The town of Dimona : ascent, decadence, abandonment and rebirth od a development town in the Negev desert 1952 -2019

This thesis discusses the evolution of the desert development town of Dimona by analyzing its ascent, decadence, abandonment and rebirth characteristics. A chronological timeline was established as a means to explore the dynamic settlement evolvement within the Negev desert region from its ancient Roman period to current times. During the mid-50s' a British new town model was assigned to the upcoming settlement of Dimona as part of a utopian pioneering spirit led by the first prime minister of Israel David Ben Gurion. The model was forced to adapt to the local interpretation due to the constant physical constrains that the new settlement had to deal with. The inability to adapt to the original attributes had created a void in which new experimental approaches were examined. The town turns toward the industry sector where the majority population was engaged directly and indirectly with the sector. The turning point occurs during the mid 70 when new experimental neighborhoods and public structures were established and commercial structure began to appear in the newly designed central business district. During the early 90, the initial enthusiasm was turned toward deterioration and abandonment phenomenon once the industrial sector began to sank, and with it the rest of the town's evident sectors. The study founds that the main cause for decadence and abandonment was due to unequal and disproportional development of the industrial sector toward the urban texture and the local population. The analysis also refers to the structural pattern behavior according to 3 Key elements: Immediacy, marginality, and borderline. Immediacy as a constant pioneering justification to impose establishment acts at all costs and all at once; Marginality as a symbol for moderated cultural choices where there aren't any pure styles or stable models but rather imported canonical models and indigenous cultures symbols; Borderline as a constant struggle to refuse to commit to declared permanent form or shapes, as the town planners constantly preferred to preserve the hypothetical advancement atmosphere. The last chapter of the thesis refers to the rebirth possibility, where several adaptable suggestions in various scales were provided.