Mansfeld Kehat - Resume

Al (Alfred) Mansfeld

(b. St. Petersburg, 2 March 1912. d. Haifa, 15 March 2004). Important and a most influential Israeli architect, theorist and teacher, and Laureate of Israel Prize (1966), for outstanding achievements in architecture for the planning and building of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (together with interior designer Dora Gad).

Mansfeld studied architecture at the Techniche Hochschule, Berlin (1931-33) and moved to Paris to complete his studies at the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture under Auguste Perret (1933-35), where he received his diploma (with distinction).

He moved to Palestine in summer 1935 to join his family in Tel Aviv. On 1937 he set up a private practice in Haifa, in order to be near to the Technion Institute, where he was a senior teacher and professor for 40 years, while running at the same time an outstanding and famous practice. He was Dean of the Architecture and Urban Planning Faculty of the Technion (1954-56) and President of the Israeli Association of Engineers and Architects (1964-66). For more than 30 years he was lecturing also in Europe (mostly in Germany, France and Italy) and other places like Japan and Canada. He won first prize in many competitions and in the case of the Jerusalem City Hall competition he won first and second prize as well. He was also Laureate of Rechter and Ratner Prizes, most prestigious prizes in Israel's architecture. His work was published in every important professional magazine in the world, as well as his research and original inventions in architecture. His "Credo" emphasizes the elements of Growth, Change and Uncertainty as key elements in modern architecture. The Credo begins, however, with these words: "I believe in the architect's responsibility towards society, his Ultimate Customer."

Between 1937-59, during his partnership with Mr. Munio Weinraub, he designed his first important buildings, including the Institute for Hebrew Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Mazar bldg.,1956); the Hydrotechnical Institute in the Technion, Haifa (1957); hundreds of dwellings, public buildings, health and educational institutes, culture centers, industry plants, buildings in the Kibbutzim and in workers villages, in the city of Haifa, in Galilee area and in Jerusalem. At the beginning of 1959, after dissolution of the partnership, Mansfeld opened his own legendary office in Mt. Carmel where he worked till his 85^th birthday.

Mansfeld worked and created not only brilliant architecture. Being also a gifted artist he drew hundreds of outstanding drawings of places he visited throughout the world, and took thousands of photos (slides), each of them a piece of art.

Mansfeld was one of a few famous foreign-born Israeli architects who introduced European Modernist design and Urban planning concepts to Israel (like Arie Sharon and Dov Carmi). He moved gradually from formalism to a contextual, open-ended architecture that allows flexibility and organic growth, keeping with the vision and future needs of a new country. Mansfeld's best-known work is the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1960-1990, since 1980 with Arc. Haim Kehat), which grew ten times more from the beginning of the project along 30 years. He called it "my new Acropolis". The scheme includes The Shrine of the Book. The museum pavilions are designed with an umbrella-canopy roof springing from a central pylon, freeing the walls from their load-bearing role. The Museum's garden was designed by Isamu Noguchi. The site was planned to accommodate more buildings as the museum collections and activities grew, fulfilling the architect's philosophy of controlled expansion.

Some of his interesting and well known projects are the Mausoleum in Rangoon (1962) and the Inter-Faith Center in Sinai (1980) which were designed but not implemented (as the clients were unfortunately assassinated).

In his home town Haifa and vicinity Mansfeld designed (since 1984 in partnership with his son Michael, his student Haim Kehat and his daughter-in-law Judith) cultural centers, dwellings, museums, hospitals, schools, university buildings, multi-purpose centers, urban planning. His office continues since the year 2000, under the name Mansfeld-Kehat Architects.

Mansfeld was a member of The Academy of Arts in Berlin, the French Architecture Academy in Paris and The International Architects Association.

His work and art (drawings and photos) were exhibited many times in Israel and abroad, and a book of his life-time work and art "Al Mansfeld – An architect in Israel" was published in 1999, by Ernst & Sohn, Berlin Germany, in German and English. Editor Anna Teut (ISBN 3-433-02875-3).

Al Mansfeld was married to Bella Reinin (economist) and had two sons: Arc. Michael Mansfeld and Prof. Yoel Mansfeld. In 1956, he planned and built his own family home on "Lovers' Lane" and lived there till his last day. The house was published in the Israel Encyclopedia as an example of excellent modern architecture.