Tel Aviv Bauhaus Walk

28/05/2023

Dunkelblum House at the corner of Yael and Ruth streets is adjacent to Ruth Garden – a charming public garden in the heart of a “home block”, exemplifying the successful implementation of the 1925 Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv. The building which attracts immediate attention is sitting on a podium, and in a way, ‘commanding’ the street.
The theatrical touch of the 1935 building derives directly from the rich career that its architect Oskar Kauffmann had in Berlin during the 1920s, as a designer of theaters and cinemas, some of them to become local icons. In 1934 Kauffman immigrated to Palestine, and with his Berlin partner Eugen Stolzer designed the building of Habima – the national theater, and later on the Ora cinema in Haifa.
Preservation Architect Amnon Bar Or chose to describe the Dunkelblum House, at the Open House בתים מבפנים events, as “a special mixture, reminding of a theater with its symmetric design, but at the same time using the modernist language”.
Kauffman’s mastery is revealed here in a few original features like the rounded windows which are sliding sideways, the interplay between the smooth plaster and the decorative (Blumenputz) one, the softly rounded corners of the balconies and the main building volume, down to the design of the outdoor staircases and balconies balustrades elegantly enhancing the horizontal flow.
The semi oval balconies on the lateral façade facing Ruth garden which remind of theater loggias, add richness to this unique composition which breaks away from the cubic articulation, so typical of Tel Aviv’s 1930s modernism.

Amnon Bar Or - Tal Gazit Architects Ltd
UP Architects

Tel Aviv City
Liebling Haus -The White City Center - בית ליבלינג - מרכז העיר הלבנה

04/01/2023

Pour les francophones intéressés par l'architecture Bauhaus en général et à Tel Aviv en particulier -
Une courte interview (08:30 min) à l'occasion de la présentation de l'exposition 'forme et lumière | du bauhaus à tel aviv' en décembre 2022 à Montpellier. Merci à Camille Tabet pour l'agréable conversation, et à Radio Aviva pour l'hospitalité.

Ville blanche de Tel-Aviv – le mouvement moderne Patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO 2003 :
"Tel-Aviv fut fondée en 1909 et s’est développée comme une ville métropolitaine sous le mandat britannique en Palestine. La ville blanche fut construite à partir du début des années 1930 et jusqu’aux années 1950, selon le plan d’urbanisme de sir Patrick Geddes, reflétant les principes de l’urbanisme organique moderne. Les bâtiments furent conçus par des architectes qui avaient immigré après avoir été formés dans divers pays d’Europe et y avoir exercé leur profession. Dans ce lieu et ce nouveau contexte culturel, ils réalisèrent un ensemble exceptionnel d’architecture du mouvement moderne".

Radio locale indépendante et associative de Montpellier, Radio Aviva diffuse depuis ses studios du quartier des Beaux-Arts. Créée en 1982, la station agit comme un média très impliqué dans la vie loca

31/12/2022

The exhibition hall of the ‘Maison Des Relations Internationales Nelson Mandela', in Montpellier, is housed in a building surrounded by a garden, which was originally an urban villa (hôtel particulier) built in 1900.
On 12/2022, my exhibition FORM AND LIGHT was presented there. The venue excels in its period design and plaster decorations which created an interesting contrast between it and the minimalism and functionality of Tel Aviv’s modernism depicted in the exhibition’s photographs.
Interestingly, the architect Edmond Leenhardt who had designed the villa, was also the one who designed the Collège des Écossais (Scots College) - a Center for International Studies in Montpellier for .
Geddes, who settled in Montpellier in 1924, is the father of the urban plan for Tel Aviv from 1925. Which gave the city its unusual urban fabric qualities, one of the main reasons that granted the "White City" the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tel Aviv City Ville de Montpellier
Israël en France Chambre de commerce France Israël Languedoc-Roussillon

28/06/2022

One of the city’s bauhaus jewels stands at the gateway to the southern quarter of Neve Sha’anan - until recently a neglected neighbourhood (despite an impressive number of eclectic and modernist buildings), that now shows first signs of gentrification.
The meticulously restored ‘Shalem House’ designed by arch. Arieh Cohen in 1935 (preservation: Mester-Gal Arch. & Meirav Sudai Arch., 2022), was opened to the public last month on Tel Aviv Yafo’s event of Open House בתים מבפנים .
Cohen designed a few other buildings in this area, typified by their curved lines and strong plasticity, among them is the iconic “Ship House” at the corner of Levanda and HaRakevet streets.
Designated for preservation with strict restrictions, Shalem House finely exemplifies the qualities of Tel Aviv’s Modified Modernism. Sitting on a podium, the building has two distinct facades, each one relating differently to the street it’s facing. One has recessed balconies gently curved at their edges, reminding of a ship, the other has cantilevered balconies. They are connected by a prominent vertical element of the “Thermometer Window” running along the staircase above the entrance door.
Visiting the interior one discovers the original floor tiles, and, even more surprising, the original space division of the apartments – a local rarity, credited to the fact that the building was in the possession of the same family from 1937 until 2020.
The attention to details is present everywhere, and tells of the entrepreneur’s sensitivity to the valuable heritage embodied in the structure (one more noteworthy rare fact).

10/04/2022

Two exceptional elements which stand out in the Jerozolimski House, designed in 1935 by Arch. S. Flato and built on a double plot at 24-26 Balfour St. , are included in my book 'form and light' https://bit.ly/formandlight_hirmer.
Due to its size, the building has two entrance halls which are surrounded by opaque glass walls, and are impressive in the attention given to the materials and design of the staircases.
In the entrance hall of number 26, a unique detail (I haven’t seen it elsewhere in the city), welcomes you - a thick shelve, covered in terrazzo, attached to a round column at the center of the hall. Kind of a ‘welcome gesture’ – a place to put your bag, before you continue upstairs, or leave the place.
On your right, outside the entrance to 24, there's a round ornamental pool in which golden fish used to swim. You can find similar pools in other buildings of the period. What singles out this one, is the vertical column like element, covered in green ceramics. Impressive as well is the way the architect used 3 kinds of ceramics, in slightly different hues, to cover this component. It stands out in its elegance emerging from the sand stones wall of which the pool is made.

More (in Hebrew) about this building, on Michael Jacobson’s blog https://bit.ly/michaelarch_balfour

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