Yesterday I took a free Tel Aviv Bauhaus architecture tour. As some of you may know, Tel Aviv has the single largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. More than 4000 to be exact.
This is largely due to the large numbers of German-Jewish architects who ended up here in the ’30s and ’40s during a time when the Jewish population was expanding rapidly and needed to be housed somehow.
So it came to be that Zionist utopia was packaged in the so-called international style. That is; Bahaus with some Mediterranean tweaks. These houses can be seen all over Tel Aviv. Some in better repair than others.
Actually, this is one of the somewhat weird aspects of the city. It has this sort of feel of forlorn and discarded futurism and utopia. A space-age city stranded on a crummy beach. It sort of reminds me of that city in Star Wars: Phantom Menace. I believe it is called Mos Eisley.
Mos Eisley:
Tel Aviv:
Cool Corners
Described by the guide as the most perfect Bauhaus building in Tel Aviv. Has seen better days:
Windows:
The future in disrepair:
