Garden Ribbons of Netanya

Amsterdam-based ShaGa studio in collaboration with American company Shyovitz Architects has designed the ‘Netanya Municipality Tower’ in the old city center of Netanya, Israel. Netanya is a city in the Northern Centre District of Israel, located 30 km (18.64 mi) north of Tel Aviv, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It was founded in 1929 by natives of Eastern Europe as the agricultural settlement, which is engaged in citrus fruit crops. Netanya was named in honor of Nathan Straus, a prominent Jewish American merchant and philanthropist of the early twentieth century, who donated a large sum to its foundation and development. Modern Netanya has nearly 200,000 of residents and is the center of a powerful diamond industry.

The Green Heart
The City Hall is an operational complex that serves the people of the city, and at the same time encapsulates the city’s identity. The new municipality building of Netanya, located in the old part of the city, between the local market, Hertzel Street and municipal cultural institutions, introduces a new public park for the city – a green heart – that like a ribbon, gradually transforms from a horizontal landscape to a vertical climatic structure projecting; openness, advancement and beauty to the whole city. Within the building are interwoven social, cultural and municipal functions that are combined to blur the boundaries of hierarchical perception of internal spaces, make them transparent, and also demonstrate environmental responsibility, comfort and energy efficiency of the structure. Garden Ribbons – is a unique focal point at the beginning of the Hertzel street and a counter balance to the Coastal ‘Independence’ square, the complex’s green public character and its contemporary mix of leisure, culture and civic municipal services will help not only to regenerate the city’s old centre but also help complementing and defining Netanya’s future identity as a coastal city which truly embraces an urban sustainable lifestyle for its residents, workers and visitors.

Garden Ribbons
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Client: Municipality of Netanya
Architecture: ShaGa studio, Shyovitz Architects
Building Height: 131 m
Area: 25,700 sq. m
Number of floors: 34 above ground and 3 underground

Full version you can download here

Materials provided by ShaGa studio