The double spine and the blue boulevard plans: morphological visions and territorial politics of Israeli expansionism

In the aftermath of the 1967 War, which tripled the territory under Israel’s control, architects Avraham Wachman and Michael Burt responded to the new spatial dimensions of Israel’s occupied territories with settlement proposals grounded in their morphological studies at the Technion. Wachman’s Double Spine Plan proposed settling the eastern frontier with a line of Jewish settlements parallel to the Mediterranean coastal spine with the goal of stabilizing Israeli territorial control. Burt’s westward-facing Blue Boulevard Plan envisioned artificial islands composed of prefabricated surfaces along the Mediterranean coast with the goal of offering new land to address land scarcity. Although neither plan was realized, Wachman’s proposal was considered at the highest governmental levels when it was proposed in the 1970s, while Burt continues to advocate for his vision today. Drawing on newly uncovered archival materials, this study reveals that the architectural discourse and milieu in which both worked led them to conceptualize the territorial dimension of the plan as a process that evolves according to scientific laws. Their plans were therefore diagrams directing territorial expansions rather than documents of negotiated policy. However, their seemingly neutral scientific solutions reveal contradictory positions on expansionism, exposing the political logic embedded in their morphological practices.