Bauhaus Tel Aviv

An unprecedented look at the fascinating Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv, with a focus on nearly 50 major buildings in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the White City

Tel Aviv has the world’s greatest concentration of Bauhaus-style buildings: 4,000 edifices, designed largely by Jewish architects fleeing countries across Europe in the 1930s.

Featured here are architectural gems illustrated through original photography and rare archival images. Examples shown include Esther Cinema (1939), Shimon Levi House (1934), Feldman House (1934–35), Reisfeld House (1935), French Ambassador’s Residence (1936), Kiper House (1935–6), and dozens more.

With around 82,000 Jewish refugees arriving in Tel Aviv between 1933 and 1936, housing was needed urgently and architects were commissioned. Many of them had studied and practiced Modernism throughout Europe – at the Bauhaus in Germany, under Le Corbusier in Paris, and in Belgium, Austria, and Poland. In 2003, UNESCO designated Israel’s White City a World Heritage site, due to its outstanding collection of these International Style buildings, the architectural features of which had been adapted to suit the hot, sunny climate and cultural conditions.

Rounded volumes, lack of ornamentation, elongated balconies to help provide shelter from the sun, asymmetric facades, pilotis (stilt-like columns) which cool the buildings from underneath, flat roofs, and recessed windows are some of the critical design features that unify these special buildings and all are featured. Original texts provide the story behind each building, with an introduction by Nitza Szmuk, the architect responsible for the White City’s preservation.

Essential for Bauhaus enthusiasts and design fans alike, this book explores a fascinating chapter in architectural history, revealing how the Modernist movement successfully adapted to unique local conditions.

• Format: Hardback
• Dimensions: 298mm x 241mm
• Pages: 272
• Brand: Monacelli
• ISBN: 9781580937665