SANAA's Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem opening for 2022

The new project for Israel’s national school of art, was initially proposed in 2013 and broke ground back in 2015, the SANAA's new campus for the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, is now set for a 2022 opening.

The design will bring together 2,500 students and 500 faculty members as the school moves from the current Mount Scopus Campus. The new campus aims to revitalize the city center and connect to the urban fabric of Jerusalem.

Rendering. Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Image Courtesy of SANAA

The campus is being built in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem’s City Center. The location of the new campus sits at the physical crossroads of East and West Jerusalem where secular, religious, Orthodox, and Muslim residents can come together. The 37,160 square meter campus will house a library, galleries, workshops, classrooms, studios, offices, auditoriums, a cafeteria, and a shop.

The new campus will try facilitate interdepartmental collaboration among the Academy’s nine departments and allow for active social and cultural involvement in the city’s life.

The design will be spread over six floors, two of which will be below ground. The design consists of exposed concrete slabs that follow the natural gradient of the landscape. The total construction budget is estimated at €88.22 million. Equipping and moving into the new facility is estimated at an additional €8.2 million, and creating a Maintenance Fund to support the ongoing operation of the New Campus will be an additional €12.3 million.

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Plot overview. Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Image Courtesy of SANAA

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KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA. SANAA

SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the Venice Architecture Biennale, since its inception in 1980.