Harduf Roundabout
community design and building project for a traffic roundabout -
student project at the "Artways" School of Art with involvement of the local community.
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Harduf, Israel, 2011
The project was conceived as an environmental design project for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students at the Artways School of Art and was to include involvement of the Harduf community. The chosen site was a traffic roundabout in the Harduf community which, in spite of being very central, had never been given a proper landscaping.
From the wide range of models and approaches one model was chosen which was then presented at a community gathering.
The students began the project with a study of the site and its environment, including taking measurements, drawings and interviews with people living in the community and coworkers of the neighboring work-places. Based on the summary of this initial research the students, guided by the artist, defined the objectives and guiding principles of the artistic design. Among these emphasis was put on the motifs of turning movement, of center and periphery, and of the theme of "individual versus community". In the course of 3 weeks the students worked on a number of sketches and models, both two- and three-dimensional.
After a period of searching for and ordering appropriate materials the realisation of the project started in December 2011.
The building process included placing large boulders in the center of the traffic island, laying river boulders into a bed of concrete, paving with natural flagstones, placing and casting wooden poles in concrete and spreading earth in preparation for planting.
Members of the Harduf community and High School pupils of the Harduf Waldorf School participated at various stages of the project.
The project was inaugurated in the spring of 2012. The design includes lighting which illuminated the sculpture at night.
