Introduction

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At the same time as we young architects were fighting to improve the urban character of Tel Aviv, I found myself faced with another challenge: planning the new kibbutzim, which had grown in numbers, size and configuration. Many of my weekends I spent either in my old kibbutz, Gan Shmuel, or in newly founded settlements in Galilee and Samaria. In the old kibbutzim existing buildings had to be extended and new buildings added. In the young settlements there was a need for master plans. My Tel Aviv colleagues used to make fun of me about my craze for the kibbutz, and criticized me for devoting so much time to "idealistic" kibbutz planning, instead of concentrating on designing better buildings for the Tel Aviv bourgeoisie.

My kibbutz activities were intensified when World War II broke out, and building operations in the towns all but stopped. Our life pattern changed. My wife and her repertory theatre group played in the small townlets and agricultural settlements, while I was busy planning and building in the kibbutzim, which had intensified their farming activities as a contribution to the war effort. They were allowed to continue building with simple local materials, like sand, lime, bricks and stones. Our six-year old son Eldar went to the school of my old kibbutz, and stayed there for five years. The kibbutz children claimed him as one of their own, arguing that his mother and father spent more time in the kibbutz than some of the veteran kibbutz members, who stayed away in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where they were busy with political and financial activities. My younger son Uri, who was born after the war, also went to the school community of my old kibbutz for some years, after finishing elementary school in town. Later on, he became a fisherman. He still works together in the small group of fishermen on the Mediterranean seashore.

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The planning problems were discussed in lengthy meetings with mothers, teachers and psychologists, until the programme and the basic design were finally approved. My friend, architect Zeev Rechter, once visited a kindergarten planned by him. There he met a boy of 6 or 7 in the little house under construction. The boy asked, "who are you?" Rechter replied, "I'm building this house for you." The boy said: "That's not true, my father (who was doing the actual building labour) is building it, you are only speaking the house."

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