Hecker, Zvi ( 1931 )
Spiral sketch, 1986 , Spiral Apartment House, Ramat-Gan, Israel, 21 29 cm,
Black ink on white paperAn architect with an international practice, Zvi Hecker approaches architecture from strong concep-
tual symbolism. Using the shape of a ‘sunflower’ as impetus for such projects as the Jewish Primary
School in Berlin ( 1991 – 1995 ) and the Sunflower of Ramat Hasharon in Tel-Aviv ( 1986 – 1995 ), he
creates distinctly emotive buildings. Other of his renowned projects include the Palmach Museum of
History in Tel-Aviv, the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, and the Jewish Cultural Center in Duisburg.
Hecker was born in Poland and lived in Samarkand and Krakow until he emigrated to Israel in
1950. His architectural education began at the Krakow Polytechnic ( 1949 – 1950 ), and he graduated
from the Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa with a degree in engineering and architecture
( 1955 ). In addition to his training in architecture, he studied painting at the Avni Academy of Art in
Tel-Aviv ( 1955 – 1957 ). While working with Eldar Sharon and Alfred Neumann, Hecker began his
private practice now known as Zvi Hecker | Architect | Berlin, with offices in Tel-Aviv and
Amsterdam. In addition to his active practice, he has held positions of visiting professor at schools in
Canada, Israel, Austria and the United States.^14
The stimulus for this sketch (Figure 8. 12 ) came from the program for the Spiral Apartment House
in Ramat Gan. Hecker’s beautiful and astonishing construction is formed with masonry and tile,
exhibiting a porous weave of fragmented spiral columns defining inhabitable space. He writes about
the concept of the spiral as it pertains to this building and the sketch. ‘The Spiral’s incompleteness is also
its poetry, because poetry is the most precise expression of our need for precision. Expressive as it is,
the Spiral can’t be fully understood. It speaks to many languages at once and at the same time. It speaks
Arabic about human condition. It argues in Hebrew in the sheer necessity to bring the muscles and
materials together, but it is quite fluent in Russian when construction becomes architecture. Its Italian
is very Baroque, as spoken in Piedmont by Guarino Guarini. The Spiral is a tower of Babel in mini-
ature.’^15 Hecker is describing the fluidity of a spiral and his reasons for using it as impetus for this
building. Its inspiring nature carries many facets and allusions that can be translated into architecture.
By Hecker’s own admission (recognized after its completion), the sketch resembles the complex
layering of spaces in Piranesi’s carceri. With similar hatched lines, the sketch contains the fragmented
and ambiguous spatial illusion as Piranesi’s etchings. The very dense page overlaps cylindrical shapes.
Blending pieces of architectural form, such as windows and stairs, with abstract contours, he suggests
an impression of movement and transition. This collage of architectural notations was not meant to
produce a faithful view of the proposed building but rather an allusion. This sketch is both an illusion
and an allusion. Both words with roots in play, the sketch is a fabricated (thus not realistic) view of the
building at the same time being a reference to an abstract idea.
The fragmented pieces have been rendered to help Hecker visualize the concept in three dimen-
sions. Constantly moving between positive and negative space, the sketch also transitions between ele-
vation and plan, seen markedly in the stairs to the left. The connected, but still disjointed, pieces fill
the entire page with nervous activity.H5719-Ch08.qxd 7/15/05 3:52 PM Page 233