Beit Yedidut - Heritage Center for Jewish Ethiopian Inmigrants

Ethiopian Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Beta Israel communities of Ethiopia, who now reside in Israel.

Most of the community emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in two waves of mass immigration assisted by the Israeli government: Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). Today Israel is home to the largest Beta Israel community in the world with about 129,500 citizens of Ethiopian descent, who are mainly assembled in the smaller urban areas of central and northern Israel.

The building is a community and social center for the Ethiopian community in Kiryat Bialik, a town in northern Israel, designed to serve as a space for public and private gatherings for the community and serve as a bridge between customs and traditions of the past and present, and house the varied needs of the community in educational, vocational and social activities.

The building is intended to serve the entire local population, with a visual emphasis on the heritage of Ethiopian immigrants.

The design of the building was inspired by the traditional vernacular Tukul - a round mud hut with a cone-shaped thatched roof, which is usually found in Ethiopia, Sudan  and other parts of eastern Africa.

The materials and colors chosen for the design of the space simulate a typical building in Ethiopia, brown textured plaster - inspired by mud, diagonal windows hint at "traditional dance", the construction is exposed and the roof is raised as part of the tradition of using local materials to give visual and ethnic expression to the community center using modern features and utilizing natural ventilation and lighting.

Subject to the program, the building was divided into two main spaces, providing a separate and integrated space suitable for community gatherings of a diverse nature.

The two spaces, internal and external, are connected by a central axis, a kind of "street" which serves as an art gallery and connects a complex of offices and classrooms as well as a multi-purpose elliptical hall designed to accommodate up to 250 guests, to a large inner courtyard amphitheater, intended for outdoor activities, summer events and social gatherings which completes the Tukul inspired ellipse and serves as an entrance to the main hall.

- The perforated outer shell, the construction of bricks in skips and the transparent facades provide privacy but also open views towards the surrounding environment and invite the general public to participate in the communal experience.

Architecture: Atelier d'Architecture