"Today's child is tomorrow's state": Kibbutz children's house as nursery for the good zionist subject 1922-1948

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Abstract

This paper explores the kibbutz children's house as a unique modern institution designed to house and educate kibbutz children and form them into a model "children's society" that would serve as foundation for the aspired-for nation state. I study this modern institution by examining the formation of the children house building type in kibbutz Beit-Alpha 1925-1929, accepted as cornerstone of kibbutz social-material structure by all 270 kibbutzim. Rather than a typological examination, my paper conducts close historical account of the formation of the first children's house as modern building type and its first implication in the spatial and aesthetic language of the Modern Movement in architecture. The highly ideological Beit-Alpha commune perceived childhood as the nexus for forming the radically new communal-national society they aspired for, forming a child-centered society embedded in the children's house as emblem of the radically-new kibbutz social and spatial form. Beit-Alpha therefore insisted on collective care for children as "property" and responsibility of the entire community and allocated its best resources for good care of the children in the only permanent, well-lit, ventilated and serviced structure in their settlement. As a building type, the children's house entailed removing children from their parents' dwellings in tents and shacks across the settlement and housing them in a separate structure serving both dwelling and education in order to provide them good material conditions at times of austerity. Design of the new house involved a long process of negotiations between the commune, architect-planner Richard Kauffmann and the Jewish National Fund that cemented kibbutz commune and its children as equal partners in the design process who embed their ideology and agenda into modern architecture. The children's house marked the kibbutz movement as a child-centered society, whose monument is a unique modern building and building type.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 14th International Docomomo Conference - Adaptive Reuse
Subtitle of host publicationThe Modern Movement Towards the Future
EditorsAna Tostoes, Zara Ferreira
PublisherDocomomo
Pages202-207
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9789899964501
StatePublished - 2016
Event14th International Docomomo Conference - Adaptive Reuse: The Modern Movement Towards the Future - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 6 Sep 20169 Sep 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 14th International Docomomo Conference - Adaptive Reuse: The Modern Movement Towards the Future

Conference

Conference14th International Docomomo Conference - Adaptive Reuse: The Modern Movement Towards the Future
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period6/09/169/09/16

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Building and Construction
  • Architecture
  • Urban Studies
  • Civil and Structural Engineering

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