The halls of ivy (in Beer Sheva)

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The entire campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is made up of Brutalist buildings.
But just here, in Building 72 (in which the Archaeology department is located!), some ivy has creeped in and up to give a softening effect.
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An abandoned old Brutalist movie theater

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On a tour of  Beer Sheva our guide took us to this abandoned movie theater.
Old folks from the neighborhood walked by, listened, and then volunteered their fond memories and fantastic stories of how this cinema was an exciting part of their life, maybe the ONLY exciting part, back a few decades when Beer Sheva was a dusty poor town in the desert. 

No one seems to know what to do with the dilapidated place.
Now that now-thriving Beer Sheva wants to be the capital of Brutalism architecture, this Brutalist building should probably be preserved.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday B-Day.)
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Traces of the old Brutalism in our market

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Beer Sheva's municipal market has been "modernized" in recent decades.
But at one edge, in the oldest part of the shuk, you can still find traces of the old standard, Brutalism.
The arches in the photo have the dark, fortress-like feeling of Brutalist architecture.

As we saw in an earlier post explaining this style,  the term Brutalism comes from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete," a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings.

The newer parts of the shuk are covered with a different material,  which give more light and a lighter feeling.
Just as Tel Aviv's "White City" has become world-famous for its old Bauhaus houses, so Beer Sheva in the desert now wants to be famous for its many (too many!) old and new examples of Brutalism.
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See more about Brutalist buildings in Beer Sheva and also in Zichron Yaacov in my earlier posts.
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New life for a Brutalist building

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Here is the arts complex/hotel that houses the new organ we saw in the last two posts.
It hugs the slope of Mt. Carmel, in the town of Zichron Yaakov.
Under the clouds you see the Mediterranean Sea. 

Our rooms were nice even though the hotel is not yet officially opened.
Tomorrow I'll show you the view from the balconies, wow! 
It may be hard concrete on the outside, but inside is the soft life.  : )

Elma is a total renovation of the Mivtachim building which originally was meant for members of  the big HMO Kupat Holim as a yearly vacation place, a "rest home." 

Built in the 1960s at the height of Brutalist architecture's popularity in Israel, there is lots of raw concrete inside and out.
The term Brutalism was coined in 1953 from the French béton brut, "raw concrete," a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings.
 (So far in this blog we have talked about architectural examples in the "Brutalism capital of Israel," Beer Sheva.)

Lily's Terrace is named for Lily Elstein, the wonderful lady who is pouring all her heart and fortune into building this unique place where artists can live and create or perform and where hotel guests can freely mingle with them.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday and  Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors memes.)

The Med is too hot

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In Beer Sheva,  where there is so much Brutalist architecture,  the summer temperatures are brutal.
I can't remember one day that has not been in the 30s C  for months and months.
If this Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's rounded building did not have those external shade things,  the students inside would bake from the sun streaming in.

(The building on the right is the university library we talked about earlier.)

Even the humidity here in the desert is abnormally high these days, like this weekend's 45%.
Usually it is 15% to 30%.
The weatherman explained that the Mediterranean water along Israel's shore is still very hot, 30 degrees C,  and is causing this humidity.  (Can such a thing can cause high humidity, really?  Not so sure; never heard that before.)
My town, Meitar, is a little over 50 km from the sea.
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UPDATE Saturday night:  Forecast is for only 29 F  tomorrow in Beer Sheva!   Yes!!  The psychological barrier of 30+ is broken!
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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City Hall

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Another Brutalistism building--the Beer Sheva City Hall, tower included.

On one side its Brutalistic architecture is softened by a dancing fountain, at least.
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G is for gray, gray, gray  for ABC Wednesday.
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More Beer Sheva Brutalism: Yad LaBanim

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Here is Beit Yad Labanim, another of Beer Sheva's many examples of Brutalist architecture.

(We saw in the post about BGU's library  that the term Brutalism was coined in 1953 from the French béton brut, "raw concrete," a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings.)

Originally designed to be Beer Sheva's main synagogue, the money ran out before its completion,  and the strange building stood deserted for years.
In the late 1970s a group of bereaved parents came together to try to have the building's designation changed.
By 1983 they succeeded in completing it as a memorial hall to their soldier sons and daughters who had fallen in Israel's wars.  

See more about the concept of Yad Labanim houses throughout Israel here.
Or see my photos of Jerusalem's Yad Labanim, which also has unusual architecture. 

I have not ventured in yet, but I read that inside are art exhibitions, cultural activities from time to time, and a 300-seat theater. 

Enlarge this photo 2x and see some interesting details!

Pigeons on the roof are kept out by metal grating stretched over the openings.
And that bare patch--is it just the plaster falling off the wall  or  could it be a deliberate "window" into the brutalist reinforced concrete? 
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Haaretz has an entertaining article about Beer Sheva's love-hate affair with Brutalism.
(It is behind a paywall but the newspaper offers ten free articles per month after a simple registration.)

It says this, for instance:

Brutalism and its varied concrete features were seen as an allegory for the young, Israeli-born Jew − rough, direct, aggressive, just like cement itself. 

The architects of Brutalism were themselves native-born, young contemporaries of the state. Their character and vision overlapped with the allegory to a remarkable extent. 

The great irony is that their buildings were constructed mostly for newly arrived immigrants whom the state was sending to the country’s far geographical periphery to live in its Israeli-conceived concrete works. The architects themselves, of course, didn’t follow.

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(Linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
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Béton brut --> Brutalism at Ben-Gurion University

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For better or for worse,  Beer Sheva is called our capital of Brutalism.*
And the city's Ben-Gurion University is full of Brutalist architecture. 
BGU's main library, for instance, whose cornerstone was laid in 1971.

 From the Aranne Library website:

In designing the library building, the architects wanted to bring several ideas to life:
The building was planned to be washed in natural light – present in abundance in the Negev - which,  diffused from the North (to eliminate the direct rays of the sun),  floods the library's reading areas. . . .
The combination of concrete, dark in appearance and representing durability in desert conditions,  and gleaming cupolas made of glass mosaic, expresses the blending of material with light.

Here is the back of the library. 

* From Wikipedia:

The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term in 1953, from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-World War II buildings.
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Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Examples are typically very linear, fortresslike and blockish, often with a predominance of concrete construction. Initially the style came about for government buildings, low-rent housing and shopping centres to create functional structures at a low cost, but eventually designers adopted the look for other uses such as college buildings.

UPDATE: Here is a nice new article about the beauty of Brutalism.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday, Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors, and Our World Tuesday.)
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