The Soil of Architecture is its Memory. Universal language in Zvi Hecker’s oeuvrePaola Ardizzola
Throughout his career, Zvi Hecker developed an architectural language that transcended temporal, stylistic, and cultural boundaries. His work is characterized by a rich interplay of references, drawing from diverse historical periods and formal registers while remaining free from rigid ideological frameworks. Rather than adhering to a singular doctrine, Hecker approached architecture as a continuous process of exploration, where each project became a synthesis of multiple influences, reinterpreted through his distinctive vision. A deeper understanding of his formal evolution emerges through the study of his 46 sketchbooks, which accompanied him throughout his career and served as both a creative laboratory and intellectual diary. These pages reveal not only his conceptual development but also his thought processes, visual reflections, and written meditations—an intimate documentation of the ideas that shaped his architectural approach. We will explore some of Hecker’s main projects through the lens of his sketchbooks, in which he was engaged with unwavering passion and rigour in an ongoing investigation of the fundamental "soil" of architecture—the fertile ground where memory, culture, and form take root. His philosophy is encapsulated in his own words: Nothing grows without soil, and Architectural Memory is an architect’s soil.
Paola Ardizzola
Paola Ardizzola (Italy), architect, holds a PhD in History of Architecture and Urbanism. She is currently a faculty member at Yaşar University in Izmir. Previously, she taught in various academic institutions, including Antalya (where she founded the Department of Architecture at Antalya Bilim University), Beirut (LAU), Cairo (GUC), and Cardiff (CardiffMET). She has also served as an invited visiting professor at the universities of Danzig (Gdańsk Tech) and Darmstadt (TU). Her research focuses on the entangled narratives of twentieth-century architecture and urbanism and her scholarly contributions are published with reputable academic publishers (Jovis, Springer, Intellect, Gangemi, Franco Angeli) and indexed journals such as the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA), SPOOL, Vitruvio, and Casabella. A recipient of a DAAD senior fellowship, she is currently completing a comprehensive study on the architect Zvi Hecker (1931–2023), with a particular focus on his 46 sketchbooks. Paola is also a Bruno Zevi International Prize laureate for her research on Bruno Taut’s (1880–1938) architectural work in Turkey. She served on the scientific committees of several international conferences and academic journals and at present is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians’ (SAH) Historic Interiors Research Committee; amidst it, she is the proposer of the forthcoming event The Lost Historic Interiors: from San Francisco earthquake (1906) to Los Angeles fire (2025) Documenting and Archiving the Past, Preventing and Envisioning the Future.