לשם שינוי

Global warming is no longer a future scenario, but a reality that is changing the conditions of urban life. As heat stress intensifies, we must rethink the way buildings and public spaces are designed so that they provide not only housing, but also shade, ventilation, vegetation, and comfortable conditions for staying outdoors. At the same time, urban renewal in Israel is confronting an aging building stock and the need to add housing units, yet the common response is often demolition and reconstruction. Such demolition erases not only the buildings themselves, but also the material and embodied energy already invested in them, existing infrastructure, memories, local identity, and an entire community that lives there. This raises the question: Can a neighborhood be renewed and densified, adapted to a changing climate, and improved in terms of quality of life – without erasing what already exists? 'For a Change' offers an answer through the climate-responsive renewal of Neve Ilan, a neighborhood in Rehovot. Rather than replacing the neighborhood, the project adds new layers of housing, climate infrastructure, and shared space while preserving the existing buildings and the community that lives there. The buildings are expanded upward through new additions and systems of shading and ventilation, while the spaces between them become a network of shade, airflow, vegetation, and water – spaces that support walking, staying, meeting, and community life. In this way, climate is not merely a technical solution, but a form of social infrastructure that connects the apartment, the building, the ground, and the neighborhood. Neve Ilan grows without disappearing, creating a form of renewal that adds housing and quality of life without displacing the community that already calls this place home.