Congratulating my friend and colleague, architecture historian David Kroyanker, who has contributed more than anyone else to the research and documentation of the built fabric of Jerusalem, known internationally for his seminal series of books and articles about the city’s architecture. His new and super ambitious project, ‘Jerusalem Design – God is in the Details – Multicultural Design Identities,’ on which he has collaborated with his wife and partner Leorah Kroyanker, provides a comprehensive index of all design patterns that had characterized the diverse national, religious and ethnic cultures, existed in Jerusalem throughout its long history. Now, this lifetime research is available in a new website, in a four-volume publication, and will be featured in an upcoming exhibition this fall at the Israel Museum, curated by Dan Handel. This superb and complete index is divided into four major themes, each devoted to one of Jerusalem’s major design identities: Jewish Design; Christian Design; Muslim Design; and Modern 20th Century Design. A new tool to learn, to get informed, and to be able to identify and to recognize the richness and complexity of the built fabric in the holiest of all cities.
