Military HQ

Most people in Israel live dual lives: At times, we are civilians, and at times, soldiers. The land itself also embodies dual identities, one civilian and the other military. This duality is a core element in shaping the Israeli space and the lives within it, yet its existence is often suppressed and denied, as if Israel’s spaces are exclusively either civilian or military. This project seeks to address the inherent tension in the civilian-military identity of our environment, and to explore how we might design it to stop demoting our military identity to the physical and mental periphery, in order to live lives that simulate “normalcy.”

Tel Aviv is perceived by many as a bubble of civilian life, largely undisturbed by the country’s security reality, even in times of emergency. Yet beneath the surface, Tel Aviv is a city whose space is saturated with marks left by “security forces,” first and foremost the Kirya: a vast military compound entirely surrounded by civilian, cultural and recreational urban life. This contrast is amplified by the Kirya’s nearly seamless integration into Tel Aviv’s landscape. The project aims to confront the city’s built-in split identity and make present the otherwise denied military space within it by reshaping the interface between the Kirya and its surroundings.

The project centers on the Military HQ, a mysterious underground space, known by all to lie deep within the Kirya, but invisible to the eye. Through excavation and exposure, parts of this underground Military HQ are revealed and connected to the bordering civilian spaces. This newly opened front creates a novel space of maneuver between civilian and military identities, blurring the once-clear lines separating these two worlds. The city and the military, once separate entities, begin to merge into a single, complex whole. This new space compels us to confront the military presence at the heart of the urban environment, and simultaneously invites us to rethink how we experience urban space, our internal identity conflicts, and the ways the city might contain, absorb and reflect this complexity. Thus, the Kirya becomes a symbol of the Israeli reality, where the interaction between civilian and military, between routine life and life in times of emergency, is inescapable.