 | ||
Awards EMET Prize in Culture and Arts | ||
Yaacov Yaar (born 1929) is an Israeli architect, who received the Israeli prize for architecture in the year 2006 and the EMET prize in the year 2014.
Contents
Biography
Architect Yaacov Yaar was born in Germany in 1929 and immigrated to Palestine with his family at the age of five. He attended the Ohel Shem School in Ramat Gan, and the Gymnasia Herzlia in Tel Aviv. After completing high school he served in the Jewish Settlement Police and in the Israeli Defense Forces. Upon his release from military service in the fall of 1949, he studied architecture at the Haifa Technion, graduating cum laude in 1953, followed later by a diploma in Engineering (Arch). During his studies, he met his wife Ora Gerstenfeld whom he married in the year 1954. The couple have two sons and a daughter. In April 1999 Yaacov lost Ora and today he lives with his spouse - Ruth A. Berman a linguist, Professor Emerita, in the Tel Aviv University - recipient of the The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture in linguistics (2012) and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Career
He worked as an architect for five years in the offices of Sharon-Idelson in Tel Aviv.
In 1960 the Yaacov established his own architectural practice together with his wife, architect Ora (Gerstenfeld) Yaar. From the start of their careers, the couple worked primarily in planning public and social projects, including neighborhoods for new immigrants, young couples and evacuees from distressed areas. From 2000 onward Yaacov Yaar and his partners, Aviv Yaar and Talli Yaar-Kost.
He was recognized for his work in 2007 when he was awarded the Israel Prize for Architecture. Other awards include the Rokach Prize, first for his role in the renewal of the Old City of Jaffa and subsequently for the planning of the Kfir neighborhood, the Uzzi Rosen Prize of the Jerusalem Architects’ Association for his work on restoration of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Kaplan Prize for design, development, and construction of Pisgat Ze’ev in Jerusalem. In 2014 Yaacov received the EMET prize in the field of architecture.
Yaar's activity reflects the changing face of Israeli architecture.
Public activity
In the course of his career Yaacov Yaar held several public positions including President of the Association of Israel Architects. He taught for many years at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technion and, subsequently, the School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University.