The architects who studied and worked in Europe came
to Israel carrying the message of the International Style. Arieh Sharon,
Ze'ev Rechter, Joseph Neufeld, Dov Carmi, Benjamin Chlenov, Carl
Rubin, Shmuel Barkai, and other architects settled in Tel Aviv,
playing an active role in the 1930s construction boom. Although they
worked separately, they collaborated and united to form a group aimed
at promoting architecture in Israel and disseminating the cause of
new architecture. They published several magazines and successfully
infiltrated into the urban construction team.
The process of urban planning in 1930s Tel Aviv was characterized
not only by the productive collaboration among architects, but also
between architects and their clients. In his book Kibbutz+Bauhaus,
architect Arieh Sharon recounts how members of the cooperatives for
whom he designed Me'onot Ovdim (workers' housing cooperative) would
discuss and comment on the plans, describing the active, attentive
contact with them throughout the planning phase. The depicted sense
of "togetherness" and collectivity was well anchored in the climate
of the Jewish community (Yishuv) in Israel at the time. The needs
of the "public" or "collective" as a whole were more important than
the "individual"'s uniqueness. These values influenced architectural
planning, and as attested by the following examples, they were manifested
in the buildings themselves: by employing the clear-cut formal vocabulary
of the new architecture, a homogenous tissue of buildings was created,
representing a society where "individual" manifestation is not personal
and singular, but rather uniform and similar to the manifestations
of all other "individuals" comprising society.
The residential buildings were, in part, lifted up on pilotis, creating
underneath a space which was an extension of the street space - the
artery of public life. An "intermediate space" was created between
public street life and residents' private lives. The buildings referred
to a lesser extent to backyards or side-yards, and greater attention
was given to the design of facades and courtyards facing the street.
Balconies served as a primary element characterizing the composition
of the facades of International Style buildings in Tel Aviv. They
were certainly an efficient solution for getting fresh air on hot
summer nights, but on the architectural level they also functioned
as an "intermediate space" or an "extension" of the apartment, which
is a "private domain", into the street space which is "public domain".
International Style buildings introduced the experience of "balcony
facing balcony" so typical of Tel Aviv, whose present traces are the
"plastic shutter facing plastic shutter"…
One of Le Corbusier's five points underlying the "new style" proposed
designating building roofs as gardens for residents' use. In Tel Aviv
most roofs were indeed intended for tenants' use, yet instead of gardening,
communal laundry rooms were constructed.