Public Amenities in mixed-use industrial areas
June 2024, Tel Aviv Metro
Experts' Symposium on High Density and Mixed-Use Urbanism
Experts' Symposium on High Density and Mixed-Use Urbanism
December 2022
An experts' symposium drawing on Israeli case-studies that illustrate the impact of high rise urbanism and the tools used by planners to accommodate mixed use developments that contain co-location of public and private floorspace and amenities.
The key theme of this symposium: high density and mixed-use urbanism, has drawn much attention in Israel in the past few decades. Owing to rapid population growth, rising housing prices, land scarcity, and government programs for urban renewal, towers have been sprouting all around metro areas, with many of them accommodating all sorts of public improvements. Some weaved public amenities\facilities in what is coined ‘vertical allocations’ or ‘public-private development’ in a mixed use / creative development model.
This symposium had drawn a group of expert academics from around the globe who share our enthusiasm about these issues.
To ground our discussions in real-life examples, we prepared a day of excursions, led by planners and architects from the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality. Our guides from the City were part of one of the largest and most experienced planning department in the Middle East. These professionals face many of the challenges created by mixed use development that often incorporated high-rise construction.
Co-Location of public and private amenities in high-rise towers
February 2019, Reichman University
Vertical Allocations Conference
December 2019, Technion, Haifa
More than 200 planners, architects, lawyers, and public administrators gathered to discuss how vertical allocations have become a prevalent, if not necessary, planning instrument. Relying on value capture, vertical allocations have proliferated in high-demand areas, enabling city governments to implant a variety of public services in high-rise urban environs.
The shortage of available land in densified metropolitan cities demands maximizing its utility. Public authorities are required to find creative solutions to satisfy the growing demand for the supply of public space. The allocation of public services in privately owned buildings constitutes one instrument to answer these challenges. This conference introduced this tool by looking at the phenomenon of Vertical Allocations; specifically we examined how municipalities in Israel appropriate floorspace in newly built multi-purpose structures, which are privately owned. While designating these floors for public use, such as schools and kindergartens, municipal bodies assume responsibility for these new public resources. The conference focused on Vertical Allocation as presenting special challenges, among which are uncertainty and challenges from joint ownership ; too flexible or unknown future public functions ; potential friction and nuisances due to proximity of uses ; disagreement over construction costs and complexity of management within mixed-use buildings. The dynamic circumstances and challenges surrounding Israel’s implementation of Vertical Allocations and its integration of mixed uses can serve as a teaching model and a test case for the rest of the world.
