Soutine Garden

An urban garden in a “temporary grove” bordering the streets of Soutine and Nahardea. A ‘Temporary Grove’ is a a means of claiming open public spaces designated by the  municipality plans for future planning. Many temporary groves in Tel Aviv have over time become public parks with what has become somewhat generic equation of a pocket park: grass surfaces,  walkways and playground facilities.The temporary grove on Soutine Street was a ‘public developer tax’ as compensation for building rights of a high-rise luxury  tower on the adjacent lots between Be’eri and Nehardea Street. The entrepreneur envisioned the garden as a “locked garden” for the benefit of the new residential tower residents.

Who are the rightful users of the temporary grove on Soutine Street? neighborhood residents? new tower tenants? pedestrians? At first glance it was clear that the garden was already there. A thick grove of Indian Rosewood trees. There are no paths in the grove, no hierarchy. There is one clearing that offers an opening for sunlight within the tree canopy. A new concrete path was paved to connects Soutine Street directly with Nhardea Street. A long, continuous bench offers seating along it emphasising its linearity within the grove. Wooden stages for sitting, reclining, and skateboarding dot the garden. A new clearing surrounded by a low fence protects flowers and shade plants like a vase in the center of the table.

These interventions demarcate spaces, axes, blurred edges, sidewalks, cleared surfaces, pruned vegetation, raised tree trunks, within the already existing grove. What was missing was a new interface to welcome its usage as a public pocekt park for all.