Lital Smuk Fabian
Efrat Vertes
Yashar Architects
Mikaela Burstow
Aliyah Market Complex is located between Aliyah and Chelanov Streets and incorporates the old wholesale market building on Aliyah Street, which has been transformed into a modern country-style facility including a public swimming pool for city residents. The project includes three residential buildings with ground-floor retail, designed by Yashar Architects. The residential buildings and the country facility frame an open public space, accompanied by a double row of trees and a pedestrian street along Wolfson Street. The new central public space serves as an urban, physical, and visual respite, offering a variety of shaded seating areas for passersby and users of the adjacent commercial and residential facilities.
Lital Smuk Fabian
Efrat Vertes
Yashar Architects
Mikaela Burstow
The project was designed to create a space suitable for children, young people, and adults, allowing observation, leisure, play, and social interaction. Inspiration was drawn from the wooden crates historically used for transporting fruits and vegetables in the wholesale market, and the project site was developed as a system of “boxes” of different sizes. The central “box” is a semi-sunken garden, bridging the level differences between the new buildings and the preserved building. This garden includes terraces, benches, lush planting, and a lawn, creating a space for play, observation, and relaxation, with two biological pools and informal paving at its core.
South of the central box is the linear “box,” defined by a steel-and-wood pergola, community picnic tables, playground swings, and steps leading to the underground parking.
Extending from the central open space, Wolfson Street was converted into a pedestrian street with a double row of trees and restricted vehicle access. A unique design language was developed for the street, expressed in the paving and a series of custom street furniture designed specifically for the project. The pedestrian street is paved with natural stone in two tones and varying sizes, according to the expected usage intensity.
The project is located above a public parking structure, maintaining continuous planting beds at a depth of 1.5 meters, and providing substantial growth volumes for each tree. Over 70 mature trees of nine species were planted to create a shaded, lush environment within a dense urban area. Building systems, pipelines, and ramps serving the buildings and parking are integrated into the structures, remaining invisible in the public realm. The entire project is designed as an open and accessible space, without fences or physical boundaries.
South of the central box is the linear “box,” defined by a steel-and-wood pergola, community picnic tables, playground swings, and steps leading to the underground parking.
