Motionmachine

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” And so the center is important-the center within a person, a town, a society, and humanity. We aim to establish and strengthen that center in our proposal. A town center is both an anchor within the society, drawing people together, and it is a staging ground from which to venture out. The issues key to the development of a sustainable community at Ein Hud- economic development, education, relationship of the people to the land, and cultural development- can all be addressed through the establishment of an identifiable town center. This is the aim of the development plan for the village of Ein Hud.
Economic development is key to the future of the village of Ein Hud and the plan for stimulating development is three-fold. The first aim is to create a local economy based on agri-tourism and local craft knowledge. The beautiful scenery and climate that is conducive to growing olives would be utilized to offer goods and services attractive to tourists. The city center is the location of the marketplace where the goods would be sold as well as the location of the lodging for visitors. A transportation hub is also next to the city center, allowing for easy access to the center of town for people arriving by car or bus. This transportation hub is the key element in the second aim in the economic development plan: to connect the village of Ein Hud to the larger regional economy with the surrounding villages and the city of Haifa. The transportation hub is located on the main road that passes the town and consists of a parking area, bus stop, and gas station. The main road has been relocated so that it no longer cuts through the residential part of town. Instead, it goes along the line between town and agriculture areas, following the lay of the land, and allowing for varied and interesting views of the community of Ein Hud along with the surrounding countryside. The last aim of the economic development plan is the education of the population, both young and old. For the young, a school building is located in the town center. This gives the school a place of prominence in the community, signifying its importance and bringing a range of ages and interests in to the center. The location of a school house within the community enables the young people to develop with the skills needed for a lifetime of learning and understanding. An educational campaign will also account for the older members of the town and include involvement from visiting scholars that are interested in learning of the customs, traditions, and circumstances of the people of Ein Hud. In one of the new buildings in the center with be housed a grassroots organization that focuses on organizing workshops and instruction that helps people understand how to better use their resources and refine skills that may help them to prosper. Housing is included in the upper stories of one of the new buildings so that cultural exchange and scholarship could be encouraged by providing services to the visiting scholars.
Cultural development is absolutely necessary for survival and understanding within any society. This is especially so in current day Israel. The location of cultural amenities within an identifiable town center helps to establish and affirm the identity of the town. A cultural center where town activities can be focused would be housed in one of the new buildings, along with a women’s health clinic, and a government hall. The new civic buildings within the town center are to be similar in scale to the other surrounding buildings in keeping with local building materials, the building fabric of the town, and the available space within the designated center. It is important that no existing builidings are torn down. The existing structures represent hard-won victories and are necessary to the inhabitants. More destruction by outsiders may be viewed with mistrust, therefore the proposed buildings are infill. However, because of the number of functions these buildings would serve- lodging, schools, education, town hall, and cultural center- they are taller than the other buildings. This is appropriate since the taller buildings would have more of a presence within the town, symbolizing their importance. A town town should have access to these amenities that encourage understanding and exploration, and these amenities are located so as to enhance the identity of the town. In striving to create a unified society, the goal of planning communities should not be a subversive assimilation, but should instead help the people establish their own identity and secure their own livelihood, enabling them to understand the larger world within their own context.
The factor that has perhaps influenced both the culture and the economy of the people in this area more than any other is the environment and the people’s relationship to it. It can be a harsh and unforgiving land, with little natural rainfall. But it is beautiful, offering itself to the people for their survival and enrichment as long as it is respected. People have lived in this land perhaps longer than any other, sometimes in harmony with the land and other times at odds with it. The ecological systems must be understood and sensitive practices must be used if people are to create a sustainable future for themselves so that the land is not degraded to the point that it is no longer capable of sustaining human settlement. In the ravines and valleys between the hills are the most critical areas to preserve. These are where the forests grow and the streams run. The hillsides are more fitted to agricultural development and have traditionally been where the buildings of a settlement have been built. Following this way of thinking, there is gradient up the slopes of the hill on which Ein Hud is built, going from preserved ecology in the valley to low-impact parks and natural areas, to terraced agricultural land, to housing development at the top of the slope and on the hilltop. There is evidence of this type of development already in the town with the old Arab olive terraces and the development towards the top of the hill. Keeping with these ideas and zoning new areas for development that are sensitive to the ecological systems of the land will help preserve the systems that make agriculture possible and enhance the beauty of the landscape that will attract tourists and scholars from outside the town.
Also critical in the development plan for the town of Ein Hud is the idea of community- specifically, providing areas for new housing, important spaces for social gathering and community gardening, and enhancing spaces of religious importance. Physically, this idea is rooted in enhancing the important religious and social spaces of the cemetery and the mosque. The cemetery is enlarged and incorporated in to a town park and the mosque is located adjacent to the newly defined town square. Also key are two new zones for housing expansion, and the establishment of a community garden on the edge of town where people can come together to grow vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers. The idea is to encourage and opportunities to work together and interact as well as to allow space for ceremony and ritual that is key to the identity of the town.
The plan aims to create a town that functions at all scales, from the international scale through education and tourism, down to the extended family- the basic unit of Ein Hud. The keys to the plan are education, economic and cultural development, all done with respect for the land. It is perhaps the symbiotic relationship of the people with the land that best symbolizes the hope for the town of Ein Hud, that they could enter in to a symbiotic relationship with Israelis within the state of Israel.