Our future’s so bright, we’ve got to have shade

Dr. Martin Weyl has a problem. The 74-year-old former director of the Israel Museum and current director of the philanthropic Beracha Foundation is unhappy with the way architects and urban planners here in Israel are erecting buildings, laying out parks and playgrounds, and generally building our cities. What he writes and what he says are somewhat reminiscent of Jane Jacobs's seminal 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in which she railed against the “Robert Moses style” of architecture and urban planning that prevailed at that time: the replacement of vibrant diverse neighborhoods with monumental building complexes that were too big for people, divorced from their immediate surroundings by walls and lack of sidewalks, and often accessible only by car. For Weyl, however, the problem is not about size but sunlight. “There's no better time in the year than the months of summer to raise public awareness to one of the most severe problems in Israel – the lack of shade in public spaces. When we leave our homes in the city during the hot summer months, we immediately search for protection from the scorching sun. But in most cases we do not find it – not close to our homes, not in the streets, not on the benches where we sit to rest our feet, not in the city squares, or parks, or school yards,” he wrote recently. Reminded that we do have our parks and our tree-lined streets, such as those to be seen throughout Tel Aviv, Weyl waves his hand dismissively and says, “The truth is that there are very few shaded streets. There are a few in Tel Aviv that were planted in the 1930s, because there was an idea to create a 'garden city' in Tel Aviv. And there was in Kfar Saba a mayor who was very aware. The problem is, there is no real awareness now. At the moment, things are being planned in such a way that there will be no shade.” Asked whether we need to have a total paradigmatic change in the way we think, Weyl emphatically replies, “Yes! You know, the whole of Israel was planned according to Northern European ideas, where sunshine was not a big deal. Just go outside and look at all the high buildings with their balconies. During most of the day, you can't sit on those balconies because of the sun. Why are they made that way? It's not bad will. It's just that people do these things automatically without thinking for a moment.” It's a good bet that people will begin to think now, as the Design Museum in Holon begins an important exhibition, in conjunction with Weyl and the Beracha Foundation, called “Urban Shade in Israel.” The result of three years of research and design, the exhibition is intended not only to document the problem of lack of shade in public places but to suggest possible solutions, based on currently available technology. “Urban Shade” begins with a display of roughly 100 photographs by Benny Gam Zu Letova, taken while wandering around Israel during the summer of 2014. Intended as a visual statement of the problem of lack of shade in communal space, the pictures graphically show what happens when architects, landscape artists and urban developers plan their projects while thinking of virtually everything – except shade. We see the entrance to the Knesset in Jerusalem, its broad walkway bleached by the sun, without so much as a single blade of grass, let alone a single tree. The broad plaza of Tel Aviv's Habima Theater sits sweltering in searing sunlight. The bright midday heat in the public square outside Beersheba's science museum is unrelieved by rows of growing palm trees, which cast almost no shade at all. A child riding a swing in Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park must wear a big floppy hat to protect his head from the sun. And, perhaps most tellingly, we see a roadside bus shelter – of the kind we see all over Israel – bathed in blazing sunlight and offering no shade whatsoever, with one waiting passenger standing to the side in the bus shelter's faint tiny shadow. Throughout these photographs, we see not only the physically debilitating aspects of bright sunlight – as the few people in Gam Zu Letova's scenes are forced to cover their heads and shade their eyes – but also statements of urban loneliness. Like Jane Jacobs, who saw enormous concrete plazas too large and too intimidating for people to want to sit in, Gam Zu Letova sees contemporary urban spaces in Israel too bright with sunlight for people to be able to sit in, even if they wanted to. Having stated the problem so vividly, “Urban Shade in Israel” sets out to show some ways the problem might be solved. Visitors to the exhibition are, of course, quickly reminded of the essential importance of trees. Not only do they provide shade, they absorb pollutants, serve as habitats for wildlife, and afford cities with visually attractive counterpoints to the concrete and asphalt of built-up areas. However, we are also reminded that trees – even the right kinds of trees – take time to grow. The time required for a tree to grow until it can provide effective shade can range anywhere from seven to 20 years. And despite our natural inclination to think of trees as the natural and thus most desirable source of shade, the incorporation of trees into a city requires not only knowledge, planning, and time but also resources that many cities do not have. Thus, we are told, planting trees is not always a possible option. And in places where trees cannot be planted, or where people simply cannot wait for planted trees to grow, designers can provide solutions. Those design solutions are what “Urban Shade in Israel” is here to show. Visitors soon discover that people have used a variety of materials for shade since the dawn of history, such as palm fronds for tropical huts and goat hair for the tents of desert nomads. Today's technology opens new possibilities for using a variety of materials to provide shade on a larger scale and improve the quality of the urban environment. Architect Doris Kim Sung, for example, has provided a shading material consisting of two kinds of metal laminated together. As these metals react with movement to changes in temperature, Sung is able to create structures that can provide both shade and cooling ventilation when needed. From the Shade and Shading Studio of Bezalel Academy's department of ceramics and glass design, we have modular ceramic shading elements for architecture, all in natural earth colors and tones. Designer Ilan Goldstein draws from traditional Islamic architecture to create modular shading pieces inspired by mashrabiya, a latticework wall that features more space and air than building material. And other contributing designers display shading materials ranging from freshly invented plastics to natural rosewood. An interactive installation is arrayed around the lower, ground-floor gallery, where visitors can virtually plant trees and build pergolas in a defined available “urban space,” and receive immediate feedback on the degree of change they have effected to the local environment. And, for the first time in Design Museum history, the exhibition will burst forth, so to speak, from the museum's gallery spaces to its surroundings – Mediatheque Square, the museum courtyard, and the inner gardens. Visitors will be treated to several thought-provoking, large-scale outdoor shade installations, notably one in which shade is provided by a new form of acrylic fiber, and another by hundreds of small plastic balls that languidly move around the structure's roof. Additionally, visitors to the Design Museum's materials library will be able to view and consider a variety of up-to-theminute, out-of-the-box innovations in new materials for creating urban shade in both small and very large public areas. “Urban Shade in Israel” is ongoing through October 31 at the Design Museum Holon. Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday: closed. For further information: 073-215-1525, www.dmh.org.il

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