S.A.A.D.E.E.

It is no longer possible to generate economic development based only on agriculture and on cattle. Therefore, the idea of the project is to allow the village to be autonomous economically based on the products of the olive trees and of the other fruit trees. At the same time, the idea is to relaunch the village, together with Ein Hod as a touristic area connected to the entrance of Carmel National Park.

In order to garantee a greater fluidity amog the two villages, and at the same time, an autonomy of those, the idea was to create a circular systems of roads. Such circular system would start from the provincial road HaifaTel Aviv, and would connect the two villages. With the creation of this road, there would be the possibility that, in the near future, the flow of tourists would reach the village.

However, the element that really unites the two opposite cultures is the fascinating and harsh landscape of the hills of the Carmel. This was, therefore, the starting point on which to work to find correlations between the two different populations. We have thought that the perception of the hill on which the village is based should be that of a haven among the olive trees, all the way down to the valleys that surround the village. In order to plant olive trees on such a steep land it was necessary to take into consideration utilising a system of terrace-cultivation. Therefore, the urban plan has as a starting point agriculture and the possibility of practicing it in difficult conditions. The terraces of the terrace-cultivation system are seen common places, squares or threshing floor. The village consolidates its traditional culture, but simultaneously opens up to the outside, expanding down-hill with its buildings and its olive trees, and crossing the territory with pedestrian ways that reach all the way down to the wadi.

We have faced the project, subdividing in layers the different components of the new plant of Ein Hud: the terrace-cultivation system, the system of pedestrian paths, the stairs system, that of the roads and finally the tree-plantation system.

The five terraces of the terrace-cultivation system, as we have previously mentioned, are the main pedestrian areas. The pedestrian paths move all the way through the village, from the bottom, until the edge of the hill. Their design is apparently autonomous as compared to the orography and to the pre-existing buildings. It is anticipated that each terrace would host a public building, be it an old building or a newly build one. For example, the Mosque, which is situated on the higher part of the city, being on one of the terraces confirms its very important role within the urban system. On the other terraces one should find the school building, the medical clinic, the multifunctional center hosting the city hall, the art center and the hospitality center.

The pedestrian paths system marks the whole hill with ascendant lines that generally follow the course of the land. When possible, those pedestrian ways follow pre-existing paths. When the system of pedestrian ways is superimposed on the terracecultivation system, it subdivides the squares in different levels. In such occasions, the paths modify their natural course and become connecting ramps among the different levels of the squares.

The starting and ending points of these paths is undefined on purpose. They are never interrupted, they are the connecting ways throughout the territory. The stairs system, on the other hand goes up the hill transversally to the pedestrian ways. Each stairs connect the terraces in an apparently casual manner, but with a single direction defined by an articulate texture. The road system rises from the new connection from the village to the provincial road and it stresses the importance of the central axe of the pre-existing road: the path that now a days connects Ein Hud to Ein Hod is transformed in a road.

The roads, that partly follow pre-existing paths, run almost parallel to the pedestrian ways and serve the pre-existing and newly built houses without breaching into the pedestrian areas.

Finally, the tree-plantation system could be once more sub-divided into four different levels.

Where the pedestrian ways system is superimposed on the terrace, there is a de-levelling of 6 meters that is generated.In this point where other alignements converge there appear a space on the retaining wall where rises a little square belonging to the multifunctional center. A row of olive trees connects the square to the higher level of the hill.

The building, purposefully, uses the same language of the landscape and of the terrace-cultivation system. The presence of the building is noticeable not only due to the space on the retaining wall, but also from the openings looking like bottom-holes that permeate the building and of the stream like roofs of the main rooms. Inside the building are located the city hall, its offices and the city hall meeting room; as well as the art center with the with the space for expositions and the hospitality center with a common space and the guest house rooms. The town hall meeting room and the space for expositions face the square with glass walls, establishing thus a continuity with the external environment. The other rooms have very small windows as compared to the dimension of the retaining wall. This is done in order to keep as much as possible the "unitarity" of the wall. Each room has four openings, at different levels, that garantee the air circulation and allow to have a view of the external landscape being either seated on standing up.

The roofs of the main rooms, on the upper level, represent a privileged observation point towards the landscape, the village, the sea as well as towards the olive tree plantations and the Carmel National Park. The areas for the expansion of the village are located inside the road system. The construction of new buildings is foreseen, such buildings will follow the traditional typology of the single house that faces a space common to other houses. The future presence of shops, responding to needs of the village, but also to the increased touristic flow, is along the main road going up the hill.