Tel Aviv, Stadtansicht von Süden

© Klaus Tragbar

study day

100 years of planning and building in palestine and israel

11/12 april 2018
technikerstraße 21, 6020 innsbruck, 1. stock, sr 6
Unit History of Architecture and Preservation of Monuments, Universität Innsbruck / Bet Tfila - Research Unit for Jewish Architecture, Technische Universität Braunschweig / Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg

After the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, Great Britain and France occupied their territories according to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Palestine remained under international administration until 25 April 1920, when at the San Remo conference Great Britain was assigned with the mandate for Palestine. Part of this mandate involved the realisation of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which Great Britain undertook to favour the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Even if Jewish settlements had already been established during the First (1882-1903) and Second Aliyah (1904-1914), amongst them the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909, the British mandate marks the beginning of a different culture of planning and building - and the beginning of a specific Palestine-Israeli architectural history.

Throughout the last decades, research on this architectural history was carried out under several aspects, for the most part on the development of Jewish settlements and the Jewish state. The early phase of Zionist settlements has been described by Ita Heinze-Greenberg (Europa in Palästina 1902-1923. Die Architekten des zionistischen Projekts. Zurich 2011) and by Ines Sonder, who focussed on urban planning (Gartenstädte für Erez Israel. Zionistische Stadtplanungsvisionen von Theodor Herzl bis Richard Kauffmann. Hildesheim 2005). The biographical encyclopedia by Myra Warhaftig (Sie legten den Grundstein. Leben und Wirken deutschsprachiger jüdischer Architekten in Palästina 1918-1948. Tübingen, Berlin 1996, English edition 2007) touches the following period, concentrating mainly on German-speaking architects. Monographic studies on individual architects, planners and / or cities have been published e.g. by Nitza Metzer-Szmuk (Des maisons sur le sable. Tel Aviv, mouvement moderne et esprit Bauhaus. Paris 2004), Gilbert Herbert and Silvina Sosnovsky (Bauhaus on the Carmel and the Crossroads of Empire. Jerusalem 1993), and Baruch Ravid (Joseph Tischler. Architect and Town Planner in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv 2008), while until now only Anna Minta has questioned the architectural expression of national identity (Israel bauen. Architektur, Städtebau und Denkmalpolitik nach der Staatsgründung 1948. Berlin 2004). Recently, Jeremie Hoffmann and Hadas Nevo-Goldberst have published a volume on brutalist architecture, which calls attention to a long neglected chapter of Israeli architecture (The Brutalist Style in Tel Aviv-Yafo, 1948-1977. Tel Aviv 2017).

The Study Day is intended as preparation for a research project on the transfer and exchange processes of architectural culture in Palestine and Israel and on the formation of a national Jewish identity.

The conference will be held in English. Kosher food will not be available. Attendance is free of charge.

With the generous support of the Vice Rector for Research, Universität Innsbruck / the Dean's Office, Faculty of Architecture / Austria-Israel Academic Network Innsbruck (AIANI).  

Programm downloaden

(Rez.) Ann-Cathérine Pielenhofer: »100 Years of Planning and Building in Palestine and Israel«, in: bet-tfila org/info – 22/2019, 8f.