Nili Portugali (Architect A.A. Dip R.I.B.A) is a a lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design Department of Architecture in Jerusalem, and a practicing architect working in Israel for the last 20 years. Focused both on practice & theory, Portugali began her ongoing research on the order of human environments during her studies at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (Dip 1973) and developed it further with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkeley, California. She has completed her post-graduate studies in Architecture and Buddhist Studies at University of California, Berkeley in 1979-1981.

The first part of her essay presents the "holistic" worldview, a school of thought that has been at the forefront of science for many years, in which her architectural work belongs, outlining the way Portugali interpretats the theory in her unique design process.

The second part of her essay is a presentation of two selected projects built by her in Israel: Music Center and Library in the historic heart of Tel-Aviv (completed in 1997) and a Residential Neighborhood in the Kibbutz Maagan Michael (completed in 2004). The projects demonstrate the implementation and interpretation of the concepts described by Portugali in the first section with relation to the cultural and physical (urban and rural) reality of the buildings.

Portugali, Nili. 2005. "A Holistic Approach to Architecture and Its Implementation in the Physical and Cultural Context of the Place". Paper presented at the UIA XXIInd World Architecture Congress in Istanbul.

Nili Portugali

Public Domain