MANDEL INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL LEADERSHIP, BEN GURION UNIVERSITY

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Institute for Social Leadership, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, completion~ 2016, 3,500 m2

The “Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel Center” will be home to the academic MBA programs in social leadership and the third sector research unit.

The building is prominently located on the ‘Deichmann Plaza’ right where a future entrance to the campus from Beersheva is planned. This future entrance will make it the first building a visitor to the campus will see and pass.
Coming from the Plaza one sees – invitingly – through the entrance hall to an internal richly planted courtyard with a large external shaded area for sitting and meeting. This courtyard connects the existing Diane and Guilford Glazer Building (also designed by the office) with the new “Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel Center” and creates a beautiful court garden with different sitting and meeting areas.
The exterior elevations are clad with fiber-cement panels, a neat and precise, low maintenance, “green” material which can be provided in different colors.

Overall, the intention is to create a pleasant and beautiful ‘home’ for students, teachers and researchers – a place with informal meeting and sitting places, and access to the large internal quiet courtyard garden, an environment that can support and inspire creative thinking and new ideas.