The “Ganei Shapira” project was built on a 1 Acre plot, owned by the Tel Aviv municipality. It is located between Tueri Zahav Street and De Modina Street. The project encompasses 69 apartments which will be available for rent under the Affordable Housing scheme. 42 apt are 3 bed room apt.(around 80 sq/m), 27 apt are 4-5 bedroom apt (90-120 sq./m).In planning the project, a special emphasis was given to the open communal spaces and to the neighborhood’s green spaces. We examined several planning alternatives for the project. The chosen plan has the highest potential to enable the community to evolve as a real collegial neighborhood, in the spirit of old times a kind of an “Urban Kibbutz”.
The centre of the project is the communal space in the middle which serves as a passage through the project to the park and as the entrance area to the buildings. This project highly benefit the Shapira neighborhood by attracting middle class families to the area, and will also serve as a valid and compelling response by the authorities to the demands of the middle class from the “Rothchild protest” last summer.It is important that such an opportunity be properly used, both for affordable housing for the middle class and as lever of urban and population renewal of the Shapira area.