Foreign Hebrew Labor

Foreign Hebrew Labor

In this project I aim to create an appropriate spatial representation for the foreign workers in Agriculture in the Arava Valley in Israel. Although they comprise the majority of the population in the area, they are perceived as temporaries, as attested by the local farmers.

In the Arava, an extremely peripheral area in southern Israel, agricultural villages were established in the 1960s-70s as part of a national strategy of settling the land along the political borders. The agricultural villages – Moshavim - focused on advancing agriculture in arid climate and water scarcity conditions and became an industrial agriculture leader both locally and worldwide. Maintaining the agriculture industry required the employment of foreign workers, most of whom originated from Thailand.

While the Moshavim in the Arava absorbed thousands of Thai workers over the years, they are seen as a temporary sector of society because of the bureaucracy that allows each individual to remain for a period of 5 years, despite the fact that over the past 30 years they have been an extremely important and steady element in development of the valley. This concept of "temporaries" has not led to any changes in the layout plans of the Moshavim, nor did it generate recognition for the need for suitable dwellings for the workers.

In this project I research the current residential situation of the foreign workers in the Arava and present possible design plans that address the findings. I then propose a suitable living space for the workers in Kikar Sdom settlements, and a more detailed design scenario in Moshav Paran in which the workers integrated into the moshav's social life and layout.