Rishon Ma'arav

The area of Rishon Ma'arav was designed by geographers in the early 90s. In order to prevent the transfer of empty areas in North Rishon to the municipality of Bat Yam.

The main goal of the Rishon municipality was the prevention of nuisances that the area had carried for many years (garbage, crime, industries...), and the transformation of this area at South of Tel Aviv from a negative immigration towards a positive immigration.

A precedent in planning and implementation was created: The local authorities worked jointly with contractors for all the areas and programs of the new neighbourhoods. Officially, the municipality thought that citizens would get a better service if provided by private suppliers, even for the infrastructure. Contractors were not allowed to sell or rent housing units until all the infrastructure of the neighborhood was fully functionning (parks, schools, commerces...).

Rishon Ma'arav is composed of two main typologies: new neighbourhoods and requalification of industrial areas. The new neighbourhoods are composed of quite uniform medium rise apartment buildings and towers, and small villas. Neighbourhoods get their identity mainly from the design of public gardens and the setting of the buildings.

However, there are some invariants in the planning of all the new areas of Rishon Ma'arav: The apartment buildings include several typologies of dwelling units, in order to ensure the renewal and mixity of the neighbourhoods for the years to come. Another variant is the complete parcellar difference between the commercial areas and the housing buildings (separation that we strongly notice on the site, see pictures).

A huge effort was made on transportation: Cars park on the edges of the neighbourhoods, leaving the inner areas completely pedestrian (in order to strenghten kids' security). Shortcuts inside of the neighbourhoods are banned. Public transportation is very strong, with special road lines for busses, and a planned light railway. Pedestrians and bikes have huge sidewalks separated of the traffic area. All this infrastructure takes a lot of space and the streets between neighbourhoods tend to look like highways.

Together with all the new constructions came the redesign of industrial areas. Side by side with the industries were created shopping malls (which provides employment, and brings people to the area), and entertainment centers, such as clubs, bar and so on. This mixity of uses keeeps places from being deserted at night (and thus is supposed to reduce the crime ratio in these areas), and provides 24-7 tax income to the municipality.

Removing or covering of the garbage was also a priority, it is still undergoing in certain areas.
For the future, a recreation area is planned along the coastline. Rishon Ma'arav is considered as a planning success, and led to similar settlements in Ashdod.

ALON NEWMAN, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 2002