Iden­tity through buil­dings – Bauhaus in Tel Aviv

The city of Tel Aviv was shaped by people who immi­grated during diffe­rent times and came from diffe­rent cultures. During a tour with artist Uliana Stavi and the Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv, Hanna Hörn­lein explored the famous quarter, known for its inter­na­tional, archi­tec­tural style.

Imagine an abstract cubist pain­ting beco­ming alive, as a buil­ding. Imagine seeing and feeling the influence of diffe­rent cultures, tradi­tions, and various ways of expres­sing ever­yday life in an edifice. Welcome to Bauhaus in Tel Aviv. More than 2000 kilo­me­ters away from the German cities Weimar and Dessau, from where the famous archi­tec­ture and design school origi­nates, the Bauhaus spirit made its way to the Israeli metro­polis, Tel Aviv. It’s not surpri­sing that the archi­tec­tural vein of the 1920s is called ​„inter­na­tional style:“ it’s a simple term with a multi­tude of inter­pre­ta­tions, reflec­ting the many diverse iden­ti­ties and natio­na­li­ties living in the same place. Jewish migrants from Europe found their new home in Israel when they fled anti­se­mi­tism and perse­cu­tion. But also, immi­grants from other parts of the world – like Russia or Morocco – moved to Tel Aviv and influenced the style of cons­truc­tion.

Today, people still live in these houses – as Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school said: ​„houses are meant to be lived in.“ They aren’t just art. The basic ideas of Bauhaus – such as the prac­tical design without orna­men­ta­tion – were trans­ported across many count­ries. Let the art speak for itself and see how diffe­rent natio­na­li­ties leave their own impact on archi­tec­ture.

Wide balco­nies and huge windows – this buil­ding was supposed to be a theatre. What was meant to be a public space now pres­ents a connec­tion between the open and the closed, maybe between a publicly shown iden­tity and the perso­nally, hidden one.

The ​„neigh­bor­hood of the balco­nies“ and also the so-called ​„most relaxed place in Israel.“ This comple­tely new archi­tec­ture for the Jewish commu­nity defines a radical contrast to the Arab archi­tec­ture from gene­ra­tions prior. Whereas Germany balco­nies built in the front of a house were already a common pheno­menon, in Israel this style of archi­tec­ture can be perceived as a drastic change, from a life of privacy to a presen­ta­tion of one’s ever­yday life in public.

This buil­ding in Tel Hai Street is called ​„ship of the sand“ – an analogy to the fact that the first edifices were built on pure desert when the city was founded. Whereas the streets in Europe were covered with grey pave­ment, in Israel the foun­da­tion of houses were initi­ally built on sand: Bauhaus archi­tec­ture in the desert and houses floa­ting over the ground.

This seems like a regular buil­ding, but it has a new, rebel­lious aspect: hori­zontal lines. That marks a change in peoples’ thin­king. Previously, buil­dings were always charac­te­rized by vertical lines: they point to the sky where people assume God’s presence. It is also an analogy to Arab archi­tec­ture, where flat roof­tops were tradi­tio­nally built in order to always have the possi­bi­lity to add new floors in support of growing fami­lies.