Israel’s landscapes of Brutalism

This paper examines the adoption of brutalism in the work of Israeli landscape architects. Since the 1960s, Brutalism made its way from Europe to Israel by leading architects at the time. In parallel, landscape architects also considered Brutalism appropriate to the young state, and the use of concrete as a cheap and readily available construction material. They demonstrated creativity by constructing plazas, outdoor housing complexes, playgrounds and parks, essentially laying a cement carpet across the landscape. The absence of a well-established local outdoor material tradition, coupled with climatic and maintenance considerations, encouraged the burgeoning prominence of outdoor Brutalism in Israel.