious

groupings were subdivided into communities where appearance of urban building and the type of

building counted.

The different religious affiliation that led directly and indirectly to the controversy was

the extent of dominance the structure should be allowed to enjoy over the other religious

buildings in the Quarter and the overall Old City fabric. The enemy of development: The

religious building topic is one of the most noticeable problems in the system of relations between

Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Jerusalem, and the Extremist Jewish circles regard any non-

Jewish development, especially when it is religious, as a threat of some kind to Jerusalem’s

Jewish nature.

Ranking of functional areas: Most functions in the city were physically separated from

each other and clustered around others of kindred nature. The hierarchical position of these

groupings reflected their proximity to the central mosque like crafts and commercial activities,

but city gates clustered activities connected with travel and road services.

Place of housing and their form: the traditional houses of the old city of Jerusalem

reflected social norms of modesty, both in their dimensions and in the use of inexpensive

building materials rather than stone. Houses were usually set back at some distance from the

street, and had indirect entrances; doors and windows faced the inner courtyard rather than

outward to the street, and the room usually faced inward to an enclosed courtyard having an

indirect entrance-way; many houses had domed or more or less flat roofs. The first houses that

were built outside the walled city resembled those inside.

In the 1950's there was a standardized project, such as the grand “bridge buildings”,

instead of the temporary (shanty-town). Housing and the big buildings of the 1960's were

covered with stone, but this did not notably change their International specification.

After reunification in 1967, in the variety of penthouses, and multilevel flats and studios,

in the 1970's we can see the local version of International Postmodernism architecture, and we

can see the influences and quotations. Since 1980, it has been more ingenious and implied, but in

same time conservative city, that the city carries an historical load.

The 1970 Outline Plan for the Old Jerusalem and its neighborhoods began as a serious

piece of work. Powerfully within Jerusalem’s town-planning tradition, the importance of

maintaining the integrity of the Old City’s visual space was recognized as vital; the plan also

recognized the inherent logic of the existing edges of development in the Old City area. The

boundaries of the built-up areas within the site are for the most part natural ones, but outside the

wall, land is generally unsuitable for ordinary construction because of soil and foundation

conditions, and the slopes are very steep. Population figures were randomly chosen: suddenly the

Old City’s landscape would have three times the number of people which the Master Plan had

proposed for it. Indeed, buildings erected in the early 1990s tended to be sedate in form, with

more straight lines and fewer arches and the past styles would be copied, in some cases without

any adhering to their original significance and without any creativity, resulting in a “nervous and

random” architecture replete with structural distortions and a sense of degeneration.

The realization came that in all matters pertaining to planning and development of a

historical and special city with its relatively small scale of measurement, projects must be carried

out and planned with conservatism, with a greater measure of modesty, and respect for existing

fabric. The deductive method virtually ignores all planning determinants which involve human

perceptions or are dismissed as subjective, and which therefore cannot be readily quantified. In

doing so, it can't recognize fully needs and requirements whose fulfillment should be one of

planning basic goals. Regarding their position in the total of urban values, these qualities could

effectively counter-balance the purely quantitative elements in determining planning priorities.

In Jerusalem, perhaps more than in any other city, qualitative and non-measurable forces have

formed.

The controversy in Jerusalem flares up more sharply from time to time in the wake of one

project or another in which stone had become a secondary element rather than a major one, and

by another material like glass. The highly important practical need to preserve of Jerusalem’s

unique character emerged, but it has been proved that stone is unsuitable by character and

planning possibilities for high-rise development, because stone should not be hauled more than

six to eight stories up.At the same time glass development is unfavorable in Jerusalem for

climatic reasons; buildings require summer air-conditioning and winter heating at a cost greater

than one would pay in conventional stone, and severe problems of opening, closing, replacing

and correct maintenance and cleaning. The metal lintels and glass surfaces of such buildings

suffer serious problems of physical deterioration, as stone does not: stone “lasts forever”.

At the beginning of the 20th century houses were better-quality houses built in different

styles, reflecting changes in the social norms of the population, Western influences, and modern

technologies. Since 1967 design and construction standards have improved, but since 1967 there

has been a growing tendency, despite opposition, for high-rise construction; this we can see in

the west of Jerusalem.

Is there hope to find a harmony in architectural urbanity between East Jerusalem and

West? How will exclusion of religious and political factors fare in the restructuring and

development of Jerusalem in a comprehensive and integrated manner? And how can a solution to

urbanity and maintaining historic sites in Jerusalem be found, in spite of the presence of fanatical

religious groups?

There is a clear division, socially, politically, culturally and with regard to religion. At the

same time Jerusalem is a modern city characterized by traditional “Western” planning standards,

architecture, and road systems.

On the contrary side of development and improvement in another side of Jerusalem

especially East Jerusalem, Israel has adopted a series of policies intended to make it difficult to

build on land or to expand existing structures. As a result, people are only allowed to build and

live on 13 percent of East Jerusalem. This disparity between the development and construction in

West Jerusalem paralyzing and the reducing of urban growth in East Jerusalem has led to the

emergence of a clear difference in city planning. There is a clear difference in the physical

appearance between east (Arab neighborhoods) and west Jerusalem. Even though there are laws

and regulations for planning and construction, the situation in Jerusalem has a political

dimension.

– Jerusalem should have to reach a fair equation through coexistence between

the conflicting parties, and without religious or political distinction.

– Works on the basis of a unified Jerusalem visually without barriers and the

status of Jerusalem should be implemented in the first place, and Jerusalem

has to be the priority of planners and architects.

– Avoid blurring the identity of Jerusalem, because the beauty of Jerusalem

comes from plurality and diversity of physical and visual richness.

– The integration of modern architecture and ancient manner is consistent with

the preservation of architectural elements that give special identity and the

overall look of Jerusalem

– The religious, demographic and policy factors should be sufficient incentive

to develop the creativity of Jerusalem and the creation of the diverse and rich

architectural elements, and not be a factor for the demolition of Jerusalem and

separate the city to the Eastern and Western sides.