Arieh Sharon - Kibbutz Planning in The 1940s

Kibbutz Planning in The 1940s

During the second world war, building activities in the big towns all but stopped, due to the lack of fundamental building materials such as concrete and iron. Sharon began building simple structures in the kibbutzim, above all community buildings and schools, which were constructed from local materials, like sand, bricks and lime-stones. The dining hall in a Kibbutz forms the center of the community, where in addition to its primary function, the members meet on social occasions, cinema or theater performances, or political meetings. The school communities were built for 200–300 children of several kibbutzim, where the youngsters aged 12–18 lived, studied and worked together. Their layout was in fact that of a micro-kibbutz.

Sharon's main activity, however, was directed towards planning in the kibbutzim. He designed a great number of outline plans for existing collective settlements and their extensions as well as general layouts for new agricultural settlements, and school communities.

Other activities included a series of lectures at the Technion in Haifa, covering subjects such as:

• Early settlement types in the country
• The cooperative moshavim
• The kvutza which later developed into the kibbutz
• Physical layout of the various types of settlement
• Social and economic structures and
• Work organization, education and cultural activities in the kibbutz