Midreshet Ben-Gurion , also known as
Midreshet Sde Boker, is a
communal settlementA community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer.By this selection process, a community...
in southern
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
. Located near
Sde BokerSde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Ramat HaNegev Regional CouncilRamat Negev Regional Council is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel...
. In 2008 it had a population of 1,100.
Building at the site began in 1962, with the first residents moving in in 1963. It was initially a field school, and was inspired and guided by
David Ben-Gurion' was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel...
's vision of building a thriving
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish culture in the arid Negev. Ben-Gurion and his wife
Paula Ben-GurionPaula Ben-Gurion was the Russian-born wife of David Ben-Gurion the founding Prime Minister of Israel. They had three children together: Geula, Amos and Renana....
are buried on the cliff overlooking the Zin valley.
The village evolved into an educational centre and as well as the field school, now hosts the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (part of
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBen-Gurion University of the Negev was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel.The university is mandated to promote development of the Negev region, inspired by the...
); the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute, which is charged with the study and the dissemination of his writings and offers visitors a multi-media program about the man and his work; as well as a
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
where the curriculum emphasizes environmental studies.
The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, a faculty of the
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBen-Gurion University of the Negev was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel.The university is mandated to promote development of the Negev region, inspired by the...
, has a
solar energySolar power in Israel and the Israeli solar energy industry has a history that dates to the founding of the country. In the 1950s, Levi Yissar developed a solar water heater to help assuage an energy shortage in the new country. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated their water with the...
research programme that has developed some interesting demonstrations of how the extremes of heat and cold experienced in the desert can be mitigated through efficient storage of heat during the day for release at night.
Among these are an inhabited
adobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest extant...
house that has rational
fenestrationThe word fenestration finds its root in the Latin word for window, fenestra.Architecture* Products that fill openings in a building envelope, such as windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, etc., designed to permit the passage of air, light, vehicles, or people...
, with small windows in the northern side and heat collecting concrete prisms in the windows of the south facing wall.
Midreshet Ben-Gurion , also known as
Midreshet Sde Boker, is a
communal settlementA community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer.By this selection process, a community...
in southern
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
. Located near
Sde BokerSde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
in the
NegevThe Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The indigenous Bedouin inhabitants of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab . The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Ramat HaNegev Regional CouncilRamat Negev Regional Council is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel...
. In 2008 it had a population of 1,100.
Building at the site began in 1962, with the first residents moving in in 1963. It was initially a field school, and was inspired and guided by
David Ben-Gurion' was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel...
's vision of building a thriving
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish culture in the arid Negev. Ben-Gurion and his wife
Paula Ben-GurionPaula Ben-Gurion was the Russian-born wife of David Ben-Gurion the founding Prime Minister of Israel. They had three children together: Geula, Amos and Renana....
are buried on the cliff overlooking the Zin valley.
The village evolved into an educational centre and as well as the field school, now hosts the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (part of
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBen-Gurion University of the Negev was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel.The university is mandated to promote development of the Negev region, inspired by the...
); the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute, which is charged with the study and the dissemination of his writings and offers visitors a multi-media program about the man and his work; as well as a
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
where the curriculum emphasizes environmental studies.
Research centre
The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, a faculty of the
Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBen-Gurion University of the Negev was founded in 1969, in Beersheba, Israel.The university is mandated to promote development of the Negev region, inspired by the...
, has a
solar energySolar power in Israel and the Israeli solar energy industry has a history that dates to the founding of the country. In the 1950s, Levi Yissar developed a solar water heater to help assuage an energy shortage in the new country. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated their water with the...
research programme that has developed some interesting demonstrations of how the extremes of heat and cold experienced in the desert can be mitigated through efficient storage of heat during the day for release at night.
Among these are an inhabited
adobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest extant...
house that has rational
fenestrationThe word fenestration finds its root in the Latin word for window, fenestra.Architecture* Products that fill openings in a building envelope, such as windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, etc., designed to permit the passage of air, light, vehicles, or people...
, with small windows in the northern side and heat collecting concrete prisms in the windows of the south facing wall. The prisms are situated in the rooms. They absorb heat during the day and can be rotated to allow the heat to discharge into the rooms at night. The "chimney" is actually part of an evaporative cooling system that maintains the temperature of the house during the day at bearable levels.
There is a double skin
greenhouseA greenhouse is a building where plants are cultivated.A greenhouse is a structure with a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming solar radiation from the sun warms plants, soil, and other things inside the building faster than heat can escape the...
that uses
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
sulfateIn inorganic chemistry, a sulfate is a salt of sulfuric acid.-Chemical properties:...
solution as a heat screen during the day. The liquid is pumped between the two skins, protects the interior from
ultravioletUltraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than x-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
rays and collects heat. At night the liquid is recirculated returning the heat to the greenhouse.
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