Bauhaus Tel Aviv by Paul Kearns

Bauhaus tel aviv By Paul Kearns 1. xxxxxxxxx it is a well-worn architectural quip in tel aviv that the terrazzo and ironwork, in particular the variety of design Following the abrupt closure of the Bauhaus schools 2. xxxxxxxxx Bauhaus ‘White City of tel aviv’ doesn’t actually have any and execution of internal communal balcony balustrades, 3. xxxxxxxxx 4. xxxxxxxxx Bauhaus buildings at all, but rather that this uNESCO World stairwells banisters, are fundamental to an appreciation and by the Nazis in the early 1930s, these architects 5. xxxxxxxxx heritage City of the Modern Movement was built entirely in understanding of Bauhaus tel aviv. Walking from ‘house’ to returned to British Mandate Palestine to design and the international style. While ‘Bauhaus’ will always remain the ‘house’ in many parts of the city today, it is possible to gain entry school and ‘international style’ the architectural expression, the through open doorways to tour communal interiors. build what was to become the greatest collection terms are used here somewhat loosely and for those interested Bauhaus tel aviv was largely a privately funded, speculative in the Modern Movement, the city of tel aviv is simply an developer driven adventure. there were few civic or public and concentration of International Style buildings to architectural wonderland. buildings built in the 1930s. architects found expression on be found anywhere in the world. Movement in architecture and the but built after designation. Others, to consider for nomination to the international style in tel aviv.” Five including some located on the very World heritage list. in October 2008, years later, the 12th international fringes of the uNESCO designated area the Minister for the environment, iCOMOs-uNESCO congress (the 37-storey Richard Meier tower on heritage and local Government had recommended that the tel aviv Rothschild Boulevard) are currently set up an expert advisory Group Municipality propose ‘the White City’ under construction. a recently to review ireland’s tentative list of as a World heritage site with formal completed 28-storey tower designed properties for future nomination to uNESCO adoption in 2003. by local architects Moore Yaski sivan the World heritage list. the review has been disparagingly dubbed “the was undertaken during 2008 and 1 2 3 4 5 Whilst generally hailed as a World’s First Bauhaus tower” on 2009, when the Group considered huge success – particularly from account of its self conscious curved which properties best met the criteria conservation, urban regeneration corners, inspired say the architects by required for inscription on the in 2003 uNESCO declared the White City tel aviv a World individual housing plots, housed albeit within the overall and city branding perspectives – the tradition of local Bauhaus some 24 World heritage list. the lessons for heritage site. [1] the concentration of buildings, their centrality framework of the sir Patrick Geddes town Plan for the City. the rediscovery of the White City storeys below. Dublin from the tel aviv uNESCO and vitality – 65,000 people live in the uNESCO designated Whilst fundamental in determining the grain and layout of of Bauhaus tel aviv in the1980s experience are multiple. they include area at the heart of the city – distinguishes ‘the White City’ the city, the Geddes Plan did not prescribe or directly suggest has not been without local critics. the interests (or at least an astute the importance of popularising and from other global pockets of international style architecture. it architectural form. Combined with international style sharon Rotbard a respected tel aviv understanding of the interests) of democratising the architectural is this density, vibrancy and, according to the book the White architectural expression, it generated a city of three and four- architectural academic, in his book “real estate” has however driven the heritage “story” prior to designation. City of tel aviv, a World heritage site (2004), the “extent of the storey single cube-like blocks, sitting in pocket gardens arranged White City - Black City (2005) is entire conservation strategy. Municipal this took time in tel aviv, but when site and its stylistic homogeneity and completeness” located in a giant mosaic of carefully and methodically planned scathing of the consensus narrative of funding for conservation led restoration successfully done, gives meaning at the centre of a city metropolis that was fundamental to sequence of hierarchical private and public spaces parks and tel aviv’s emergence out of the empty was and remains minimal. this is and a sense of civic ownership of the informing the designation. boulevards. sand dunes adjacent the Palestinian a highly regulated but nevertheless architectural value of the story being tel aviv is an extraordinarily leafy and green city today. the port city of Jaffa. private sector driven regeneration. told. it also assisted in embedding a the ‘White City’ is also considered to be a unique laboratory density of tree planting in the1930s has matured to generate Material modifications and substantial successful branding strategy for the city of experimentation and expression of the international style, one of the most pleasant and high density liveable urban Perhaps a more common local criticism extensions to uNESCO designated (i.e. tel aviv - the White City). an architectural “meeting point of different factions of the environments. today tel aviv’s liveable urbanism, however, is that the uNESCO designation has international style buildings are not Modern Movement” (the White City of tel aviv, 2004). the owes as much to 21st century municipal ambition as it does been responsible for the gentrification simply tolerated, they form the heart of it may also be of particular interest principal tel aviv Bauhaus architects were arieh sharon, Joesph to 1930s architectural and planning vision. the branding of the city core. Property prices, in the original and ongoing conservation to some who may fear that uNESCO Neufeld, Carl Rubin shmuel Miestchkin, shlomo Bernstein concept of the ‘White City’ is somewhat a recent invention, the particular much sought after renovated driven urban regeneration. designation will put into place and Dov Karmi. Both Rubin and Neufield worked with erich city’s international style architectural heritage was in effect international style apartments, have undesirable statutory barriers to the Mendelssohn in Berlin. arieh sharon studied at the Bauhaus in rediscovered in the past 20 years or so. soared some 70% since designation a precursor to uNESCO designation further positive physical development Dessau under Walter Gropius and hannes Meyer. Miestchkin in 2003. this is somewhat an unfair was the critical success of the of the city, that the tel aviv skyline and Berstein also studied in Dessau under Mies van de Rohe. By the late 1970s the magnificence of the architectural criticism. uNESCO designation cannot Municipal “lev ha’yir” (City Core) (for good or ill) has been dramatically Following the abrupt closure of the Bauhaus schools by the Nazis achievements of the 1930s had become increasingly eroded. be faulted for any Municipal or state 1990s approved plan that allowed for transformed by taller buildings, a in the early 1930s, these architects returned to British Mandate urban hollowing and suburbanisation, the arrival of the now failure to deliver an adequate supply the construction of two-and-a-half skyline that is continuing to evolve Palestine to design and build what was to become the greatest ubiquitous air conditioner attached to façades, an ageing city of socially affordable housing. Whilst additional stories on buildings that since the designation was awarded. the collection and concentration of “international style” buildings centre population and a high ratio of rent controlled apartments it is difficult to attribute the housing were over three stories high, upon uNESCO terms of contract permitted to be found anywhere in the world. thus 1930s european all combined to undermine Bauhaus consciousness and price boom primarily to the uNESCO condition that original building be “taller buildings” outside, but on the political turmoil, an influx of Jewish immigration, international investment in renovating the built physical fabric. Many if not designation (the israeli economy fully renovated. the architectural and edge of the designated area. a uNESCO Modernism, Zionism, and the rather prosaic local practical need most buildings were in poor condition. has had robust growth over the past conservation outcomes have, for the status for Dublin, underpinned by a for a stripped down construction technique, all combined to a change in attitudes, in part driven by a reaction to decade), what is not in doubt is that most part, been considered successful. residential vision provides a significant provide the context for this unique laboratory of simplicity and proposed demolition plans, led to a growing understanding the city core has increasingly become the urban core of the city has been branding opportunity for Dublin city. minimalism in design and construction materials. the result is and recognition of the wealth and importance of the local the preserve of the well-off. “Owning transformed. it perhaps may intrigue Dublin’s Georgian ‘redbricks’ along Bauhaus or international style tel aviv. architectural heritage. in 1984 tel aviv’s premier art museum a little piece of Bauhaus tel aviv” is a the architectural-planning profession upper Mount street may, in time, hosted a seminal exhibition titled White City, international style typical marketing tool of the local real in ireland that it was the Conservation become the fashionable equivalent of it is this Central european and Middle eastern fused heritage architecture in israel, Portrait of an era. the concept ‘tel aviv - estate market. living in the heart of Department of tel aviv that initiated the ‘brownstones’ New York. which has given rise to the distinctive architectural tel aviv the White City’ was born. the (White) city has become the default and drove this innovative and radically expression. the international style’s extensive use of glass, choice of the local wealthy elite.

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