Edward Grinberg

Edward Grinberg is an architect and urban planner graduated from Technion , the Israel Istitute of Technology, and the author of the Domobile System. Developed thanks to research grants from Princeton University and the French Ministry of Research, the system aims at the automobile/city's symbiosis. This being technically possible, the Domobile system proposes the creation of a new type of car: the domobile, a mobile architectural element, fully integrated into the urban fabric. Its application will:

*Liberate the public space of parked cars
*Endow the buildings with a new component: the "mobile annex"
*Equip the city with a public system for individual transportation
*Create a new architectural and urban vocabulary

An extension of the window, of the door, a mutant of the public bench, the domobiles become, whenever desired, means of locomotion. Complementary to the systems of mass transportation and of electronic communications, the domobile, blended with the built-up environment, enriching it rather than invading it.

Citations (selection)

*"From time immemorial, the city has adapted man's inventions to its inherent purposes.This evolutionary processhas led from the well, the mill and the coal stove to urban facilities for water, air-conditioning and energy. The domobile, a logical continuation of this process,will be as prevalent and ordinary tomorrow as the telephone today." ("Le système Domobile: la voiture intégrée à la ville d'Edward Grinberg", published by the Délégation Interministérielle de la Ville and Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, Paris, 1994)

*"Abandoning the usual half-mesures, the Domobile System drives us into the hearth of a projection: the balcony car, the bow-window car, the publix-bench car, the folding car... Concepts, free and stimulating, creating a rew champ of possibilities." (From the Press Release for the Domobile System exhibit at the Centre Georges POmpidou, Paris, March 1994)

*"Mr. Grinbeg, who is known for his pugnacious attitude and ideas,has other wimsical yet functoinal devices (besides the Domobile System)in the works. Watch for a public bus powered by passenger pedaling. And remember, they all lauphed when Edison recorded sound." (New York Times, "Where No Car Has Gone Before", April 22, 1999)

*"Revolution in the city... The merit of the Domobuile System is not only the preservation of the car in the city, but by integrating it into the city's fabric, to reinvent it and thus, regenerate it." (L'Auto-Journal N°21, Paric, December 1994)

*"The Domobile System: the symbiosis of architecture and automobile.This symbiosis is indispensable if the city is to remain the principal place of human interactions." (Le Carré Bleu N°3, Paris, 1988)

*'The Domobile System's premiseis the strong complementarity of the city's fixed structures - buildings, streets -and the mobile elements that serve as means of transportation. This dual aspect of the urban environment calls for creating a new type of vehicle, compatible to its particular nature... And from the architectuiral point of view, it will establish a new vocabulary, drawing on the language of buildng and car... Th Domobile system is still a concept, although there is a good chance that some farsighted city planner could take it up in the future. Is it possible in Indian Cities? Yes, but as usual, socio-political cosiderations will ensure we are light yrars away from building on the future of the car." (Auto-India, volume N°3, Bombay, September1995)

Developed in France with Henia Suchar, the project was presented at the Centre G. Pompidou as an exhibit of 150m2, sponsored by the Ministries of Research, of Culture and of the City. Since its inauguration in1994, the project has been presented, with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affair, in over thirty museums, culture centres and universities, among them:

*The New York Hall of Science
*The Museum of Science, Bangkok
*The Architectural and Urban Planning Institut, Berlin
*The Architectural Fondation, Bruxelles
*The International Forum Prospecta, Naples
*New Jersey Institute of Technology
*Stevens Institute, Hoboken
*City College of New York

Starting with the fall of 2008, the exhibit "The Domobile System" will become a permanent part of the Automobile Museum in Reims, France. Around the exhibirt will be organized conferences and round-tables on the subject of the car's future in the city.

Architecture and City Planning

Conception and realisation of:
*Fondation Houphouet Boigny, Yamasoukro, Ivory Coast, 1976
*Hospital Village, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 1997
*Quartier PH 22, La Défense, Paris, 1978
*Quartier Bercy, Paris, 1979

Research and design

*"Action, Means of Action and Architecture": an investigation into the morphological dynamics of Man's Made World, University of Princeton,1969
*"Pedalbus": public bus powered by passengers pedaling. New York - Paris, 1973

Paintings and sculptures exhibits

*De Vorzon Gallery, Los Angeles, Cal.1971
*Arlene Isacks Gallery, New York, N.Y.,1972
*Galerie Pierre Lescot,Paris,1983
*Galerie Anne Lettrée, SAGA, Paris,1983
*Kunsthaus Welker, Heidelberg,1990
*Galerie Benezit, Paris, 1991,92
*Galerie Miromesnil Fine Art, Paris, 1991,92
*Galerie Sylvie Bruley, Paris, 1990,91,92,93
*Galerie Eliane Poggi, Grenoble, 1992,93,94
*Galerie Médiart,Paris; 1990,91,92,93,94
*Galerie Chappe, Paris,2009

Bibliography (selection)

*"Transport and Utopies", Henry Claude, Cahiers du CCI N°6, Centre Georges Pompidou,Paris, 1989
*"The New Systems of Urban Displacements" - BIPE CONCEIL on behalf of the PREDIT program, European Union,1992
*"La Ville et l'Automobile", Claude Lamur, Culture Technique, N°21, Paris, 1992
*"Domobile: the car that makes the city", Cécile Meinard, Grandes Lignes N°11, 1993
*"The Domobile System", Techniques et Architecture, N°413, 1994
*"Domobile" Archicrée N°258, 1994
*"L'Auto dingue", le Nouvel Observateur N° 153, 1994
*"Automobile - Contre la Ville-Tunnel", Edward Grinberg, Le Monde de Dabats, June 1994
*"She is indispensable", Edward Grinberg, Carré Bleu 4/88
*"The circle and the spiral", Edward Grinberg, Carré Bleu 2/96

Books

Childrens Books (illustrated by the author)
*"A Hunt In The Jungle", Lion Books, New Yorl, N.Y.1971
*Encounter On The High Seas", Lion Books, New York, N.Y.1971

Essay:
*"Mobilité restreinte, mobilité étendue" Editions L'Harmattan, Paris, 2001

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