Geddes plan
The Geddes Plan ( Hebrew תוכנית גדס Tōchnīt Geddes ) is the first development plan for the city of Tel Aviv , which was drawn up in 1927–1929 by the Scottish city planner Patrick Geddes . The planned area mainly includes the city center and the district of Tel Aviv, now known as ha-Zafon ha-Jaschan (English: the old north), between the Mediterranean Sea , the Jarkon River and Ibn Gwirol Street.
The Geddes plan was part of the effort of the British Mandate government , Palestine to tap. It was approved in a modified form in 1932 and still forms the basis for urban planning in Tel Aviv in general and for the northern expansion of Tel Aviv in the 1940s and 1950s.
Four main features determine the Geddes plan: First, a hierarchical division of the streets into main traffic axes, residential streets, residential paths and footpaths. A second basic principle are the so-called home blocks, i.e. the building blocks defined by the main traffic axes and the residential streets; Third, public and private gardens and, fourth, free-standing building structures were another basic idea.
The main traffic axes run parallel to the sea from north to south, the residential streets from west to east. The north-south streets are intended as shopping streets, the streets and avenues that lead from west to east are intended to make the subtropical westerly winds coming from the sea more bearable.
The residential paths and the footpaths serve to develop the home blocks. Each home block was planned as a small garden city across the city. At the center of each home block should be a facility serving the common good in the middle of a park that can be used by the residents of the home block. The interior of the block should also be kept free from vehicle traffic. Almost all of the main features of the Geddes plan were implemented, with the exception of the footpaths, which, with very few exceptions, were not implemented.
Of the planned sixty public gardens, only about thirty were created. The public parks are complemented by many small gardens in the apartment blocks.
Geddes, who also oversaw plans in other British possessions, such as India and Great Britain itself, introduced the idea of the garden city of the 1920s in Palestine with this plan . Tel Aviv is one of the few places in the world where this idea has been successfully implemented. However, the planning for Tel Aviv differs from the European garden city in one essential point: The garden cities in England and Germany were intended as green satellite cities around the existing industrial cities. Geddes understood Tel Aviv, however, to be both a city and a garden city. The greatest achievement of the Geddes Plan is a globally unique planned city complex that forms the basis for the White City UNESCO World Heritage Site .