The Gaby Mode-Botelho, Wizo Center, Givatayim


The Gaby Mode-Botelho Wizo Center for women was built in Givatayim on the corner of Ben Gurion Street and Amal Street. Its location is central in the city and it serves as a Community and Social Center, especially for women senior citizens. Its offices offer legal assistance and Day Care Centre registrations.
In the planning of the Centre, I expressed my personal thoughts that came to me as a result of the conflicts that were put upon me and all women by Western Modernism: being a woman "cutting" my way strongly away from home, or being a woman "at" home. The first kind of woman is represented in the Wizo`s building by tall straight grey walls, "cutting" their way through the lower and rounder masses of the building. The rounder walls, creating softer lines, express a kind of hug and protection, representing the woman at home.In every woman there is really both sides, and in our Era each woman must find her personal equilibrium. In this building there isn`t just a "Metaphoric" equilibrium, there is" an Aesthetical" and "Sculptural" equilibrium as well. The contrasts between the "Heavy" local sand stone to the "Light" metal of the International Architecture, and the contrast of the "Warmth" of the beige colors of the stone and walls with the "Coolness" of the grey tones of the cutting walls or of the Aluminum Cylinder at the entrance, create sculptural interest outside and in.


Job Architects: Tali Hatuka, Iris Levin, Yfat Wincygster

1999