Warde in the city center of Jerusalem

Warde is an urban installation located in Vallero Square, in the heart of Israel. This dynamic installation is part of the municipality’s effort to improve the urban space of the city center.

The existing square was in poor condition. Divided by the tram line into two urban spaces with no supporting program around them, it was filled with inevitable urban facilities such as a waste composter and an electricity substation. A patchwork of ongoing landscape fixes attempted to save an environment that was incoherent.

Warde’s attempt was not to fight the chaos, but instead to try and “tie the urban space together.”, To spread around such fantastic elements so, that on one hand, they would overcome the reality of the square, and on the other hand, they would be able to stand along in the nonrealistic setting of Jerusalem.

Four giant flowers were carefully positioned to be viewed from all around the square, and from the market nearby. Each is separately inflated and reacts to the situation around it, so that whenever pedestrians walk by, the flowers inflate and open up, and then deflate and close as the people walk away. If a bypasser is looking for a moment of shade during the hot summer days, the flower will inflate and stay open until the person leaves. When the tram is approaching the station all four flowers will inflate at once and signal the shoppers to hurry if they want to catch the tram. The result – the Urban space suddenly reacts to the people using it.

TEXT, PHOTOS HQ ARCHITECTS

KEY DATA

PROJECT REALIZED IN 2008

PROGRAM Urban Installation