Zionist Architecture and Town Planning

Nathan Harpaz

Description

Established as a Jewish settlement in 1909 and dedicated a year later, Tel Aviv has grown over the last century to become Israel’s financial center and the country’s second largest city. This book examines a major period in the city’s establishment when Jewish architects moved from Europe, including Alexander Levy of Berlin, and attempted to establish a new style of Zionist urbanism in the years after World War I. The author explores the interplay of an ambitious architectural program and the pragmatic needs that drove its chaotic implementation during a period of dramatic population growth. He explores the intense debate among the Zionist leaders in Berlin in regard to future Jewish settlement in the land of Israel after World War I, and the difficulty in imposing a town plan and architectural style based on European concepts in an environment where they clashed with desires for Jewish revival and self-identity. While “modern” values advocated universality, Zionist ideas struggled with the conflict between the concept of “New Order” and traditional and historical motifs. As well as being the first detailed study of the formative period in Tel Aviv’s development, this book presents a valuable case study in nation-building and the history of Zionism. Meticulously researched, it is also illustrated with hundreds of plans and photographs that show how much of the fabric of early twentieth century Tel Aviv persists in the modern city.
Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: Theories on Zionist Architecture and Town Planning

1 The Concept of Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Architecture and Town Planning

2 The Zionist Movement’s Approach to Advanced Plans in Architecture and Town Planning

3 Zionist Architecture and Town Planning in the Early Twentieth Century

Part 2: Alexander Levy: Building and Housing in New Palestine, Berlin 1920

4 The Origins of the Plan

5 The Building Company

6 The Crucial Matter of Building Materials

7 Models of Houses

8 The Arrangement of Houses

9 Standardization in the Building Industry

10 A Comparison of Levy’s Proposal to Other Plans

11 The Failure of Levy’s Plan

Part 3: Eclectic Architecture and Chaotic Town Planning in Tel Aviv, 1919-1929

12 The Garden City of Ahuzat-Bayit

13 The Transformation of Tel Aviv into a Commercial City

14 Bezalel and Tel Aviv

15 The Search for Local Original Style

16 Eclectic Architecture

17 Patronage, Public Involvement, and the Media

18 Laborers’ Organizations and the Beginning of Housing for the Workers

19 Levy and the Tel Aviv Experience

Part 4: Conclusion

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix I: Ernst Herrmann’s Survey of Building in Palestine

Appendix II: Maps of Palestine, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv

Index

Sujets

• Jewish
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612492988
• Langue: English

Extrait

Zionist Architecture and Town Planning
The Building of Tel Aviv (1919-1929)
Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies
Zev Garber, Editor Los Angeles Valley College
Zionist Architecture and Town Planning
The Building of Tel Aviv (1919-1929)
Nathan Harpaz
Purdue University Press / West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2013 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harpaz, Nathan, author.
   Zionist Architecture and Town Planning: The Building of Tel Aviv (1919 - 1929) / Nathan Harpaz.
       pages cm. -- (Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies)
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
   ISBN 978-1-55753-673-0 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-297-1 (epdf) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-298-8 (epub) 1. Tel Aviv (Israel)--History. 2. Tel Aviv (Israel)--Buildings, structures, etc. I. Title.
   DS110.T34H37 2014
   307.1’2160956948--dc23
2013024413
Cover photo: Detail of the Palm House façade, Tel Aviv. Photo by Nathan Harpaz
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Theories on Zionist Architecture and Town Planning
1 The Concept of Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Architecture and Town Planning
2 The Zionist Movement’s Approach to Advanced Plans in Architecture and Town Planning
3 Zionist Architecture and Town Planning in the Early Twentieth Century
Part 2: Alexander Levy: Building and Housing in New Palestine, Berlin 1920
4 The Origins of the Plan
5 The Building Company
6 The Crucial Matter of Building Materials
7 Models of Houses
8 The Arrangement of Houses
9 Standardization in the Building Industry
10 A Comparison of Levy’s Proposal to Other Plans
11 The Failure of Levy’s Plan
Part 3: Eclectic Architecture and Chaotic Town Planning in Tel Aviv, 1919-1929
12 The Garden City of Ahuzat-Bayit
13 The Transformation of Tel Aviv into a Commercial City
14 Bezalel and Tel Aviv
15 The Search for Local Original Style
16 Eclectic Architecture
17 Patronage, Public Involvement, and the Media
18 Laborers’ Organizations and the Beginning of Housing for the Workers
19 Levy and the Tel Aviv Experience
Part 4: Conclusion
20 Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix I: Ernst Herrmann’s Survey of Building in Palestine
Appendix II: Maps of Palestine, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv
Index
Preface and Acknowledgments
Born in Tel Aviv, I have been fascinated by the history of the city and its unique architecture from an early age. Two individuals in particular inspired me and influenced not only the direction of my career, but also the themes to which I was attracted. My maternal grandfather was a designer who studied art and design in Berlin, Germany, at the turn of the twentieth century. He emigrated to Tel Aviv in 1920, but, since the small settlement offered no work for a designer, he traveled on to Alexandria, Egypt, to seek work in his field. Several years later, he returned to Tel Aviv to find the small village developing rapidly and dramatically into a busy city. My father’s cousin, Hersh Fenster, was a writer who lived in Paris in the first half of the twentieth century, and was associated with Marc Chagall and other artists of the “School of Paris.” In 1951, he published the first book about artists who perished during the Holocaust, which later became the primary source for an exhibition on that topic.
I found in the intriguing life of architect Alexander Levy, who is one of the central figures in this book, several connections to my family’s history. Levy and my maternal grandfather acquired their artistic education in Berlin, both got involved with Zionism and arrived in Tel Aviv during the same year (1920), and both struggled financially trying to pursue their professions. My grandfather stayed in Tel Aviv in spite of the difficulties, while Levy returned to Europe and, like my paternal grandparents and my uncle from Vienna, perished in Auschwitz.
In the early 1970s, as a young undergraduate student at Tel Aviv University, I began photographing old buildings in the historic sections of Tel Aviv. At the time, I could not predict that this hobby would figure prominently in my field of academic expertise. Over the years, my collection of images has expanded and gained greater significance, as many of the documented buildings were demolished or altered. A complete set of these photos is in the collection of the Tel Aviv Historical Museum, and many of them illustrate this book.
During graduate school, the topic of 1920s architecture in Tel Aviv became the core of my MA dissertation. This pioneer research resulted in “Art and Architecture in Tel Aviv: 1920–1930.” This publication earned the Tel Aviv University Kaplan Award for the most original academic study, and it remains an essential resource for any research of this period and location. Over the years, I have published many other articles on this topic in professional magazines in Israel.
In 1985, Graham Jahn, research editor of the London-based International Architect magazine, invited me to assist him with an issue dedicated to Israeli modernism. My contributions to this publication included biographies of architects, a history of 1920s architecture, and research on the urban development of Tel Aviv since its establishment. During the 1980s, I became an advocate for the preservation of historic buildings in Tel Aviv and actively served on several relevant committees. This work resulted in the granting of landmark status to many historic buildings and the creation of various restoration programs.
In 2003, UNESCO declared Tel Aviv a World Heritage Site because the city is home to the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus and International Style buildings. Tel Aviv, which started as a small garden city north of the ancient city of Jaffa, turned rapidly into a bustling metropolis, and in 2009 the city celebrated its centennial. In recent years the awareness of the significance of Tel Aviv’s architecture has increased; more buildings have been granted status as protected landmarks, many of them have been renovated, and new literature on the history of the city’s architecture and monographs on its architects have been published. The study in this book, based on over thirty year of research, will hopefully contribute another source of insight into architecture and town planning during the early years of the first Hebraic city in modern times.
As this book is a product of my doctoral research, I would like to acknowledge the dedicated assistance of professor, M. Willson Williams, of Union Institute & University during my doctoral program. I would also like to thank my doctoral committee members for their significant contribution: Richard Courage, Westchester College; David M. Sokol, University of Illinois, Chicago; Sandra M. Sufian, University of Illinois, Chicago; and Volker Werner Welter, University of California in Santa Barbara. I would like also to acknowledge my colleagues and friends who accompanied me on my journey with support and enthusiasm, including Marian Staats of Oakton Community College and architect Georg Stahl of Chicago.
I would like to express special gratitude to my mentors and teachers from the Department of Art History at Tel Aviv University who planted the first seed of my intellectual interest during my early studies: Mordechai Omer, Gila Balas, Edina Meyer-Maril, and architect Abraham Erlik. I would also acknowledge the generous assistance of Tel Aviv advocates and researchers Micha Gross (Bauhaus Center, Tel Aviv), Shula Widrich, and Shay Farkash.
I would like to thank the following institutions and individuals for their permission to reprint images in this publication: Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Gutman Museum, Tel Aviv; Bauhaus Center, Tel Aviv (Ravid’s books on Joseph Berlin and Josef Tischler); Architect Gilead Duvshani (Yehuda Magidovitch); The State of Israel—National Photo Collection; The Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem; the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the University of Texas Libraries; the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries; and the Hebrew University, Department of Geography & the Jewish National & University Library.
Finally, I would like to thank my family who stood behind me throughout this exhilarating experience: my wife Miriam, my daughters Ally and Sharon, and my extended family in Israel. I dedicate this book to my mother, Yonah Kaplan-Fenster, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1925 when many parts of the city were still sand dunes, a playground for her as a young barefoot girl in the middle of a new, developing neighborhood, and to my father, Baruch Arthur Fenster, who left his home in Vienna as a young adult to escape the horror of World War II and rebuild his life in the city of Tel Aviv, which means “Old-New.”
Introduction
This book examines advanced architectural plans motivated by Zionist ideas and the implementation of these plans driven by pragmatic needs. The balance between these forces shaped the architecture and town planning in the Land of Israel after World War I. In this work I concentrate on postwar Zionist building concepts as they are represented in architect Alexander Levy’s plan, Building and Housing in New Palestine , and the implementation of eclectic architecture and chaotic town planning in Tel Aviv i