A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture

In this Video Architect Nili Portugali will present her particular interpretation of the holistic- phenomenological worldview in theory and in practice, a worldview which stands in recent years at the forefront of the scientific discourse and is tightly related to Buddhist philosophy, in projects she designed and built in Israel for more than 30 years.

She will demonstrate how this approach, as well as her unique planning process stemming from it were implemented in a selected public and private projects designed and built by her in relation to the physical, cultural and social reality of the place they were planned and built on, an Israeli reality which reflects a unique interface between the orient and the west, a cultural interface she personally represents.

Nili Portugali is a lecturer at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology Architecture department, Haifa (until 2006 at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Architectural Department, Jerusalem), and a practicing architect working in Israel for more than 30 years. Her work has focused on both practice and theory, and is tightly connected to the holistic-phenomenological school of thought. 

She is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (A.A), London. 

She did postgraduate studied in Architecture and Buddhism at the University of California in Berkeley, and worked and participated in research with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkeley. 

Her firm is involved in a variety of projects in unique areas of historic or environmental sensitivity, in urban design, architecture, landscape design and interior design, disciplines she regards as one continuous system.

She has recently published her new book, which was nominated for The RIBA International Book Award Architecture Prize -- 2007.

The Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place

A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture /Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart / London 2006

For more details on Portugali's work see: www.niliportugali.com