I06 zvi elhyani_digitizing_israel_architectural_heritage

Lost & Found:
Digitizing Israel's Architectural Heritage
 
1/3 Israel Architecture Archive Background and Motivation
2/3 Digitisation Project Partners and Challenges
3/3 Case Study the Goldreich & De Shalit Collection
Arch. Dr. Zvi Elhyani
Founding Director, Israel Architecture Archive
Eva / Minerva, Jerusalem, November 2015

Lost & Found: Digitizing Israel's Architectural Heritage
Architectural Archiving is a sub-discipline of both general archiving and
history/historiography of architecture.
International recognition of Architectural Archiving as an independent field
in the late 20th century, led to seeing a significance in architectural archive
artifacts, that goes far beyond their obvious value.
Those records are observed today as necessary primal evidence for
documenting the altering human environment - planned, built, deteriorating
and destroyed (by wars or natural disasters) - as well as documenting the
human culture which creates those environments and dwells in it.

A central architectural
archive, physical, digital or
hybrid, was never
established in Israel.
This absence caused an
ongoing dispersal of
Architectural Records, and in
many cases to their absolute
loss.

In the past decade this absence
confronts a growing demand by
two archive-dependent trends:
• Growing number of
researches, publications,
exhibitions and events on
the history of the Israeli
space.
• Growing awareness for
physical architectural
preservation.

Israel Architecture Archive (IAA)
is a documentary collection of
Israeli architectural practice and
culture that was initiated as a
response to this void.
Since its establishment in the mid
1990s as a home collection, the IAA
has become the largest and most
comprehensive source for the
documentation of planning,
construction and destruction in
Palestine and Israel since late 19th
century up to the present.

IAA’s location at the basement of
the Shalom Mayer Tower is
symbolic - the tower was built on
the site of Tel Aviv’s first Hebrew
public building - the Herzliya
Hebrew Gymnasium (1909).
Its demolition in 1959 became a
landmark in the history Hebrew
culture and aroused the awareness
for preservation and
documentation of the near built
past.

1/3 Israel Architecture Archive Motivation and Challenges

2015: IAA’s inventory includes over half a million different items in diverse formats,
including traditional on-paper architectural records (originals and copies) and digital
materials.
IAA collection consists of hundreds of thousands of items which constantly accumulates
from a variety of sources: Active acquisition and purchase of relevant collections and
single items as well as Absorption of collections and items.
As such, the IAA functions as a primary address for historical and rare materials which
otherwise would have lost and disappeared. It is a safe haven for almost lost and
forgotten documents which not only enfold chapters in the history of Israeli
architecture but also in its nation building.

• More than 30 Personal Archives and hundreds of personal files on Architects, Builders, Designers,
Artists and Scholars.
• Numerous Photographs in various formats (Prints, Scans, Negatives, Slides, Postcards, Microfilms,
Born-Digital Images etc.)
• A diverse and colorful collection of the representation of Israeli architecture as it appears on
everyday objects and prints - Israeliana, memorabilia, ephemera, souvenirs etc.
• Thousands of newspaper clippings from daily and professional newspapers and magazines, from
the past century to the present
• A large library of popular and rare magazines, periodicals and journals since the 1920s
• Documentary Films and TV reportages
• Interviews (written or audio-visually recorded) with architects and planners
• Accumulating material on the history of architectural education since the early 20th century
• A comprehensive documentation of architectural events (competitions, exhibitions, symposiums,
debates, prizes etc.)
• Hundreds of students’ works

This crisis starting point of absence, Loss and
Dispersal therefore challenges the
traditional Architectural Archiving process
towards an advanced Multi-Contextual
archival process for architectural records

Earlier in 2015 Israel architecture
Archive accepted a proposal by the
Judaica Division of Harvard Library to
digitize selected materials from its
constantly growing collection.
The Judaica Division collects in great
depth materials covering all aspects of
Jewish life and culture in every place
and period. Special emphasis is placed
on materials in Hebrew, particularly
from the State of Israel.

Arthur Goldreich (1929-2011) South African born architect,
teacher and freedom fighter

Tamar De Shalit (1932-2009) Tel Aviv born Interior architect and
Textile designer

Numerous items in various media (plans, photographs, drawings, documents) on
diverse fields of Design: graphic, industrial, architectural, costume and stage
•Thousands of Architectural Drawings: public buildings and dwelling units in
Kibbutzim, convalescent homes and recreation facilities in Israel and abroad, their work
for the private and public sectors, and more
•Significant documentation of early Education of architecture and design in Israel
•Writing and research
•Drawing, painting and photography
•Documents concerning Goldreich’s political activism in South Africa during the
1950s, against the Apartheid regime and for human rights, as well as records of his role
in founding the Department of Environmental and Industrial Design at the Bezalel
Academy in Jerusalem during the 1970s

IDEA Arc for Archives management and exposure of the archival inventory of IAA, from
the absorbing materials and its cataloging in the system, searching and locating
information, to displaying it in different ways.
Using this system allows IAA to assess, organize, describe, preserve and provide access to
the archival collections and divisions.
One of the distinct advantages of the system is its support of leading standards (ISAD.G,
EAD) that enables IAA information exchange with other archives around the world engaged
in similar fields, while increasing international exposure.

I06 zvi elhyani_digitizing_israel_architectural_heritage

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