The White City of Tel Aviv

Thanks to Grandma, the Zuckerman family art historian, I have come to really appreciate the Bauhaus design tradition.  This art school started in Germany in 1919 by Walter Gropius, but was dismantled by the Nazis in 1933.  The only good thing about this is that architects from the Bauhaus tradition dispersed themselves around the world, taking their aesthetic with them.

For example, Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer was the architect of family housing at the Institute for Advanced Study (where we lived last year).  I wrote about similarities between the Bauhaus and IAS communities in a previous blog entry here.

Bauhaus design was well received in Tel Aviv.  Why?  Well according to our tour guide, here are some reasons.  1) Tel Aviv was growing very fast and Bauhaus design was easy to construct.  2) The socialist values of Bauhaus blended with the early cultural values of Tel Aviv.  3) In addition, the design values were similar to Israeli values:  form follows function….meaning that design is all about functionality; no extra design elements to make the object more attractive.

In the end, beauty comes from straightforward functional design. Likewise, in a country struggling to establish itself, it is all about making things work well and fast.

So here we have some pictures from the Bauhaus district of Tel Aviv.  You can see the clean lines, white exteriors, round balconies, and windows that form a vertical line like windows in a thermometer.

Overall, the buildings are beautiful, but look like they could use some repair.  The tour guide acknowledged this and encouraged all of us on the tour to move to Tel Aviv to invest and refurbish Israel’s  architectural treasure. 

Tomorrow in Jerusalem!