What is a Kibbutz in 2026?
What is a home in a Kibbutz in 2026?
What should be preserved from the Kibbutz of the past, and what needs to be changed?
These were the three fundamental questions that ran through our minds after we were invited to take part in a closed architectural competition for the design of the new “Bananas Neighbourhood” in Kibbutz Degania Bet. Many more questions followed -some familiar from “the profession,” others touching on history, the past, and everything embodied in the words “Degania”, “the valley” and “The beginnings of Zionist settlement in the Land of Israel”.
After thinking, proposing, testing, rejecting, and thinking again, we began to distil what mattered to us - what, in our eyes, defines a Kibbutz in 2026. We knew we wanted that particular green of the lawns and the old kibbutz “noy” - the cultivated landscape and greenery of the past. We knew we wanted the informal relationships between neighbours. We knew we wanted the delicate and precise seam between private and public. We knew we wanted it to be comfortable, available, accessible, and simple — exactly as the old kibbutz feels to us. We knew that the “neighbours” are friends, but we also knew that sometimes, even friends need boundaries.
We also reminded ourselves that the “Bananas Neighbourhood” is intended for young couples: couples whose building resources are currently limited; whose families will still grow and expand; whose present needs will change in the coming years; couples who need flexibility - both architectural, functional and financial.
We understood that we needed to give them the ability to change their homes easily, almost like Lego: to add one block on top of another, to move a previous one to a new place. To make it easy, simple, and possible — like Lego.
We spent quality time in the “Banana Neighbourhood”. We also spent quality time with architect Nimrod Cohen (https://www.nmc-a.com (- a friend, a partner in the planning of the project, and former long-time moshav resident , and a young kibbutz member in the present.