Introduction
Plaza 919 is a public square located in the centre of a new residential quarter. E Quarter – a 63 hectares 2,900 residential units masterplan – had been commission by the Ministry of Housing and planned by Minadd Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. It has been developed on a greenfield site, as an urban extension to the City of Rosh Haayin. The detailed design of public parks and streetscape had been developed in collaboration with Prisma Landscape Architecture.
Plaza 919 consists of a square and a park. The recently completed square will be flanked by a primary school to the East and a kindergarten to the West and fronts the quarter’s high street and commercial hub. It is envisioned as a vibrant meeting point for children and parents, shoppers and workers. The park already serves the neighbouring residents and climbs up to a higher residential street, as part of the quarter’s central civic corridor.
Design Ideas and Realisation
• Axis and Destination – Plaza 919 is both a destination (square) and an axis – a local, linear park in line with the quarter’s masterplan of a civic axis. Compared with the surrounding streets, it offers an alternative, green-corridor route for walking down to the commercial and civic hub.
• Circulation and Accessibility – The level difference between streets and the local Accessibility Regulations had stipulated a flat plaza to the North and a long ramp climbing Southwards. The playful juxtaposition of a direct route and longer ramps has resulted in two parallel axii, generating interest and activity in their meeting points.
• Walls and Framed Views – Originally conceived as display cabinets for school artworks, three decorative walls have emerged to facilitate and frame the circulation axii.
• Spaces and Activities – Essentially expanded stair landings, each ‘garden room’ is designed to inform meeting, play and leisure with respective street furniture
• Materials and Details – True to the quarter’s overall design language of Coarse to Refined – paths are made of in-situ concrete while entry/activity squares are paved with a selection of concrete pavers. The lacelike walls had been constructed by erecting orange steel frames on top of a coarse concrete plinth. Those are clad with leaf-motif, laser-cut, blue and green panels. The walls feature gateways, windows and balconies and integrate stilted and internal lighting fixtures.
Innovation and Positive Impact
• The realisation of the landscape masterplan preceded the development of residential and civic plots. The green corridors and public gardens act as a catalyst for the ongoing population of the quarter along themes of walkability, outdoor lifestyle and community.
• The design of Plaza 919 introduces unique walls as public art. The walls’ scale detailing and use of colour, are uncommon in the local landscape and the Plaza sets the tone for future public parks in the quarter, in terms of vibrancy, legibility and accessibility.
• Rain water harvesting – designed according to SuDS principles, all rain water from roofs, plots, streets and higher parks is collected and channeled to the lower parks in the peripheral corridors for irrigation and retention before discharging to Raba River.
Implementation
• The coordination of park edges and activities with the adjacent plots should have been revisited following the completion of the residential buildings.
• Accessibility requirements – a wider-than-anticipated distribution of hand rails had been instructed post-construction, which otherwise would have been integrated into the design of the walls.
Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of landscape: Minadd in collaboration with Prisma
Urban Design offices involved in the design: Minadd
Location: 7 Shmuel Hannavy, Rosh Haayin, Israel
Design year: 2019
Year Completed: 2023
