Recycling Park, Kfar Saba, Israel

(winner of the Israeli National Design Award, 2012)

The Urban Farm of Kfar Saba is an educational facility dedicated to teaching school children about farming, agriculture, nature and environment. Since the municipality of Kfar Saba embarked on a recycling campaign across the city, the Urban Farm is seen as a “Green Campus” and a key facility for educating the public on environmental issues. It was therefore decided to enhance its program and facilities, and build a workshop for instructing school children and city citizens about material cycles, the importance and practice of recycling, and various ways to re-use waste.

Despite the limited budget, the designers suggested not to limit the project to a mere re-use workshop, and develop instead a recycling and re-use center, containing a workshop and an adjacent educational Park, which could also become a visitor center. The recommendation was accepted, and the Recycling Park became not only the focal point but also the first stage of the project.

The objective behind the design was to create a playful environment that raises curiosity and aims to change the way waste is perceived and treated. To emphasize the potential for re-use, the waste needed to be displayed, rather than merely contained. Beyond this, the park was to serve as an “outdoor classroom” and allow various activities (teaching, sorting waste, and selecting materials for the re-use workshop).

We strongly felt that this goal would not have been achieved by laying out a collection of standard recycling containers, and decided to design a unique environment and set of containers for the site. The recycling park was designed as a museum-like garden based on a playful grid, from which containers emerge in various forms, and in which different activities can take place. The containers hold: textile, batteries, drink cans, plastic bottles, paper, cardboard, plastic bags and electronic waste. Each container is shaped differently, hints on what is held within it, and offers playful openings for inserting waste and taking it out for re-use. The containers also provide built benches and steps around them to create the outdoor learning space and seating, and to allow children of various heights access to the openings.

Since it’s inauguration in January 2011, the recycling park has served as a teaching environment for an array of activities relating to waste and recycling. It regularly hosts school children, teachers, instructors, city citizens and visiting groups. The second phase of the center – the re-use workshop – is scheduled for construction in 2012.

Tha park was inaugurated on January 4th, 2011. See a Hebrew notice in the local press, as well as a local publication reviewing the park.

Forthcoming Exhibitions and Publications:

The park will be featured in the Israeli Design Award “Innovation” exhibition, as well as in Domus magazine. It will also be included in the forthcoming book- “Global Design Trends in Landscape” by “ThinkArchit group”, the Architecture Branch Huazhong, University of Science and Technology Press, Beijing, China.

November 2012, The park design won 3rd place (out of about 300 projects worldwide) in the Israeli Architecture Magazine “Project of the Year” competition for the Design of the Kfar Saba Recycling Park