ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the professional partnership between Arieh Sharon and Benjamin Idelson between 1954 and 1964. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1911, Idelson immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1925. In 1934, he studied architecture in Ghent, Belgium, and in 1944, he joined Sharon's architectural firm. From 1948 through 1953, during Sharon's absence while he was occupied with devising Israel's first masterplan, Idelson took charge of the office and managed its projects. When Sharon returned to the office in 1954, he offered Idelson a partnership, which lasted for a decade. During this time, the two designed numerous buildings for the nation's new institutions, including hospitals and university buildings, cultural halls and pavilions in Israel and abroad, and residential buildings. The partnership marked a shift in Sharon's perception of architecture from modernism to brutalism.
