The Evacuated Airport in Eilat

The Challenge

The evacuation of the airport in Eilat left hundreds of dunams of empty space in a central area of the city. A master plan for the area designates it mainly for tourism, residential, and public buildings, which together will realize the historic opportunity to blur the urban barrier between the tourist spaces and those used by the city’s residents. Despite grand expectations for new uses of the vacated airport, the implementation of construction plans on the ground may take many years. The primary challenge faced by the city was to prevent the area from becoming abandoned and neglected, and moreover – to actually begin to benefit from it in the short and medium term, for the enjoyment of the city’s residents, tourists, businesses, and others in the area.

Our Role

We formulated a plan to make use of the vacated area, even in the immediate future. This plan defined a broad set of soft interventions in the area – those that do not require massive development work or change the space in such a way as to interfere with the advanced master plan being implemented in the future. The theme that led to the temporary use plan was the connection between the upper city (that serves the residents) and the tourist city near the coastline. Thus was born the concept of an urban park in the center of Eilat, which will celebrate the idea of public space, realize community models, and use existing facilities in a creative and innovative way.

For example, the vacated terminal building will be repurposed as an Innovation Center and theater halls. The plan also addressed unique economic models for business and tourism ventures in the northern area of the park, such as temporary, affordable hotels and an experimental complex for global companies.