Alina Iksanov, Nofar Rotem-Kremlinsky

Uptown: rethinking the urban interchanges area

Places dictate rhythm. Some spaces connect different rhythms, some of which work in exact harmony, and some of which produce inevitable competition between different times compressed into the same place in the present. The urban environment in which we live was formed as a result of social, economic, and political changes that dramatically influenced the urban landscape and turned it into a collage of elements from different periods throughout history. The various elements that make up the city have developed unevenly and created problems in the existing urban planning. In addition, due to the accelerated development of cities, the previously defined municipal boundaries have evolved due to new city linkages and yet still do not correspond to the actual boundaries of the metropolitan community space today. As a result of all this, there has been uneven growth which led to the creation of empty areas alongside built areas within the same urban space. Between these areas, one can identify the massive interchange areas that cut off the urban space and create a clear buffer in its heart. These infrastructures established under the influence of modernism and the development of reinforced concrete continue to function in the way intended for them but over time did not change their character according to the new reality that emerged and therefore created solitary and melancholy areas in the heart of the urban space. This project asks to give consideration to these spaces and to examine their function in contemporary urban space. The project seeks to examine the existing and expected social, political, and ideological changes that take place and to think about these spaces not in terms of destruction and preservation but in terms of transformation and development. Text for the movie: The urban environment in which we live was formed as a result of social, economic and political changes, which dramatically changed the urban landscape and turned it into a collage of elements from different periods throughout history. These elements have developed unevenly and created problems in existing urban planning. Among these problematic elements is the interchange - a modernist element that has become a clear boundary within the city. A static element that does not know how to work with the city.