Idit Shachnai Ran
In the first decades of the kibbutz movement, the layout of the typical kibbutz reflected the modernist aspiration for comprehensive and total planning, in search for a new spatial structure that would express the social values of the kibbutz and, at the same time, shape all aspects of the members’ lives. The kibbutzim were planned based on modernistic tools such as masterplan and zoning; the buildings were built in the spirit of minimalism, modesty, and functionalism. Ultimately, the idea of the kibbutz came to be firmly linked to modernistic architecture. However, during the 1970s, subsequent to political, economic, and cultural processes, both at the local and global levels, the kibbutzim underwent substantive spatial changes, which loosened this association.
The proposed lecture will elucidate the processes whereby the kibbutz parted ways with modernist architecture and the values associated with it, by juxtaposing the changes in the practices of kibbutz planning with those in the construction economy in the country at large. The kibbutz planning system, as formulated in the 1940s, was a broad and centralized mechanism that mediated between the kibbutzim and the state institutions. Yet, the processes of spatial change that occurred in the kibbutzim during the 1970s were unsystematic and decentralized. The collective planning system had failed to redefine the common goals and values to serve as a basis for total planning. In contrast to the past, these changes were implemented in each kibbutz separately and were propelled mainly by local decisions and individual initiatives.
By the 1970s, a new generation of architects influenced by contemporary architectural theories had become increasingly involved in the planning of kibbutzim. In the planning departments, a rift evolved and gradually widened between those young architects and the veterans who followed modernistic approaches. The disagreements were by no means limited to esthetics: They were substantive and fraught, heralding the disintegration of the fundamental idea behind the kibbutz movement. They challenged the concept of the “kibbutz” as a “type,” and the relevance of its core values. At a time when the economic prospects for the kibbutzim were veiled in uncertainty, the young architects designed huge, unstandardized, expensive edifices. In many cases, the construction of such a building contributed to the kibbutz’s economic collapse.
The typical spatial model realized in the kibbutzim at the beginning of the 20th century mirrored social values such as equality, and the priority of the collective over the individual. In the nascent Israeli State of the late 1940s, these notions were perceived as idyllic. In that sense, the spatial changes in the kibbutzim during the second half of the century can be seen as part of the transformation of the country’s social order. All in all, the spatial reorganization of the kibbutz marks the advent of a new and different order, which is now less transparent and less easily identifiable.
Idit Shachnai Ran: Architect, lecturer, and cultural researcher. Idit holds a master’s degree in cultural studies and a doctorate from the Faculty of Architecture and Town-Planning in the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Idit’s research employs an interdisciplinary approach that combines qualitative research with tools and knowledge derived from architectural studies and the theoretical perspectives from the fields of sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the physical space of the kibbutz and the changes it has undergone in the wake of political, economic, and social processes, mainly in the 1970s. Idit teaches in the faculty of architecture at the Technion and at the Tel Aviv University.