White City (Tel Aviv)

White City of Tel Aviv
UNESCO world heritage
	Zina Dizengoff Square
National territory:	Israel
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	ii, iv
Surface:	140 ha
Reference No .:	1096
UNESCO region :	Europe and North America
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2003 (session 27)

map

As the White City ( Hebrew העיר הלבנה ha-ʿir ha-lewana ) is a collection of over 4,000 buildings in Tel Aviv , most of which were built in the Bauhaus and International styles . The architects of these buildings were for the most part Jews of German descent who had emigrated from Germany after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933 . The White City of Tel Aviv has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003 .

history

When the White City came into being, Tel Aviv, founded in 1909, was a little more than 20 year old settlement of Jewish immigrants at the gates of Jaffa . Meir Dizengoff , Mayor of Tel Aviv from 1921 to 1936, commissioned the Scottish city planner Patrick Geddes to draft a master plan for the rapidly growing city in 1925 . Geddes designed the street network and the layout of blocks of houses and the use of space; a particular architectural style was not determined by him. In the 1930s, however, it was mainly Jewish architects who had received their training at the Bauhaus Dessau who began to make their mark on the new district. After 1933, but especially after the Reich Citizenship Law came into force in 1935, it became increasingly difficult for Jews in Germany to work in numerous professions. Jewish architects were therefore forced to leave Germany. Many of them then settled in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine .

The Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv are adapted to the hot climate of Israel. Many rely on pillar constructions ( pilotis ) to improve ventilation. Instead of window fronts, light strips were used. The Israeli architects replaced Le Corbusier's long windows with ribbon-like balconies with aprons providing shade. The flat roofs are used as a place to stay on hot summer nights.

Over time, many buildings in the White City have been clearly neglected, some have been demolished or changed. The plaster of the once white buildings in particular has turned gray over the years and due to the influence of the sea breeze.

To protect the architectural heritage, around a thousand buildings were listed as historical monuments in 2009. The rents for apartments in Bauhaus buildings are high, a three-room apartment is said to cost $ 4,000 a month.

Tel Aviv Bauhaus architects

Shlomo amber
Munio Gitai wine robbery
Edgar Hed (pike)
Shmuel Mestechkin
Chanan Frenkel
Arieh Sharon
Philip Huett

Bauhaus Center

The Bauhaus Center in Tel Aviv, which opened in 2000, deals with the recording and documentation of the White City and its popularization.

Bauhaus museum

The Bauhaus Museum

A small Bauhaus museum was opened in 2008 on Bialik Street, near the Old Town Hall. It was designed by the Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad .

White City Center

For the 100th birthday of the Bauhaus, the White City Center , center for monument protection and architecture, opened in Tel Aviv . Germany supported the project in the period from 2014 to 2025 with a total of three million euros in order to preserve the German-Jewish heritage on the Mediterranean. The museum is located in the Liebling House in the center of the city and opened on September 19, 2019.