The White City of Tel Aviv is small district in the centre of the city,
composed of thousands of buildings designed in the “Bauhaus International Style” that has been
designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site for being “a synthesis of outstanding
significance of the various trends of the Modern Movement in architecture… in early
20th century… adapted to the requirements of a particular cultural and geographic context.”
So what is the International Style? How did an architectural movement from Germany,
take over the design of a significant part of this mediterranean city?
Tel Aviv is actually a 100+ year-old chaotic assemblage of all kinds of different
architectural styles and concepts. It’s a city of jam packed urbanism, random empty spaces,
congested streets, disorganized parking lots, and often saturated in hot and humid city smog.
The city was founded in April of 1909 when representatives from 66 Jewish
families from Jaffa, who were members of the Ahuzat Bayit homestead society.
They came together outside the city to purchase and parcel out land in, at the time,
mostly empty sand dunes. Also at this time, this land belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Jaffa was an
old harbour town where visitors and travellers entered into the country,
which was increasing from the end of the 19th century with lots of Jewish settlers.
The Ahuzat Bayit wanted to establish a Hebrew urban centre outside of Jaffa,
and they wanted it to be a “clean, hygienic, open and elegant” place by the sea to relax.
Regarding what to call this new city, many names were floating around at the time
Yefefia (the most beautiful)
Sha’anana (the peaceful one)
and Yefe Yafo (the oasis of Jaffa).
But the final name the residents settled on was the Hebrew rendition of Thedor Herzl’s groundbreaking
1902 novel “Altneuland” which means “Old-new-land” - Tel Aviv.
Tel literally means a mound of ruins or pile of rubble which signifies the past,
while Aviv means the first shoot of new wheat as well as “springtime.”
A new beginning, built on a land that was a relic of the past.
Many of the 66 families were from Poland and Russia and they actually initially adopted
an eclectic style of design in the new homes that were built. They were single or two-story
dwellings with gated gardens. Exteriors were adorned with ornamental aspects such as arches,
towers, vaults and columns that recalled European Architecture as well as Art Deco.
Many of the decorative elements included Jewish symbols,
hybrid oriental motifs, biblical allegories and Eastern European neo-classical elements.
Most of these families however were also secular, bourgeois, educated and desired
to be a part of a prosperous, cosmopolitan and modern city. They wanted to develop
a new urban and architectural language that represented a new identity and a new lifestyle,
something maybe completely divergent from the life they had come from. By the 1920s,
many began to criticize the Eclectic style for having unnecessary ornamentation that
represented the widening gap between social classes. Many wanted to adopt more of a
“functional” architectural approach and wished to simplify the construction process.
From the 1930s onward, many immigrants who came to the city were from Germany or Poland,
due to the rise of Hitler and growing anti-semitism in those countries. It
was these immigrants who brought the concept of the Bauhaus, which originated in Germany,
to the new buildings they built in Tel Aviv. Bauhaus style brought exactly what
many of the residents were desiring for. A functional approach that tends
towards simple geometric shapes, seemingly devoid of external or historic references.
The style also adapted to the local environment. The pilotis lifted the structure so that
the sea breezes can flow through an open ground level to cool the city streets. Horizontal slits
were incorporated into balcony balustrades and awnings. Various shading on facade openings
played an important role in limiting the sun’s penetration and warming of the building interiors.
Modern styles are also often functional and economical,
which is very suitable for a city that was in desperate need of housing and rapid expansion.
About half of all architects that worked in Israel prior to the founding of the state
in 1948 had studied at the Bauhaus - such as Arieh Sharon. Architects like Erich Mendelsohn,
and Julius Posener, also drew inspiration from not only the Bauhaus but also Le Corbusier.
By this time, Tel Aviv’s population had grown from 66 families to over 120,000,
and that will double by the time of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.
However, Tel Aviv was expanding so quickly due to the endless streams of new Jewish immigrants
to the city, arguably very few things went according to plan as the city rapidly expanded.
Israel in general was in a state of rapid growth and many grand projects fell
a little short. Here’s the YouTube channel Unpacked with a bit more on this
The greatest example of this was the New Tel Aviv Central Bus Station,
dubbed the White Elephant of Tel Aviv – a giant structure abandoned for years.
It’s a microcosm for Israel and specifically Tel Aviv’s rapid development in general.
Originally planned in the 1960s, it is the largest bus station in the world, which was crazy for a
city that had only 390,000 people. The way in which this building’s particular construction
and size got out of hand is a story that spans decades and weaves through a series of strong
personalities, strong dreams, and plans for a modern metropolis. And while it’s story is one
that is still firmly part of the Israeli psyche, it’s not the only dream that never became reality.
Why did so many German and Polish Jews who moved to Tel Aviv embrace the Bauhaus movement?
Obviously the answer is complicated but Modernism has this pure approach that eliminates
historic elements and what some people claim to be “excessive decoration” - it establishes this
functional, pure concept of a new world and new life, escaping from historic baggage and trauma.
Of course the Modern aesthetic isn’t for everyone, but it’s understandable why a
group of people escaping horrors of their past lives, especially after generations
of violence and oppression may want to live a life that moves on from that tragic history.
I know Modernism is a controversial topic, even amongst the residents of Tel Aviv - many wouldn’t
consider this utopian vision of the city being “pure” and boxed in with “functional
geometric shapes” as actually representative of the lives of the people who live there.
In a way - that eclectic vision from the city’s founding over a 100 years ago, full of historic
references and diverse cultural elements - is probably a better representation of what Tel Aviv
actually is. However, this doesn’t negate the fact that the White City is now the world’s
largest open air museum of the historic Bauhaus style. While there were other implementations of
the Bauhaus International style in other parts of the world such as Europe and North Africa - none
of them embody the modernist principle to the extent buildings in Tel Aviv have,
and not to the same scale. The building designs also are enriched by adapting to local climate
conditions, which is a unique presentation of the Modernist style not seen anywhere in the world.
So what do you think? Do you think these Modern International Style buildings
are worthy of preservation? Or do you think they represent
too much a utopian ideal that would actually never work for such a diverse city and maybe
it’s time to move on and embrace something more inclusive? Let me know in the comments below.
While Bauhuas is probably one of the styles Tel Aviv is most recognized for internationally,
Brutalism had a stronghold on 1960’s Israeli architecture. One of the most iconic,
and perplexing, buildings of the Israeli 1960’s Brutalist style
is the “New” Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. Check out the video over
on our channel - Unpacked - to learn more about the largest bus station in the world!
Thank you guys so much for watching and thank you to Unpacked for collaborating with me on this
really interesting topic. This video took a lot of research. I read a bunch of books and articles
on this particular topic so I'll leave links in the description below.
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if you're interested in tipping me like $3 or a little bit more, but of course,
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