Tel Aviv White City

Shimon Levi House (‘Ship House’), Tel Aviv

Introduction

Tel Aviv was conceived as a garden city north of the ancient port city of Jaffa and the first Jewish settlements in its vicinity. Its master plan was commissioned by Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv’s first mayor, and presented in 1925 by Patrick Geddes, a Scottish urban planner. Geddes laid out the streets of the new city, bordered by the Bograshov Street, the Ibn Gabirol Street, the Yarkon River, and the Mediterranean Sea. He determined the size and utilisation of the blocks, but did not prescribe an architectural style for the buildings.

By the early 1930s, a number of European Jews had immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine. Among them were many from Germany, who had escaped as a consequence of the rise of the Nazis. Some of them had studied at the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, and were familiar with the contemporary trends exposed by architects such as Le Corbusier and Erich Mendelsohn. The new city was eventually constructed under these architectural influences.

The term ‘Bauhaus’ is generally used to describe the style of the structures built in Tel Aviv in the 1930s and 1940s. That term, however, has a very strict meaning, contrasting with the variety of architectural forms of those buildings. It is more correct, at least academically, to talk about the International Style here.

Common features of the International Style include cubic and rounded volumes, lack of decorations, an asymmetric façade, a flat roof (often with a pergola and a garden), and horizontal and vertical windows. The play of shadow and light is achieved by balconies and openings. The horizontal axes formed by the balconies often contrast with the vertical thrust of the stairwell windows or a roof parapet. Features specific for Tel Aviv, coming from its hot and dry climate, include white and light colours (which protect against the sun by reflecting heat), long narrow recessed windows shaded by balconies (which limit the heat and glare), and piers, or pilotis, raising the volumes (which help to cool the buildings from under). The latter also provide a space for a garden or a play area for children – an important aspect when considers the need of socialisation of its inhabitants, who often came from different cultures. The emphasis is on functionality.

There are more than four thousand International Style buildings in Tel Aviv, making it the largest concentration of its kind in the world. The most important of them are located in the area around the Dizengoff Square and on and near the Rothschild Boulevard. These buildings were later collectively named as the White City, and it was under that name that they were proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.

In recent years a number of International Style buildings of Tel Aviv have been restored. During the restoration works several of them have been extended, usually by adding new floors on their roofs or by constructing a new wing in the back. The new floors sometimes look identical or similar to the pre-existing building, sometimes stand in contrast with it, especially when it comes to the materials used. In general, the old and new elements together provide a cohesive look.

In the compilation of these portfolios, my main source was the book Preservation and Renewal: Bauhaus and International Style Buildings in Tel Aviv, edited by Micha Gross and published by the Bauhaus Center of Tel Aviv.

Sites

My portfolios introduce 78 International Style buildings in Tel Aviv, including the most important examples. I have arranged the photos chronologically, as far as the dates of planning and construction are known.

Havoinik House | Montefiore St. 1 | Isaac Schwarz, probably 1920s (extension 2011)
Yavor House | Rothschild Blvd. 8 & Herzl St. 8 | Shalmon, early 1930s (extension 2008)
Rothschild Blvd. 79 | Josef and Ze’ev Berlin, 1929 (extension 2009)
Elishav House | Mazeh St. 27 | Josef & Ze’ev Berlin, 1931 (extension 2000)
Balfour St. 40 | Pinchas Biezunsky, 1931 (extension 2014)
Rothschild Blvd. 81 & Balfour St. 41 | Moshe Czerner (Cherner), 1931 (extension 2009)
Kruskal House | Hess St. 21 & Idelson St. 25 | Richard Kaufmann, 1931-1933 or 1936
Rothschild Blvd. 61 | Salomon Gepstein, 1932 (extension 2006)
Café Sapphire | Allenby St. 39, Tchernichovsky St. 1 & Bialik St. 2 | David Tuvia, 1932
Engel House | Rothschild Blvd. 84 & Mazeh St. 41 | Ze’ev Rechter, 1933
Soskin House | Lilienblum St. 12 | Ze’ev Rechter, 1933 (extension 2006)
Sadowski House | Rothschild Blvd. 85 | Carl Rubin, 1933 (extension 2013)
Milner House | Rothschild Blvd. 100 & Engel St. 1 | 1933
Melchett St. 23 & Sheinkin St. 43 | Caspi, around 1933 (extension 2011)
Bruno House | Strauss St. 3 | Ze’ev Haller, 1933 (extension 2004)
Aharonovitch House | Rothschild Blvd. 117 | Yitzhak Rapoport, 1933-1934
Ehrlich House | Herzl St. 79 & Florentin St. 38 | Ze’ev Haller, 1933-1934 (extension 2014)
Krieger House | Rothschild Blvd. 71 | Ze’ev Rechter, 1934
Yehuda HaLevi St. 14 | Salomon Gepstein, 1934 (extension 2008)
Muller House | Nafha St. 14 & Merkaz Ba’alei Melaha St. 14 | Baruch Friedman, 1934 (extension 2014)
Shimon Levi House (‘Ship House’) | Levanda St. 56 | Arieh Cohen, 1934-1935
Shlomo Yafe House (Bauhaus Museum) | Bialik St. 21 | Salomon Gepstein, 1934-1935
Peltzman & Wecht House | Bialik St. 18 | Eliyahu & Emanuel Friedman, 1934-1935
Cooperative Housing IV, V & VI | Frishman St. 31, 33-35 & 37 | Arieh Sharon, 1934-1936
Polishuk House | Allenby St. 62 & Nahalat Binyamin St. 1 | Salomon Liaskowsky & Jacob Orenstein, 1934-1936
Reisfeld House | HaYarkon St. 96 | Pinchas Biezunsky, 1935 (extension 2012)
Zlotopolsky House | Gordon St. 9 | Dov Karmi, 1935 (extension 2002)
Bazoza House | Shimshon HaGibor St. 1 & HaNevi’im St. 5 | Avraham Berger & Yitzhak Mandelbaum, 1935
Recanati House | Menachem Begin Rd. 35 & Mazeh St. 79 | Salomon Liaskowsky & Jacob Orenstein, 1935
Dunkelblum House | Ya’el St. 3 & Ruth St. 2 | Oskar Kaufmann, 1935
Rosh Pina St. 28 & Ayelet HaShahar St. 10 | Arieh Cohen, 1935
Shami House (‘Thermometer House’) | Frug St. 5 | Yehuda Lulka, 1935-1936
Reiss Apartment Building | Megido St. 3 | Joshua Steinbock, 1935-1936
Rubinsky House | Sheinkin St. 65 & HaGilboa St. 1 | Abraham Markusfeld, 1935-1937
Max Liebling House | Idelson St. 29 | Dov Karmi, 1936
Kiper House | Ben Gurion Blvd. 32 & Emile Zola St. 17 | Haim Sima & E. Glueck, 1936
Nagi House | Mapu St. 3 & Yeho’ash St. 1 | Ben-Ami Shulman, 1937
Jacobson’s Building | Levontin St. 28 & Mikveh Israel St. 15 | Emanuel Halbrecht, 1937
Ruppin St. 7 | Moshe Mühlbauer & Aharon Mittelman, 1937 (extension 2008)
Rosenzweig House | Mendelsohn St. 10 & Shlomo HaMelech St. 65 | Yehiel Avrahami, 1937
Yerhovsky House | Bialik St. 17 | Shlomo Ponaroff, 1937
Ben Ami St. 14 & Beilinson St. 8 | Joseph Neufeld, 1937-1941
Kiryati House | Ruppin St. 12-14 | Samuel Mestechkin, 1938
Pines House | Yehuda HaLevi St. 79-81 | Yitzhak Rapoport, 1938
Dizengoff Square | Genia Averbuch, 1934-1938
Dizengoff St. 94-96 | Yehuda Magidovitch, 1936 (extension 2014)
Dizengoff St. 89
Esther Cinema | Zamenhoff St. 1 | Yehuda Magidovitch, 1938-1939
Silberstein House | Bet Tsiyon Blvd. 25 | Samuel Barkai, 1948
King George St. 95
King George St. 90 & Netsach Israel St. 2
Shlomo HaMelekh St. 67 & Mendelsohn St. 7
Gordon St. 48 & Israelis St. 24
Frug St. 34
Gordon St. 33 | Tsvi Spokojny (?)
Mapu St. 27 & Dov Hoz St. 15
Dov Hoz St. 17
Smolenskin St. 16 & Dov Hoz St. 21
Ben Yehuda St. 98 & Gordon St. 17
Gordon St. 5
HaYarkon St. 136 & Gordon St. 2
Ruppin St. 4
HaYarkon St. 118
HaYarkon St. 90 & Bograshov St. 1
HaYarkon St. 62 & Ness Tsiyona St. 2
Idelson St. 12 & Ben Yehuda St. 10
Pinsker St. 20 & Zalman Shneour St. 1
Merkaz Ba’alei Melaha St. 44
Melchett St. 17 & George Eliot St. 15
Rothschild Blvd. 59
Yehuda HaLevi St. 50 & Ze’ev Tiomkin St. 1
Menachem Begin Rd. 29
Shefer St. 23 & Nahalat Binyamin St. 20
Shefer St. 12 & HaTavor St. 37
Neve Tzedek St. 31 & Bustnay St. 19
Shalma Rd. 73 & Washington Blvd. 32
Yehuda HaYamit St. 29
Yehuda HaYamit St. 31