Ramot Polin is a neighborhood in northwest Jerusalem, part of the larger neighborhood Ramot. It was constructed in stages beginning in 1972 under the auspices of the Office for Building and Habitation, and it is populated, as intended, mostly by Haredi Jewish families, including Breslov

Breslov

Breslov may refer to one of the following.*Bratslav, a town in modern Ukraine.*Breslov , founded in Bratslav....

. The neighborhood contains 720 housing units of varying sizes.

Planning and Building

The background to building this neighborhood, as well as several other neighborhoods in Jerusalem - including additional sub-neighborhoods in Ramot

Ramot

Ramot , also known as Ramot Alon , is a large housing development in northwestern Jerusalem. Because part of Ramot lies north of the Green Line in East Jerusalem, the international community considers Ramot an Israeli settlement that is illegal under international law. Israel disputes this and...

 and in Gilo

Gilo

Gilo is a neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000, mostly Jewish. It is one of the five ring neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is built on land in the West Bank that was annexed to Israel in 1980 under the Jerusalem Law. The international community regards it as an...

, was to settle wide parts of Jerusalem through new building after the Six-Day War

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...

. This phenomenon was charcterized by urban and architectural trials by many Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

s, building designers, and engineers to design new shapes of residential, community, and local structures. In charge of planning the project of Ramot Polin, which is one of those settling projects, was the Israeli architect Zvi Hecker

Zvi Hecker

Zvi Hecker is a Polish-born Israeli architect. His work is known for its emphasis on geometry and asymmetry.-Biography:Zvi Hecker was born on May 31, 1931 in Krakow, Poland. He grew up in Poland and Samarkand. He began his education in architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. He...

 for both the neighborhood and the architectural planning. Hecker

Hecker

- People :* Andrew Hecker, American Television Director WOW!, GLOW, Infomercials* Chris Hecker, game programmer* Ewald Hecker , German psychiatrist, originator of the concept of hebephrenia* Klemen Hecker, a truly leet hecker...

, who is known as an experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....

d architect in unique, innovative geometrical shapes, included in his plan several architectural proposals that were very innovative at the time.

Architecture

Ramot Polin Apartments have been named as one of the "World's Strangest Buildings" and has been described as a "housing project for honeybees".
The entire neighborhood is organized upon a hill in central Ramot

Ramot

Ramot , also known as Ramot Alon , is a large housing development in northwestern Jerusalem. Because part of Ramot lies north of the Green Line in East Jerusalem, the international community considers Ramot an Israeli settlement that is illegal under international law. Israel disputes this and...

 in a shape resembling a five-finger

Finger

A finger is a limb of the human body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates....

ed hand

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

 or three-branch

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

ed leaf

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

. Each finger, which represents a different level of the building

Building

In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

 that lasted until the mid eighties, is a series of 5-6 "L"-shaped apartment buildings incorporated in each other, creating a wide zigzag

Zigzag

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular....

. In each of these 'fingers', there is an inner courtyard

Courtyard

A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....

, which was designed to remember the traditional courtyards of the older Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem.