Home»International Style - Tel-Aviv

In 1919 The Bauhaus school of arts, applied arts and architecture opened in Weimar, Germany. The architectural style associated with the Bauhaus was arguably the most important among early 20th century Modernist architectural currents. It emphasised rational, simple, economical, industrialised, unornamented design, in which form and aesthetics follow function. Geometrical shapes, asymmetry, flat roofs, windowed stairwells ("thermometers"), pilotis (supportive pillars), and the extensive use of glass, steel and concrete are characteristic of this style. The style spread to different parts of the world between the wars and was to become known as the "International Style".

In 1933 the Bauhaus was closed down by the Nazis, who criticised its styles for being un-German and having "bolshevik" and "Jewish" influences.

In those years many German Jews fled the Nazis to Palestine, among them quite a few Bauhaus-trained architects. Tel-Aviv went through a period of intensive development. 2,700 Bauhaus-style buildings were built in six years (1931-1937). The original Bauhaus style was adapted to the climate, creating a unique variety of the International Style. By 1956 about 4,000 International Style buildings had been built, by far the largest number in any one city anywhere. The buildings were white or bright-coloured. The city took on a look: white buildings against blue skies, alongside the sandy shore of a blue sea. The city was then nicknamed "The White City".

Which it isn't anymore. Sadly, today much of the once clean, white city has decayed and turned grey. Most International Style buildings in Tel-Aviv are in a sorry state of repair. However, on account of International Style architecture (and also thanks to the highly-regarded 1925 city master plan by Scottish architect Patrick Geddes), Tel-Aviv was in 2003 proclaimed a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO. As a result, over 1,000 buildings are intended for preservation, many of them now undergoing restoration.