Buildings

Purim still going strong

There are two major architectural themes in Tel Aviv, the Eclectic style and Bauhaus and, as you can tell, today I went on an architecture walking tour.

From 1924 until 1929 many building were designed in the Eclectic-style, that is, classic architecture with an Ottoman aspect and old-Jewish ceramic motifs. The buildings were designed to “extrovert” the variety of cultural backgrounds of the immigrants from the period. Then came Bauhaus (the theme of the tour) and it was pretty much the opposite, as Bauhaus was all about all being the same in the new land, true to the socialist roots of most early Zionists. Our tour guide described the Bauhaus style as “introverted.”   

From 1930 until 1938 more than 4.000 buildings were designed in the Bauhaus style by about 60 young German architects who studied in the Bauhaus School for Art and Design and escaped to Israel in the 1930s.  They turned Tel Aviv into the “White City” it is today (UNESCO declared Tel Aviv a World Cultural Heritage site because of the sheer volume of Bauhaus buildings and the unique high concentration in the city).

Madonna's Kabbalah Center is in a Bauhaus building

This is not a Madonna's Bauhaus building

The tour was fascinating and I now have a renewed appreciation for the many buildings in the city which have fallen in disrepair (i.e., I can see through the peeling stucco).

The way I see it, by the way, the peeling stucco is the logical result of poor governed policy. Today, there is a terrific major initiative in Israel, driven by the government, to create tax incentives for owners within each building to get together, repair and renovate the building plus reinforce it against earthquakes (read, ‘missile attacks’) and finance the whole thing via the addition of a floor on the roof. This will have the major added benefit of increasing the real estate availability in the city, which is in very short supply and very expensive (even for Canadian standards).

After the tour, I walked for a few hours, taking in the sights, trying to remember some of the things the tour guide had taught us (the group had about 20 people but I scored a "private" tour by telling her about my hearing impairment, which finally came in handy).

The holiday of Purim continues and it seems to me that today there were more people dressed up in costumes, walking down the street than yesterday.

People were thrilled to pose for my cell phone camera

Purim still going strong

Note proliferation of bunny ears

Purim still going strong

Yes, Purim still going strong at the cafes too

Love the hair!

Did no one but me notice the Purim intersection??

For lunch I had my first Israeli falafel. The street I was walking on had about half a dozen tiny restaurants selling falafels (overall, there aren’t as many falafel restaurants as I had thought there would be; this street was a major artery, so maybe that is why there were several in one block).

To decide where to go, I asked the currency exchange guy where he likes to get his falafel. He told me which one was "the best" (hello Jackie Mason!), which meant I had to retrace my steps by about 5 blocks. Fine with me; I have nothing else to do but source the best falafel (Rafi told me he appreciates this step in preparation for his arrival).

When the guy at the restaurant asked me what I wanted in my falafel, I told him to make it 'just the way he likes it'. He loved that! 

In Israel, the falafel-maker hands you a few falafels (the deep-fried chickpea balls) as you wait for the full falafel order ahead of you to be completed, so by the time I got mine, I was actually done with lunch. I managed; barely.

Best Falafel in town (sample of one)

Later in the day, I went to Ramat Aviv to meet with a Tel Aviv University professor and high tech business consultant– what a contrast between Ramat Aviv and my morning architecture experience!

Ramat Aviv is a suburb of Tel Aviv, located in the Northwest; it took me about 20 minutes to cab it there in rush hour. The whole area is made up of the most magnificent concentration of brand-new, ocean-facing residential towers I have ever seen, all surrounded by the greenest public parks and shopping malls (OK, it looks a bit like Miami but with more homogenous, newer towers). 

Ramat Aviv

Israelis love connection. After my meeting, which of course was at a café, the person I was meeting with was kind enough to drive me back to my apartment. He loved it that it turned out he had lived right next door when he was going to University - and so did I.

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ADDED MARCH 19, 2012:

Many thnbkas to Shelley Osipov for sending this link to the NYT article: "The Influence of Bauhaus on Architecture in Early Palestine and Israel"