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(b Rio de Janeiro, Aug 5, 1923).
Israeli architect of Brazilian birth. Both his South American background and his student apprenticeship with Oscar Niemeyer (1944–8) influenced his approach to design. Emigrating to Israel in 1949, he worked in the office of Ze’ev Rechter and then as a partner of Heinz Rau until 1958. With Rau he designed two buildings at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for which he was awarded the Israeli Rechter Prize for Architecture in 1964. In 1958 he opened his own practice in Jerusalem, designing many public buildings including the Engineers’ Institute and Journalists’ Association (both 1966). These buildings, executed in cut stone, represent simple block forms with horizontal openings and show modern influences. The Kennedy Memorial (1966), Soldier’s House (1970) and Jerusalem Centre for Near Eastern Studies (1988–9) are all inspired by local motifs of form and space, using load-bearing stone walls and arched openings....
