Be'ezrat HaNashim

Be'ezrat HaNashim Imagining the new Haredi street level This project proposes a new socio-architectural interpretation of ultra-Orthodox urban space in Bnei Brak, focusing on the street-level along Jabotinsky Road and the light rail corridor. Grounded in the spatial perspectives and lived experiences of ultra-Orthodox women, the study explores the complex intersections of religion, gender, and urban planning in environments marked by both contestation and communal cohesion. The design investigation centers on the threshold between public and private realms — both above and below ground — conceptualized as a dynamic field for negotiating visibility and concealment, ritual and routine. This liminal zone is understood not as a boundary, but as an active space of interaction where socio-cultural practices are inscribed and contested. By envisioning a new form of public space that is open-ended, interpretive, and adaptable to diverse uses, the project articulates the potential for a pluralistic urban condition. It enables the coexistence of seemingly contradictory values: privacy and collectivity, conservatism and openness, permanence and transience, center and periphery. In doing so, it offers a framework for rethinking spatial justice and agency in gendered religious contexts.