The greatest challenge for students in the unique Muss program is spending an extended period away from home and family. However, this challenge also presents an amazing opportunity to create a stimulating, immersive, and innovative learning community. One of the best ways to cultivate a sense of belonging in a place is by laying down roots. Just like the earliest halutzim, these students will tend to their own shared food garden and 'green the Negev' using the best state-of-the-art hydroponic technology that Israel has to offer. They will develop a sense of responsibility, care, and independence, along with a sensitivity to where their fresh food comes from and a firsthand appreciation of the astounding agricultural advances being led by Israel, which enable the cultivation of crops in the desert.

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The building is organized into three distinct spatial zones, creating a strategic composition of private, communal, and public spaces that simultaneously serve as a passive ventilation system. The residential apartments face the northern facade, allowing in light while keeping them cool despite the desert environment. On the southern facade, the greenhouse shields the building from the sun's strongest rays throughout the day, absorbing sunlight for plant growth and emitting cool air into the interior atrium/passageway. It also utilizes runoff rainwater from the roof for crop growth.

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The heart of the building is the open circulation area with communal functions and patios, which, like the chadar ochel and green space of the kibbutz, form the core of the communal experience. Designed as a long corridor, this area channels cool east-west winds throughout the building while bringing light into the apartments. Public functions in this area include patio seating with trees (providing a cooling effect), classrooms, a workshop/studio/Maker Lab, a quiet study hall and library, and a communal kitchen that opens onto a café-style dining area facing the greenhouse

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In collaboration with Leora Niderberg