The Department of Architecture and the Department of Structural Engineering began operations at the end of 1924 and were the cornerstones of the Technion. Their success in training professionals, the architects, planners, and engineers who built the burgeoning Zionist-Israeli landscape, influenced the country’s character and the design of its spaces, thus influencing each of its citizens. Both departments have become faculties with rich student bodies, serving as advanced design and construction laboratories, and gaining international recognition.

In 1975, given this foundational history, and aiming to start a record of local developmental processes, professors Yohanan Ilon, Daniel Havkin and Gilbert Herbert founded the Department for Architectural Documentation in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. It was the first project of its kind in Israel, and it began to assemble a national collection of architectural documents for conservation, establishing a basis for future research.

In the early 1990’s, under the leadership of Prof. Gilbert Herbert, the department became the Center for Architectural Heritage. In Israel’s first architectural archive, set at the center’s core, the architectural collections became a research laboratory accessible to researchers, students, and the general public, and produced foundational books and research files on the local architectural heritage.

In 2012, a century after laying the Technion’s cornerstone, the center’s goals and objectives were reformulated: to put Israel on par with advanced nations, that combine teaching architecture and construction with research into local history and heritage; and to introduce the past in the delineation of cultural patterns in general, and of architectural discourse and praxis in particular.

In 2017, the center received a generous donation from the Arenson family which led to an outburst of activity. Owing to this donation, The Avie and Sarah Arenson Built Heritage Research Center is developing its principal course of action – archive > research > publication. At its core, this endeavour aims to establish a thorough understanding of the architectural present, and to raise awareness about architectural and built heritage and the history of the Israeli built environment. We believe the center’s importance lies in rescuing and preserving original architectural sources, both historical and contemporary, creating an infrastructure for future research, promoting local architectural discourse, and making it all accessible to architects, researchers, and the public.

Thanks to the Arenson family’s contribution, the center has a dedicated team maintaining the collections, which include: the monumental collection of architect and collector Shmuel Yavin, which contains large parts of the lost collection of the historical Society of Architects; the extensive collection of the founder of the landscape architecture track, Prof. Ruth Enis; the Arch. Ora and Yaakov Yaar collection; the collections of Arch. Saadia Mandel and Nachum Meltzer, pioneers in the field of conservation in Israel; foundational collections for the history of Haifa, such the Arch. Moshe and Leopold Gerstel collection, which sheds new light on the evolution of architecture in the city, and the intercultural links created therein. In addition, collections related to the history of the Technion were catalogued and expanded, such as the collections of Prof. Alexander Baerwald, Prof. Alexander Klein, Prof. Yohanan Ratner, and others.

The materials collected in the center provide an exceptional opportunity to reflect on the function and local development of spatial planning and design disciplines.

July 2021