Inter-Enclave

The Hadar neighborhood in Haifa is home to several distinct communities: ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union. These groups live in relative isolation from one another, forming “community enclaves” that maintain a degree of separation in their daily lives. This separation often fosters intolerance and, at times, can lead to violence.

This project explores how urban space can facilitate a shift from a multicultural society—where different cultures exist separately—to an intercultural society that preserves the uniqueness of each community while emphasizing points of contact and interaction. The advantage of an intercultural society lies in fostering daily connections between communities, helping to reduce prejudice and build mutual understanding.

To achieve this, the project spatially maps the different communities in Hadar and analyzes the activities specific to each enclave. Through this mapping, it identifies potential points of cultural interaction that can serve as the foundation for shared spaces. These points are often located at cultural cores, such as education centers and religious institutions.

The proposed intercultural space consists of two key components: fluid spaces that are neutral, flexible, and open to all communities and domain spaces that are defined and associated with specific cultural groups. The relationship between these spaces is built upon the identified cultural intersections. The fluid spaces provide a neutral public realm for different communities to interact, while the domain spaces—“islands” of specific cultural identity—preserve the uniqueness of each group.

At certain times, the boundaries between these domain “islands” and the fluid civic spaces blur, strengthening connections between the communities. In this way, the islands do not remain permanently isolated but integrate with the intercultural public spaces. This creates an intercultural urban environment that maintains each community’s identity while promoting daily interactions and a shared civic life.