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Renowned architect partners with Project OKURASE to build center
July 22, 2008
Project OKURASE is delighted to introduce our architectural design team, Talmor and Talmor, and welcome them to the Project OKURASE family. Mishael Talmor is a renowned architect in Israel and Venezuela. Ruti Talmor is an anthropologist in New York City and daughter of Mishael. Ruti is responsible for introducing Project OKURASE to the work of a Ghanaian woman architect, Alero Olympio. Alero is known for sustainable architecture and the use of natural materials in Ghana. She died in 2005 after making a significant contribution to African architecture. Her work will live on through Project OKURASE as we honor her work in the building of the Nkabom Centre. The Centre, designed by Mishael and Ruti, will feature sustainable architecture and the use of natural Ghanaian materials, as used in Alero’s work.
Our design team is an example of the global unity that is behind the building of Nkabom Centre and Project OKURASE. Under the leadership of Mishael and Ruti we honor the land of Ghana and the great role that women play in protecting and sustaining the land.
MISHAEL TALMOR
Architect and builder Mishael Talmor was born in Haifa, Israel in 1941. Trained at the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology (B.Sc. 1968), he began his career as a partner in the architectural firm S. Gender-M. Talmor-Tel Aviv, designing and building a wide range of residential, industrial, educational, sports and security facilities throughout Israel. In 1980, he moved with his wife, also an architect, and his two daughters to Caracas, Venezuela, to act as branch manager of the international Israeli construction firm Solel Boneh International Ltd. There he executed large-scale residential and commercial projects. In 1985, he opened his own construction company in Venezuela, again executing residential and commercial projects. In 1995, he returned to Israel. Here, he has been project manager for large-scale industrial (high-tech), commercial, and residential projects, including NATBAG 2000, the Airside Terminal Building at Ben Gurion Airport, and his current project, the Mamila Commercial Zone in Jerusalem.
RUTI TALMOR
Anthropologist Ruti Talmor was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1973. She is the daughter of architect Mishael Talmor and artist-architect Lihie Gendler Talmor. She received her bachelor degree in art history from New York University in 1995, completed the certificate in culture and media program (in ethnographic film) in 2000, and her doctorate degree in cultural anthropology in 2008. As an anthropologist, Talmor works on art, architecture, and other forms of cultural production in Ghana, investigating art worlds as intercultural zones, prime sites for interaction, imagination, and coproduction of culture for Ghanaians and foreigners. She also works in documentary film production, and has directed, shot, and edited two short films.
ALERO OLYMPIO
Architect and builder, Alero Olympio was born in Accra, Ghana in 1959. She graduated with a bachelor degree in building construction and architecture from the University of Dundee, Scotland in 1982 and a post-graduate degree in architecture at the University of Edinburgh in 1986. Upon graduation, Olympio worked as assistant architect at the Edinburgh practice of J & F Johnston and Co., working on residential development, supermarkets, and restoration and conversion projects. In 1987, she became associate director of J & F Johnston Overseas, and introduced it to the West African market. It was during this period, beginning in 1988, that Olympio began her work in sustainable architecture in her home country, Ghana. From the beginning, her work explored the use of natural materials, local building techniques, technology transfer, and energy-efficient, locally-relevant construction, producing a unique architecture as result. Notable among her projects are the Kokrobitey School. Its design is inspired by traditional Asante compound house design. It is built entirely out of local materials— specifically laterite, stone, and secondary hardwoods, utilizes recycled materials and other elements of sustainable design, and was built by villagers. Olympio’s death in 2005 put a tragic end to her career as a revolutionary African architect. It is our honor that her legacy will live on through Project OKURASE.
