Location: Rishon LeZion
Year: 2022-2025
Area: 1,500 sqm
Site area: 13,000 sqm
Status: Built
Client: Rishon Lezion Municipality
Project Architect: Avinoam Sharon
Team: Meira Kowalsky, Lior Ramon, Yssaf Ohana, Ido Levi
Landscape Architect: Inside-Outside, Amsterdam; Moria-Sekely, Tel Aviv
Project Management: Eli Gotlib
Collaboration: Sarit Shani Hai Design


Haviv in Hebrew
At the heart of Rishon LeZion lies Haviv School, one of the first pioneering educational institutions of the Zionist national movement. Founded in 1882 as the first Hebrew-language school in the Land of Israel, Chaviv has played a central role in the revival of Hebrew as a living, daily language. Today, the site continues this mission through “Chaviv in Hebrew”, a vibrant educational and cultural campus that bridges history, learning, and community life.


The elongated shape of the site recalls the original agricultural plots of the historic settlement, creating a perspective of depth and continuity. Two long buildings frame open courtyards and garden plots, integrating indoor and outdoor spaces. Sloped roofs sculpt the upper floors into dynamic, light-filled interiors, while northern-facing classrooms minimize direct sunlight and ensure a calm, comfortable learning environment.
A berceau pergola surrounds the site, enveloped in climbing plants, offering shaded spaces for learning, play, and reflection. Here, architecture, landscape, and light converge to create a campus that is at once intimate and expansive, a public garden woven into the fabric of the city.
The Library and Cultural Hub
The original Chaviv School building, dating from the 1950s, has been transformed into a municipal library and cultural center, with reading rooms that open directly onto the garden. The building now houses spaces for adults and youth, a unique toddlers’ center, lecture halls, study rooms, and offices. Large, recessed windows bring light deep into the interiors, connecting the library to the garden and blurring the boundary between inside and outside.
The adaptive reuse of the building emphasizes transparency, accessibility, and community engagement. Here, the garden is part of the library experience; sunlight and greenery become companions to reading, reflection, and learning. The integration of library, garden, and public space transforms the historic school into a contemporary hub for cultural life, honoring its heritage while serving the city’s present-day needs.

A Dialogue Between Past and Present
The Haviv campus is more than a collection of buildings it is a living dialogue between history, architecture, and community. The design draws inspiration from the old settlement structures and gardens, weaving heritage, pedagogy, and social life into every courtyard, corridor, and classroom. Light, materiality, and the rhythm of space are orchestrated to support both education and civic life.
Haviv in Hebrew embodies a simple yet profound idea: that architecture can preserve memory, foster learning, and nurture community. The school and library are not isolated institutions they are a continuous, living landscape where children play, families gather, and culture thrives.