Beer Sheva Strategic Partnership

The physical setting in Beer Sheva and upcoming changes within the city require a strategic standardization for the implementation of quality public infrastructure for its inhabitants. The purpose of this ‘manifesto’ is to both create an urban policy that develops the available public spaces in Beer Sheva, while also developing a standard with which to check the existing urban planning. As opposed to typical planning outlines which decry a vision and policy, the forthcoming plan as a strategic one, asks questions regarding the existing infrastructure and sets targets and priorities for renewal and development within the city. At the same time, it creates a standard and a visual language for its public spaces, by determining a set of concrete tools to designing these places. 

In addition to writing such values and targets for the strategic plan, the Beer Sheva municipality is working with our office and those of other Landscape Architects to implement a series of physical intervention around the city, according to the strategic plan. This sort of work enables a two-way system of learning – from the individual to the general and from the general to the individual, while enriching the planning outcomes in both directions. 

The foundational thinking for the strategic plan is rooted in the desert and the oasis, and understanding the nature of the relationship between them as a tool for establishing a planning and design toolbox for the public space, based on the climate and the ecosystem surrounding the city. The desert oasis offers within it water as a source of life, vibrant vegetation rich in both color and shadow, and culture of hospitality. Its exists as defined by, and segmented from, the desert. These principles are the themes outlined in the strategic plan. 

The strategic plan is based on five themes: 

1. Culture – strategic planning of urban ‘programs’ in the public space and defining places of interest as venues for urban renewal
2. Water – strategic planning for the preservation of water resources and their integration into the public space as a place of culture within the desert city.
3. Vegetation – strategic planning of the vegetation in Beer Sheva according to the desert climate and the programmatic needs of the city.
4. Green ‘framework’ – strategic urban planning of the open spaces available within the city and on its exterior, and the connections between them. 
5. Street Terminology – defining the street as the primary urban space within the city, and establishing criteria for its advancement.