Apollonia National Park
Jagged cliffs jutting into the Mediterranean, open views from horizon to horizon, and impressive buildings – a Crusader fortress, a British police station, and an ancient mosque. All these are to be found at Apollonia Sidna Ali National Park on the outskirts of Herzliya, the urban center that most influences the site and its development.
The most significant design imperative of the national park grounds is the rehabilitation of the natural landscape and reconstruction of uninterrupted movement along the coastline. Focal points of activity will be centered around archaeological findings – a gate, a street, the fortress – and around the Reshef overnight educational camp site.
A planned neighborhood of 3,500 housing units adjacent to the park will radically alter the way that the city “consumes” and utilizes its open space. Within the joint project of the Nature and Parks Authority in conjunction with the Israel Lands Authority, a shared vision has been formulated, which views the new neighborhood and the open space as an organic whole.
Team: Heli Elul, Avital Hagai, Lee Kimhi, Adi Ginsberg, Noah Waishof
Client: Nature and Parks Authority
Architecture, Reshef Camp: Ronit Biton, Architect, for the Nature and Parks Authority
Architecture, neighborhood: Yair Avigdor, Shlomi Zeevi
Tsurnamal Bar-Lev Landscape Architecture, 2002-2005
Tsurnamal Turner Landscape Architecture, 2006-present
Photos: Hagi Yohanan, Assaf Peri, Lev Tsimbler, Mano Grishpan, Vikimedia