Zionist Architecture and Town Planning. Nathan Harpaz

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Zionist Architecture and Town Planning

      Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies

      Zev Garber, Editor

      Los Angeles Valley College

       Zionist Architecture and Town Planning

       The Building of Tel Aviv (1919-1929)

      Nathan Harpaz

      Purdue University Press / West Lafayette, Indiana

      Copyright 2013 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.

      Printed in the United States of America.

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Harpaz, Nathan, author.

      Zionist Architecture and Town Planning: The Building of Tel Aviv (1919 - 1929) / Nathan Harpaz.

      pages cm. -- (Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-55753-673-0 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-297-1 (epdf) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-298-8 (epub) 1. Tel Aviv (Israel)--History. 2. Tel Aviv (Israel)--Buildings, structures, etc. I. Title.

      DS110.T34H37 2014

      307.1’2160956948--dc23

      2013024413

      Cover photo: Detail of the Palm House façade, Tel Aviv. Photo by Nathan Harpaz

       Contents

      Preface and Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      Part 1: Theories on Zionist Architecture and Town Planning

1The Concept of Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Architecture and Town Planning

2The Zionist Movement’s Approach to Advanced Plans in Architecture and Town Planning

3Zionist Architecture and Town Planning in the Early Twentieth Century

Part 2: Alexander Levy: Building and Housing in New Palestine, Berlin 1920

4The Origins of the Plan

       5The Building Company

       6The Crucial Matter of Building Materials

       7Models of Houses

       8The Arrangement of Houses

       9Standardization in the Building Industry

       10A Comparison of Levy’s Proposal to Other Plans

       11The Failure of Levy’s Plan

       Part 3: Eclectic Architecture and Chaotic Town Planning in Tel Aviv, 1919-1929

       12The Garden City of Ahuzat-Bayit

       13The Transformation of Tel Aviv into a Commercial City

       14Bezalel and Tel Aviv

       15The Search for Local Original Style

       16Eclectic Architecture

       17Patronage, Public Involvement, and the Media

       18Laborers’ Organizations and the Beginning of Housing for the Workers

       19Levy and the Tel Aviv Experience

       Part 4: Conclusion

       20Conclusion

       Bibliography

       Appendix I: Ernst Herrmann’s Survey of Building in Palestine

       Appendix II: Maps of Palestine, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv

       Index

       Preface and Acknowledgments

      Born in Tel Aviv, I have been fascinated by the history of the city and its unique architecture from an early age. Two individuals in particular inspired me and influenced not only the direction of my career, but also the themes to which I was attracted. My maternal grandfather was a designer who studied art and design in Berlin, Germany, at the turn of the twentieth century. He emigrated to Tel Aviv in 1920, but, since the small settlement offered no work for a designer, he traveled on to Alexandria, Egypt, to seek work in his field. Several years later, he returned to Tel Aviv to find the small village developing rapidly and dramatically into a busy city. My father’s cousin, Hersh Fenster, was a writer who lived in Paris in the first half of the twentieth century, and was associated with Marc Chagall and other artists of the “School of Paris.” In 1951, he published the first book about artists who perished during the Holocaust, which later became the primary source for an exhibition on that topic.

      I found in the intriguing life of architect Alexander Levy, who is one of the central figures in this book, several connections to my family’s history. Levy and my maternal grandfather acquired their artistic education in Berlin, both got involved with Zionism and arrived in Tel Aviv during the same year (1920), and both struggled financially trying to pursue their professions. My grandfather stayed in Tel Aviv in spite of the difficulties, while Levy returned to Europe and, like my paternal grandparents and my uncle from Vienna, perished in Auschwitz.

      In the early 1970s, as a young undergraduate student at Tel Aviv University, I began photographing old buildings in the historic sections of Tel Aviv. At the time, I could not predict that this hobby would figure prominently in my field of academic expertise. Over the years, my collection of images has expanded and gained greater significance, as many of the documented buildings were demolished or altered. A complete set of these photos is in the collection of the Tel Aviv Historical Museum, and many of them illustrate this book.

      During graduate school, the topic of 1920s architecture in Tel Aviv became the core of my MA dissertation. This pioneer research resulted in “Art and Architecture in Tel Aviv: 1920–1930.” This publication earned the Tel Aviv University Kaplan Award for the most original academic study, and it remains an essential resource for any research of this period and location. Over the years, I have published many other articles on this topic in professional magazines in Israel.

      In 1985, Graham Jahn, research editor of the London-based International Architect magazine, invited me to assist him with an issue dedicated to Israeli modernism. My contributions to this publication included biographies of architects, a history of 1920s architecture, and research on the urban development of Tel Aviv since its establishment. During the 1980s, I became an advocate for the preservation of historic buildings in Tel Aviv and actively served on several relevant committees. This work resulted in the granting of landmark status to many historic buildings and the creation of various restoration programs.

      In 2003, UNESCO declared Tel Aviv a World Heritage Site because the city is home to the world’s largest collection of Bauhaus and International Style buildings. Tel Aviv, which started as a small garden city north of the ancient city of Jaffa, turned rapidly into a bustling metropolis, and in 2009 the city celebrated its centennial. In recent years the awareness of the significance of Tel Aviv’s architecture has increased; more buildings have been granted status as protected landmarks, many of them have been renovated, and new literature on the history of the city’s architecture and monographs on its architects have been published. The study in this book, based on over thirty year of research, will hopefully contribute another source of insight into architecture and town planning during the early years of the first Hebraic city in modern times.

      As this book is a product of my doctoral research, I would