קו פרשת העיר

The project begins with the question of where the city ends in our perception. A study of mental maps of Tel Aviv revealed that although the city is perceived as a connected and intensive urban system, it is also experienced as a space divided by boundaries. One of the boundaries that repeatedly appeared in the maps was the Yarkon River – a significant open space at the heart of the city that is often reduced, in perception, to a line marking the end of the familiar city and the beginning of another territory. The Yarkon is a continuous system that crosses the metropolitan area and reaches the sea, yet within Tel Aviv it often functions as a dividing line. The connection between the city, the park, and the river is fragmented, and the area is not experienced as a continuous urban sequence. As the city continues to expand northward with the development of the new Sde Dov district, an opportunity emerges to rethink the Yarkon – not as an urban edge, but as a central connecting space. The project focuses on the Sportek section and the northern bank of the Yarkon, where the gap between the site's potential and its current condition is particularly evident. Rokach Boulevard, the large distance to the river, and the exposed character of the park create a disconnect between the urban fabric, the park, and the water. This leads to the project's central question: How can access to the river become not merely a route of passage, but an urban space in itself? The design strategy seeks to weave the city, road, park, and river back together into one continuous system. Rokach Boulevard is lowered beneath the level of the park, allowing the green landscape to extend directly from Kochav HaTzafon across it. The buildings are embedded into the topography through sunken architecture, roofs that continue the surface of the park, sunken courtyards, and glazed facades, allowing ground, architecture, and movement to operate as a single system. Along this sequence, three activity hubs are integrated: a sports complex that extends the existing Sportek activities, an Israel Trail hikers' complex along the route of the Israel National Trail, including spaces for rest, short-term accommodation, showers, and preparation, and a cafe complex that creates an everyday setting for meeting and lingering. The route continues toward the riverbank, where stepped terraces bring visitors gradually closer to the water, while two new bridges connect the two banks. The project thus brings together four scales – neighborhood, city, metropolis, and nation. "From Boundary to Place" seeks to transform the Yarkon from a line marking where the city ends into a place that connects neighborhood, city, metropolis, and country.