The Avie and Sarah Arenson Built Heritage Research Center (BHRC) is a continuing present of the first project of its kind in Israel. Its origins lie in the Department for Architectural Documentation, established in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion in 1975, which in 1990 became the Center for Architectural Heritage. Since 2017 the Center has renewed its research activity, acquisition of new collections, and publication of books thanks to the generous support of the Arenson family.
The BHRC maintains constant and close connections with the faculty’s educational programs, and acts as a home-base for students and researchers studying various aspects of built heritage in Israel; maintains partnerships with the Technion Historical Archive at the Central Technion Library, the Azrieli Architecture and Town Planning Library, the National Library of Israel, and other research institutions in Israel and abroad.
The BHRC strives to fulfill its goals through three main courses of action: an archive, a research lab and a publication house. Those provides researchers with a dynamic laboratory in which to examine the nature of the urban environment and the ideas from which Israeli architecture originated.
Researchers, students, and practitioners are visiting the BHRC to study past and present principles that explain and enrich our contemporary reality and identify trends in current architectural practice. The valuable materials housed in the BHRC are an ever-growing treasure trove of documents and collections that provide visitors with extraordinary opportunities to examine the history of local Israeli architecture. These materials help us understand the role of the spatial disciplines – architecture, landscape design, and urban planning – in the development of the local space. Moreover, they allow us to examine the ways in which architects and designers have expressed competing visions for the urban environment. As such, the BHRC constitutes a national resource of prime importance, not only for scholars of architecture, but for anyone interested in Israeli history, culture, and politics.
Email: heritage@technion.ac.il
