Museum of the Sweet Stones
Done as part of the final project at the About Design track, M.Des Program of Industrial Design, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem. Mentored by Hadas Zemer Ben-Ari
July 2021
The Sugar Stone Museum presents a collection of items made of sugar stones discovered around Jerusalem. These stones are sweet, soft, and soluble – ephemeral gems, some of which hide “fossils” from the past and maybe even allude to the possible future of the city.
Can we imagine Jerusalem stones made of sugar, and how will they challenge identity components, power relations, and narratives that aggregate in the existing construction and cladding stones? The local limestone has played a key role in Jerusalem’s evolution for over 3000 years, and serves as a tool for formulating the city’s character, value, and identity in the past and present.
Sugar, in contrast, is a transient non-local and highly perishable material, consumed as a “building block” of the human body and culture. The encounter between these two opposing materials and the transformation of sugar into an alternative raw material opens an opportunity to reexamine local reality and the role of Jerusalem stone as the leading player in urban space.
Can we imagine Jerusalem stones made of sugar, and how will they challenge identity components, power relations, and narratives that aggregate in the existing construction and cladding stones? The local limestone has played a key role in Jerusalem’s evolution for over 3000 years, and serves as a tool for formulating the city’s character, value, and identity in the past and present.
Sugar, in contrast, is a transient non-local and highly perishable material, consumed as a “building block” of the human body and culture. The encounter between these two opposing materials and the transformation of sugar into an alternative raw material opens an opportunity to reexamine local reality and the role of Jerusalem stone as the leading player in urban space.