גַּעְתוֹנְיָה | מפגש עיר-נחל-ים

Gaaton Boulevard is Nahariya’s central axis, yet over the years the stream around which the city was built has become a channel disconnected from the urban fabric. Water flows through the heart of the city but is barely part of its everyday life. The project proposes reimagining the Gaaton corridor as a single urban and landscape system – from the railway station, through the city center, to the point where it meets the sea. Along the boulevard, the connection to the stream is strengthened through active public spaces, commerce, employment, soft mobility, streamside vegetation, and spaces adapted to changing water conditions. At its mouth, the stream widens and becomes an urban “Water Gate”: a space connecting the city, the shore, and the sea, and giving Nahariya a new public focal point rooted in the identity of the place. The design does not seek to confine the stream to a single state but allows it to change throughout the year. In the dry seasons, the banks of the Gaaton serve as active, accessible public space; in the rainy seasons, they allow the water to spread in a controlled way. In this way, changes in water levels, flow, and flooding become a visible and meaningful part of the experience of the place, rather than an urban barrier. The Gaaton is no longer hidden infrastructure within the city, but a living space that shapes it – in everyday life, through the seasons, and during floods.