Judah Barki

Ariel University

School of Architecture

P39 | "In-between the Walls." Acre, facing the Land Gate of the city walls.

by Judah Barki 



The old city of Acre, an urban center of gravity, has a spacious influence starting at the immediate space and ending at the urban scale. The project arises from the interval between the old city, and the new one -the Moat, facing the historic Land Gate of the city. This space is an encounter between the old and new city, the wall and moat, the city and the sea. The creation of an opening in the outer wall of the old city, allows the interval to unfold itself towards the new city. The role of the new urban space is to contain the unplanned occurrence and to present the old city to the new one, creating uncertainty among boundaries, instead of setting certain limits and clear separation. Creating a difference while maintaining continuity, as a platform that prepares you for the experience of the historic city of Acre. In the local scale, the project creates a cultural and leisure compound, and includes: a Music & Art Center, a Museum, a Commercial Avenue and a Hotel. The new void is created by unfolding the wall into the new wall, a system of stone-walls that hold the soil and retain it. The new wall produces a sequence of meetings of points in space, allowing the experience through the use of light and earth, the distance from the old city against the wall and the sea. A new urban experience is born, in-between the walls of Acre.


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Judah Barki was born in Israel and graduated from the School of Architecture, Ariel University, receiving many distinctions during his studies. Since then he has worked at Brahma Architects (2011) and A. Gibor Architects (2012-13). He believes that in a world where meaning and depth are slowly fading away, it is the architect's role to create places and spaces of existential meaning. Through relation to the sense of place, on one hand, and to universal terms, such as earth, water and light, that relate to every being on the other, the architect is able to create new "placeness" and to make presence of being in the world.