90 Degrees: Hansen House gets new decor for Jerusalem Design Week
The winding hot-pink staircase forces visitors to face East, going along with this year's Jerusalem Design Week theme, "EAST."
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIPink Staircase(photo credit: DOR KEDMI)
The Hansen House, a historic building in Jerusalem that was once a hospital, was decorated with a winding pink staircase for Jerusalem Design Week, which took place June 13-20.A team of Tel Aviv architects took on installing the visually striking staircase which respects the strict preservation regulations of the building, calling their design "90 Degrees."With the theme of the week being simply "EAST," the installation has a diagonal scaffolding system climbing along the side of the building from West to East while circling around slightly so as to force visitors to face the East. The platform the stairs form is approximately 14 meters high.The alternative journey through the Hansen House presents views past the building to the surrounding areas.Hansen House, located in the Talibya neighborhood, was originally a hospital for Hansen's disease, or leprosy. Conrad Schick was the original architect, a German missionary who was self-taught in architecture.The Moravian Church's Herrenhut brotherhood ran the hospital between its establishment in 1887 and 1950, when the Jewish National Fund bought it from them.The last leprosy patients left the facility in 2000, once the cure was found. It is now an art exhibition for Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.
