Jerusalem Design Week returns to the capital for its 13th year and will take place, as every year, at Hansen House in Jerusalem and other locations throughout the city. Nonetheless, this is not a typical year; it is a year marked by war and mourning, protests and instability, and 101 hostages, at the time of writing, who are still held in Gaza.
The organizers of Design Week chose to respond to the situation with a unique theme: "The Ark." When the waters rise and the winds rage, the ark becomes a refuge where life is preserved, and thoughts turn to the day after the disaster.
Jerusalem Design Week 2024 echoes the biblical story of the flood, a tale of destruction but also of redemption. Noah’s Ark was a human architectural creation that bore the responsibility of saving lives, bringing hope after disaster, and rebuilding society.
For one week, Hansen House will be filled with installations, exhibitions and performances from all design disciplines. All the works respond to the theme of the ark in one way or another, addressing restoration alongside commemoration and reflection alongside dreaming of a better future.
Amid a global boycott of Israeli culture, in which many international participants turned a cold shoulder to Design Week, there have been the most local collaborations between the event and Jerusalem's cultural institutions than ever before (under the general management of Smadar Tsook and Ran Wolf, Ran Wolf Company).
Additionally, this year saw a record number of proposals submitted by Arab designers wishing to present at the event (all of whom submitted their proposals in Hebrew, unlike in previous years). As part of this, and in a unique move, the event will expand beyond the boundaries of Hansen House; for this one-time project, the city's legendary red bus has been enlisted to lead visitors on a daily route starting throughout the city and ending at the flagship event at Hansen House.
Design Week will continue through September 26, and among the dozens of exhibits and installations, we have gathered the projects, experiences and exhibitions not to be missed:
Yuval Buchstab’s 'The Matchmaker' project
Designer and wood artist Yuval Buchstab received the offer to participate in Design Week while sitting shiva for his brother, Yogev Buchstab, who was taken hostage in Gaza on October 7. Yogev was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim along with his wife, Rimon Kirsch-Buchstab, who was released at the end of November in the first hostage deal after 53 days in captivity. On July 22, the family received the devastating news that Yogev had been murdered in captivity, and his body was recently returned to Israel.
"During the shiva, the curators of 'The Matchmaker' project, which I had worked with in the previous Design Week, reached out to me," says Yuval. "This year, the project pairs designers with musicians, and when they heard about Yogev, they decided to dedicate the exhibition to his memory." Yogev was a musician who specialized in building experimental musical instruments.
From his home workshop near the Gaza border, Yogev created unique and wonderful instruments, sometimes alone, sometimes with his brother Yuval. "The offer came at a difficult and confusing time during the shiva, where it was hard to motivate myself to take action," Yuval shares. "I had plans to commemorate Yogev and do things to help us remember him, so the offer came at just the right time."
As part of the project, Yuval decided to complete a musical instrument that he and his brother had designed together four years ago: an electric wooden mbira, the national instrument of Zimbabwe. "The mbira has a very pleasant and soothing sound, like a music box or lullaby," says Yuval.
"My goal was to finish the project we started and make a few more copies, so people could come to the exhibition and play the mbiras together, interact with them, and maybe even play in Yogev's memory." In the interactive installation, the audience will indeed be able to come and play the instruments that Yuval and Yogev built during better days. "I imagine it as a space filled with pleasant sounds, a mix of several kalimbas at once, creating a whirlpool of sounds," Yuval says.
Nir Oz – Flowers of redemption and mourning
Recent graduates of the Visual Communication Department at Bezalel, Eden Feinberg Sabach and Alon Butbul, didn’t expect to spend most of their final year in reserve duty near the Gaza border. The two met during their studies and were both called up to reserve duty at the beginning of the war, serving in the same intelligence unit.
"Shifting between studies and reserves were tough for us. Switching people, reality, language, city – it took a lot of energy," Feinberg Sabach shares. "When it came time to work on our projects, it was clear we'd do them together, and that we’d focus on something related to the situation. Then Alon told me he had been to Nir Oz and that we needed to do a project about that place."
Butbul shares that "two months after October 7, my grandparents came to visit from France. After I took them on a tour of Nir Oz – a tour that deeply affected us – it became clear that I wanted to do a project about the kibbutz.
The project idea came from an unexpected direction: amidst the heavy destruction of the kibbutz, I noticed something beautiful – the kibbutz’s botanical garden. 'The initial thought of focusing on something beautiful was confusing. What’s the point of beauty now?' Feinberg Sabach says, 'But after a walk in the botanical garden, we realized that the gate we entered through, the greenery, the kibbutz's unique beauty, was the right entry point for our project.'"
As part of their project, the two worked on a photo book that began with a focus on the kibbutz's vegetation and gardens and evolved into documenting every home in the kibbutz, door to door. "The book's opening interview is with Ran Fauker, who established and maintained the botanical garden," Butbul explains.
"It was a symbolic start for us, the idea of creating life in a barren desert, acclimatizing plants and ensuring their survival in harsh conditions," he said.
Another conversation included in the book is with Rita, a kibbutz resident who took it upon herself to water some of the plants after the war broke out so that when the residents return, they would be greeted with greenery and flower blooms. She regularly photographs the plants to show the evacuated kibbutz members, attempting to preserve a sliver of hope.
"At first, we knew Nir Oz had gone through something terrible, but we didn’t know the full extent of the community’s suffering," adds Feinberg Sabach. "It's a kibbutz with a relatively small community, so the portion of it that was affected, in terms of those killed and taken hostage, was enormous.
"At some point, we realized the kibbutz would have to be demolished and rebuilt because most of the houses were burned and damaged beyond habitation. Once we understood that the sights around us would disappear and become part of history, we knew we had to document them. We embarked on an intensive documentation journey, from door to door."
The book they created includes an index of all the homes in the kibbutz, documenting every door and façade. It thus becomes a kind of historical document of a painful moment in the kibbutz’s history – the moment after the destruction and before the rebuilding. Additionally, the book features an index of plants from the botanical garden.
Throughout the process, they were guided by Naama Tobias and Noam Shechter. "Our work is for the kibbutz, and the entire book is dedicated to it, in memory of the murdered and in hopes of the return of the hostages," Butbul concludes. The two even held a crowdfunding campaign to ensure that every family in the Nir Oz community could receive a copy of the book as a gift.
'Pool Party' by Bina Baitel
International architect and designer Bina Baitel moved from Jerusalem to Paris 25 years ago and has since worked with some of the world's largest design companies. Over the years, Baitel has not exhibited any projects in Israel. However, this year, in light of the political climate in her social environs, Baitel decided to return to Jerusalem and present a special project she created for Design Week.
"It's hard to explain the Israeli side here in France, they don't understand it at all," Baitel shares. "I’ve never been a political person, and I don’t agree with many things happening in the Israeli government. But after October 7, I felt I needed to help explain the Israeli perspective in some way."
After the cultural attaché at the Israeli consulate in France approached her about Design Week, Baitel decided that now was the time to exhibit in Israel for the first time. "I wanted to present an installation of hope for peace and also contribute to public diplomacy. I knew that the best way I could do this was through an artistic installation."
"Pool Party" is an immersive installation inviting participants to a post-flood party. Using padded elements like lifebuoys, a ladder and a bench, the installation creates a space of comfort and sharing, responding to the theme of the ark. "The idea was to create elements that resemble remnants after the flood, after the storm," says Baitel.
"All the elements are padded with shiny fabric, like a mirror. The idea is to reflect the city of Jerusalem as well as the concept of water. The goal was to build a space for dialogue where one can sit on the bench and talk about coexistence." The installation combines naive elements and an architectural language, in Baitel’s signature style. "The material we worked with, along with the shapes, were meant to convey optimism, childhood, even innocence. It’s part of the atmosphere the installation is supposed to evoke."
The project was produced remotely by Baitel and the Design Week team, with her in Paris and them in Jerusalem. "I never imagined that all this could be done in two months, but the production was amazing. They gave me an assistant to track the process in Israel, and they introduced me to an upholsterer, a welder, and a carpenter—all amazing, and all agreed to do it quickly and with joy.
"It’s very rare to work at such a pace in France," says Baitel, who designs for companies like Roche Bobois, Leroy Merlin, IKEA, La Redoute, Habitat and the Korean brand iloom. "Besides that, I designed the medal for the Paris Marathon this year. The French government has purchased dozens of my works, and I exhibit in many museums and galleries across Europe," she adds.
'The Forecast' – An outdoor exhibition with many participants
The outdoor exhibition, "The Forecast," is a collaboration between designers Shahar Kedem and Amit Portman, with the Meteorological Institute and the weather site "Yerushamaim." Curated by Kedem, the exhibition invited designers and artists to respond to issues of nature and weather.
The exhibition serves as a kind of alternative meteorological farm in the courtyard of Hansen House, with the installations functioning as measuring devices. Some of the works artificially generate weather phenomena, others respond to real-time local weather, and some attempt to measure it in alternative ways.
"The choice of the Meteorological Institute as the central body for collaboration came from the overall theme of the ark through the basic ecological angle of natural disasters," Kedem explains. "Our concern about nature's instability or the inability to predict the future connects to this thing called 'forecast,' something at the end of every news broadcast, and we hold onto it as something to rely on for tomorrow."
All the projects participating in the exhibition were designed especially for it, most of which Kedem calls "functional works," meaning they have some dimension of kinetics, response, or change depending on the weather throughout the exhibition. For example, Studio "Magenta" presents a large, tall sculpture made of dozens of small iron sheets connected at a great height, moving according to wind direction and speed, resembling a flying carpet.
The artist collective "Malhamami" presents an ark where, with the help of light and water, the conditions are created for a rainbow to appear. Through artificial means, a space is created where one can peek inside and see the rainbow enclosed in a capsule, creating climatic conditions in a very structured situation.
Alongside the projects, a "Control Center" will be set up in the courtyard, in collaboration with "Yerushamaim" and EnvyTech. "We’re essentially setting up a measurement station within the exhibition to measure temperature, humidity, radiation, and other metrics in real-time," Kedem says. "You’ll be able to stand inside the station and understand not only what the weather is but also what it’s supposed to make us feel and wear – connecting the weather to our sensations."
Orange lifeboat, survival and a message to the front
"This year, we chose to be both relevant and active," says Hansen House director Smadar Tsook and curators Dana Benshalom and Sonia Olitsky. "This was the feeling conveyed to designers this year – how to harness design as a tool for coping, not just to talk about the pain but to channel creation as a therapeutic tool. During Design Week, Hansen House becomes an ark—a boat where everything happens, is preserved, and formed while the flood rages outside."
Among the works are pieces dealing with survival and preparation for a journey. For instance, an oversized inflatable orange lifeboat by creator Adi Anna Telezhynski, reminiscent of refugee and migrant lifeboats headed for a better future. The works of Michal Luria address survival in extreme conditions, with her designing chic floral travel clothes.
Noa Brosh created the UPF50 brand, combining high fashion and technology through a capsule collection offering maximum protection of about 98% against UV radiation. The "Life Bag" was created by Eilon Armon and Amit Adini and contains food, emergency equipment, medical supplies, clothing for all weather, and sleeping gear, similar to what ultra-marathon runners carry in harsh field conditions.
On the theme of emergency response, Alexander Frocht’s project "Open in Case of Emergency" responds to the spirit of the times and its challenges. It's a set of simple instructions for quickly creating sturdy and comfortable furniture when resources are limited. The kit comes in flat packages and is intended for times of war, natural disaster, displacement, or urgent evacuation when there is a need to quickly assemble living furniture.
Next to the ark imagery are works symbolizing the point where the water recedes, and there’s hope for land. For instance, Dafna Kaplan and Yael Ziv created delicate white feathers using 3D printing to wrap the exhibition visitors. They explain that feathers are the most complex form of skin in nature, and due to their unique properties like weight and softness, they are an irreplaceable raw material. Feathers are also a significant symbol in human culture. Raya Cohen created a giant white inflatable and deflating dove, symbolizing how fragile the concept of peace is.
Architecture students at the University of Haifa’s design school were asked to create an architectural solution for a "blackout scenario" in which Israel is hit by a cyberattack or significant power plant failure, causing the electrical grid to collapse for an extended period.
The students designed a series of interventions based on alternative energy, distinguishing between different lighting conditions, using energy stored during the day for dark nights, and minimal red lighting on full-moon nights.
They designed residential buildings that become illuminated, energy-harvesting bike paths, and a "Firefly Park" in public spaces. This architectural project was translated into a video shown at Jerusalem Design Week in a pavilion made of thousands of connected black cones forming a round, elevated black ball.