בין השבילים

The Israeli kibbutz emerged from a collective worldview in which architecture and the built environment served as expressions of social and communal values. Public buildings, pathways, and shared spaces shaped a way of life rooted in encounters, belonging, and cooperation. Over the years, as kibbutz society has undergone significant transformations and urbanization has accelerated, a central question has emerged: How can the spatial and social identity of the kibbutz be preserved while adapting to contemporary realities and establishing new connections with the neighboring city? At Kibbutz Givat Brenner, the historic convalescent home, which once hosted visitors from outside the kibbutz, demonstrates the possibility of maintaining communal life while remaining open to the surrounding environment. The building, abandoned for decades, retains an architectural and social framework with significant potential for renewal. The project explores how the spatial and social infrastructure of the kibbutz can be used to establish a contemporary model of hospitality, learning, research, and communal life. Through a research and hospitality center conceived as a “residency of knowledge,” the project proposes temporary accommodation for a community of researchers, lecturers, creators, and students from the Weizmann Institute of Science in the neighboring city, alongside public and communal activities shared by kibbutz residents and their guests. As in the historic convalescent home, hospitality is understood not merely as providing accommodation, but as an opportunity for encounters between communities, knowledge exchange, and temporary participation in kibbutz life. The project focuses on the relationships between old and new, built and open spaces, private and public, architecture and landscape, and the local community and its visiting guests. The design seeks to carry forward the collective ideals of the kibbutz through both architectural and conceptual preservation, emphasizing in-between spaces as settings for social encounters and communal life. In doing so, the kibbutz model of hospitality is reexamined in the context of the evolving relationship between kibbutz and city, preserving the unique identity of the place while opening it to new communities.