Bauhaus in Tel Aviv and Herzl’s Zionist Vision of a Modern Homeland

Abstract

This thesis will research Tel Aviv and more specifically its ‘White City Area’, which is Unesco World Heritage due to a great number of International Style buildings and urban heritage, which is unseen anywhere else in the world. The research uses the Zionist vision of Theodor Herzl, described in his book Altneuland as a framework, who wrote, before the foundation of Tel Aviv, how he described the future of Israel as a Modernist country with many European influences. Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, was built by Jewish immigrants and with them also architects. The town planning was done by the British colonial Patrick Geddes. Both architects and Geddes implemented European ideology and technology. The research will be what the relationship is between the theory of Herzl, the planning of Geddes and the execution of the modernist architects, which were heavily influenced by the Bauhaus School founded by Walter Gropius. Herzl already referred to many characteristics of Tel Aviv and Israel which were later indeed implemented by the urban planners and architects. The research will be done using the book Altneuland historical books, imagery, maps, Israeli songs, secondary literature, archival material, interviews and own experi- ence. This research seeks to add the theoretical ideas of Herzl to the analysis of how Tel Aviv became the buildings with the most International Style buildings in the world.