BAUHAUS ARCHITECTURE & TEL AVIV

MY ISRAEL :

Walking through the streets of Tel Aviv.

Walking through the streets of Tel Aviv one is inundated with white coloured buildings which give the city its secondary name, "The White City". To be more precise it is home to the largest concentration of this building type in the world. The question's that beg to be asked are, when & why did this hitherto unknown architectural style suddenly appear in the Middle East ?

Tel Aviv does have ancient Tel's (Tel Qasile, Tel Gerisa) which have revealed artifacts from pre-biblical, biblical & post biblical periods, & was part of the biblical tribal allotment of Dan. Modern day Tel Aviv however began as Ahuzat Beit & was established in 1906 under the guidance of Akiva Weiss, Meir Dizengoff & David Svilarsky. In 1910 Ahuzat Beit was renamed Tel Aviv. The name Tel Aviv is derived from Herzl's description of the Holy Land which he called "Altneuland" meaning "Old New Land". Tel implying "Old" & Aviv meaning "Spring", used metaphorically to imply rebirth.

Until WW 1 (1914-1917) most buildings were designed according to the dictates imposed by classicism i.e. Greek & Roman architectural principles. Inspired by the emergence of socialism in which all are seen as equal, Walter Gropius (1883-1969) an architect in Germany applies socialist principles to architecture. He negates past historicism and focuses on internationally accepted disciplines such as mathematics . Hence, his buildings can be viewed as a combination of geometric forms that employ the cube, the sphere, the cone, the square, circle & triangle. All components were colored white to emphasize the point that all elements are equal in stature.

In 1919 Walter Gropius opens the Bauhaus school of architecture in Weimar, Germany. With the the rise of Nazism in 1924 he was forced to relocate his school to Dessau. Whilst in Dessau he designed a new building for the school which was internationally accepted as the bench mark for all future contemporary buildings. The International style is born and Bauhaus architecture was an integral part of this new movement. All came to an abrupt end when in 1933 the Nazis came to power. Walter Gropius and other architects such as Mies Van de Roh (a Jewish architect and the originator of the saying "God is in the details"), leave Germany. As a result of the Nazi rise to power & the consequences thereof, Israel was inundated with architects schooled in Bauhaus principles.

To understand Bauhaus architecture, one has to compare it to what preceded it, namely classicism. Classical principles were formulated by both Greece & Rome. These principles included symmetry in both, plan & elevation, a reliance on classical proportions, rhythmic regularity of elements such as column spacing, & the inclusion of decorative elements. Buildings were composed hierarchically. The entrance façade for example, would be more important & therefore more elaborate than the other facades.

In contrast to classicism, Bauhaus architecture freed itself from formal preconceptions & instead allowed the form to follow the function. In other words the function would dictate the form the building would take. Elements were made from present day modern materials of the time. This manifested itself in steel framed buildings, large glassed areas, cement banding & flat concrete roofs. The buildings proportions were based on mathematics & rhythmic irregularity reigned supreme. Decorative elements were thrown into the dustbin of history & all elements were painted white thereby emphasizing the equality of parts. On a practical level, buildings could be assembled faster and at a comparatively lower cost thereby accommodating the increase in population.

Bauhaus architecture went out of vogue due to practical reasons. Prior to the invention of present day sealants, decorative elements would cover areas where different materials meet. For example, the point at which a steel window frame meets a concrete wall. Materials react differently to temperature changes & expand and contract at different rates. This causes the building to have cracks, and I can assure the reader that water will find the crack and obey the laws of gravity. I challenge anyone to ask a resident of a Bauhaus building if they suffer from water leakage. A decorative element besides having an aesthetic value has a practical function as well. It hides the crack thereby protecting it from the elements.

Whether one reacts positively or negatively to Bauhaus architecture or the socialist policies it embraced, I do believe that it does represent a form of rebirth, courage & will to embrace the future despite the unspeakable horrors of the 1930's &1940's.

Ron Traub (Tour Guide & Architect).

Website : rontraub-tours.com Photo's by Rimonah Traub.

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