Tel Aviv is the coolest city

Tel Aviv is the coolest city. According to the New York Times, that is। This week the paper of papers ran a lengthy love letter to Israel's center of sea, sun, style and debauchery।

A surfer and a wedding party, left, present contrasting images in Neve Tzedek,

a quiet corner of the city।

Young Israelis sun in cool Mediterranean waters on a hot summer afternoon। Tel Aviv has some of the cleanest and most easily accessible urban beaches in the world।

The reviving Florentine neighborhood near Jaffa।

©Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Heichal Yehuda Synagogue | 13 Ben Saruk st. Tel Aviv

© www.telavivinf.com

Architect: Yitzchak Toledano

Crazy house | HaYarkon street, Tel Aviv

הבית המשוגע הוא כינויו של בית מגורים משותף הנמצא ברחוב הירקון בתל אביב, קרוב לכיכר אתרים
הבניין תוכנן על ידי האדריכל ליאון גנייבה ובנייתו הסתיימה ב-1989

The Herta and Paul Amir Building | Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The American Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art have unveiled a $45 million extension. The Herta and Paul Amir Building is slated for completion in 2009 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv’s founding. The new 195,000 sq. feet building will double the exhibition space. The six-level building was designed by American architect Preston Scott Cohen known for his inventive use of light and geometric forms.Established in 1932, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has grown to become an international cultural center with an extensive series of exhibitions yearly of Israeli and international art, architecture, and design as well as permanent and loan collections spanning the major movements in international Modern art, Israeli art from the 1920s on, and a selection of 16th through 19th century art.

Kikar Levana - White Square- Edith Wolfson park

Kikar Levana is an environmental sculpture that sits atop a small hill, at the Edith Wolfson Park, in Tel Aviv. The sculpture’s name means White Square. It is located at the highest point in Tel Aviv where the city meets nearby Givatayim. The main entrance to the park is at the intersection of Ha’Tayasim Ave. and LaGuardia Street. The sculpture is located in a public park that is open all day. It is created by the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan, who was born in Tel Aviv on December 7, 1930. He is the son of a landscape architect and he was a member of a kibbutz and he first studied in Israel. He continued his studies in Florence and in Paris.

Elco Tower | MYS Moore Yasky Sivan Architects

Moore Yasky Sivan Architects is the largest, most prestigious and experienced architecture firm in Israël. This project is located on Yigal Alon Street near Hashalom Interchange of the Ayalon Highway. Construction is planned to be completed in 2011.

G-Tel Aviv Tower

http://www.g-telaviv.co.il/

G Tel Aviv Tower, Israel’s most prestigious residential project is under construction in Tel Aviv. The tower is a unique work of art: A 31 floor building with 37 luxury apartments, each of which is spread out over at least half a floor.

Richard Meier & Partners Architects | Rothschild Tower

In Tel Aviv, a 42-story residential tower is in the works for a site on the exclusive Rothschild Boulevard. Designed by architecture firm Richard Meier & Partners Architects, the plan takes its cues from light, sea views, and the surrounding neighborhood.

Transparent materials will be employed throughout the structure, which includes a lobby and retail space complete with glass canopy facades on the ground level, a second floor pool and spa, and a tree-lined open plaza at the entrance, creating a screen for street traffic.

“The intention is to create a pure and simple iconic tower that will function as a new landmark for the city of Tel Aviv,” says Meier. Richard Meier (born October 12 , 1934) is a American architect known for his rationalist designs and the use of the color white. In 1984, Meier was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize.

The building will be developed by Berggruen Holdings. Construction is planned to be completed in 2012.

Kika Braz Architects | Gindi Heights

International Style | Bauhaus

Photo Credits: meieronrothschild.com

Nourith | Partir

Pourquoi toutes ces frontières
Qui donnent envie que l'on s'affronte
Je demande à la Terre
Pourquoi cette colère qui monte
Je n'ai pas signé pour saigner
Et voir pleuvoir dans mes songes
Que des larmes d'ange

J'avais envie de partir, mentir
De dire à mes souvenirs
"Laissez-moi perdre mémoire"
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
D'inventer la vérité
De rêver sans aspérités

J'ai vu tomber du ciel
Le soleil au fond des rivières
J'ai vu couper les ailes
A nos envolées de lumière
Pourquoi l'homme est comme
La nuit d'automne
Qui vole la vie aux jours
Et les fait plus courts

J'avais envie de partir, mentir
De dire à mes souvenirs
"Laissez-moi perdre mémoire"
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
D'inventer la vérité
De rêver sans aspérités
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
De trouver le sourire
D'un enfant qui voit le vent
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
D'inventer la vérité
De rêver sans aspérités

Pourtant j'invente
Et tu inventes avec moi
Cette pente à gravir
Sans gravité
Pourtant j'invente
Des lendemains qui se mentent
Qui nous chantent tout l'été
Ces seuls chants

J'avais envie de partir, mentir
De dire à mes souvenirs
"Laissez-moi perdre mémoire"
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
D'inventer la vérité
De rêver sans aspérités
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
De trouver le sourire
D'un enfant qui voit le vent
J'avais envie de partir, mentir
D'inventer la vérité
De rêver sans aspérités

Daniel Libeskind Architect

Oriya by Daniel Libeskind is an exceptional residential brand being created in Israel by American Colony Real Estate Development, with two prestigious locations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.



The Wohl Centre Ramat-Gan
The new convention center for Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel creates space for the university to hold performances, lectures, special events and conferences. The project has been generously funded by Maurice Wohl. Voices and its Echoes stands at the gateway to the University, bringing together the two essential components of the Bar-Ilan University: the secular and the sacred. Apparent in the form of the building, which was completed in October 2005, is the interrelation between the dynamics of knowledge, the Book, and the unifying role of faith, the Spine. The exciting form of the auditorium, lobbies, seminar rooms and public spaces are penetrated by the “labyrinth of letters” in which an ancient constellation of hierarchies is made visible. SDL worked with Ortam-Sahar Ltd to construct the Centre.

http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/

Lior Vaknin + Sabi Aroch | Barber Shop, Rehovot

Lior Vaknin + Sabi Aroch

You'll love Israel from the first "Shalom" by Gilad Benari

Mayslits Kassif Architects

Ron Arad | Israeli Design Museum, Holon

The 2000 sqm museum was designed by world famous Israeli designer Ron Arad and will be part of the mediatheque। The Israeli design center was established in september 2004, within the mediatheque, headed by dr. Razi Amitay, which contains a new, updated city library, and a new theatre for young audiences. The new Design Museum is located in an area of regeneration in the city of Holon a few miles south of Tel Aviv. As part of the municipality's desire to strengthen cultural identity and impact on a national level, research for the museum explored how it could become a cultural and educational hub for central Israel to promote the appreciation of design in Israel and of Israeli design abroad. The israeli design center aims to act as an information center for designers, industrialists, academy members and students, business initiators, and for the general public that finds design professionally and culturally interesting, they run theme conferences, conventions, lectures, workshops to encourage the meeting and discussion of design issues.the center have run 2 successful design conferences.

Read more about the museum on the website of Royal College of Art .

Interior view of design museum, rendering by Ron Arad

3D Architectural Renderings

Tel Aviv | Théatre National Habima

דגם הבניין המחודש

http://www.habima.co.il/
Le Théâtre National Habimah est un rêve né à Moscou en 1913, il se concrétisera 4 ans plus tard avec la création de la troupe. Parmi ses fondateurs, devenus légendaires: l’actrice Hanna Rovina qui dirigea la troupe jusqu’à ses 88 ans. En 1931, la troupe s’installe définitivement à Tel Aviv et en 1935, la construction du théâtre Habimah commence. D’importantes rénovations sont entreprises depuis 2006. Les travaux concernent l'amélioration des mesures de sécurité, l’accessibilité du Théâtre, sa modernisation, l’ajout d’un hall de répétition, d’un étage et d'un parc de stationnement souterrain a proximité, ce dernier sera recouvert d'espaces verts. Pendant la durée des travaux, les représentations sont dispersées dans différentes salles de la ville ainsi qu’aux travers de tournées dans tout le pays.

Neige à Tel Aviv de Lena et Slava Chaplin, 105 mn.

Haya O Lo Haya, titre original de ce téléfilm de 2003, est un hommage à l’intelligentsia juive des années 1930 à Tel Aviv. Suite à la déclaration Balfour favorable à l’établissement d'un foyer national pour le peuple juif en Palestine et de sa ratification en 1922 par la Société des Nations qui confie à la Grande Bretagne un mandat sur la Palestine en vue d’appliquer la déclaration Balfour, beaucoup d’intellectuels et d’artistes d'origine juive s’installent à Tel Aviv espérant y trouver une terre d'accueil face à la montée de l'antisémitisme. C’est dans ce vivier en effervescence, baigné dans une atmosphère de bohème que vont se rencontrer et s’aimer deux russes immigrants : Alexander Penn (interprété par Tzak Berkman) jeune poète militant et proche du parti communiste qui s'apprête à adapter une pièce pour le Théâtre Habimah et Hanna Rovina (Ivgenia Dodina) figure marquante du théâtre Habimah surnommée "La reine du théâtre juif" . Elle est au faîte de sa gloire, lui, un jeune artiste en devenir. En dépit des quinze années qui les séparent, ils entament une relation tumultueuse. Lina et Slava Chaplin se sont librement inspirés de l'histoire réelle de ce couple emblématique du début du XXe siècle. Le contexte intellectuel et culturel de l'époque est restitué de manière elliptique, symbolisé par des images sépia, par l'ambiance enfiévrée et vaporeuse du café "Neige du Liban" où se retrouvent et boivent ces poètes rebelles et ce couple marginal. Cette effervescence ne sert ici que d'arrière-fond, de décor, d'ambiance, à une trame quasi exclusivement recentrée sur la passion entre deux personnalités trop fortes. Elle, l'actrice vieillissante et magnifique, lui, le jeune poète alcoolique, fougueux et inconséquent qui vécut avec sa dulcinée jusqu’a la fin de sa vie. C'est ce qui fait à la fois le charme et la limite de ce téléfilm dont la plupart des scènes se déroulent en huis clos. La trame se révèle ténue, les personnages secondaires manquent de consistance, mais le charisme des acteurs principaux insuffle une véritable force, une crédibilité à cette histoire d'amour impossible.

Myths and Buildings of Tel Aviv

by Catherine Weill-Rochant

Tel Aviv, a paradox?

In this city of denuded concrete, where the unpleasantness of apparent ugliness always yields to the delights of a stroll, a delight that is more readily associated with more picturesque cities, the question that arises is how to account for this antinomy: how is it that Tel Aviv, such a decrepit city, so disparaged esthetically, can generate so much urbanity? How can a stroll by buildings with their loggias walled up with plastic shutters, facades elevated by hastily built additional stories, walls studded with the fans of air-conditioning units, stilt columns entombed in breeze block, still engender pleasant memories? This question presents even more sharply if one thinks on the contrary of the peculiar sensations of void experienced when touring old neighborhoods like the ones in Jaffa that were expensively renovated। Although entirely restored, repaved and spruced up, they generate no sensation, scant emotion, no sense of place. Here lies one of the crucial questions in city planning: what are the features that make for the ‘success’ of a city? This is probably the question all researchers in the field of urban history must grapple with. Through the study of spatial, social and architectural development, the goal is to find the keys to what make people like a city or hate it, by plunging into the process of its making. This analysis also calls for exploring the culture, the land, and the political situations that affected city growth. Tel Aviv is particularly suited for this type of study. First of all, it presents itself as a clearly identifiable corpus in time and space. It was founded as an independent entity, in 1909, on the dunes to the North-East of Jaffa and expanded during the Mandate period, spreading northwards up to the Yarkon River, westward to the sea, and eastward up to what is now the Ayalon highway. Secondly, this corpus is the result of both an interweaving of tensions with the local situation, and specific external ties: the city was imagined and built by groups of immigrants, vectors of architectural and urban thinking trained in Europe and driven by explicit societal planning on a land already carved up by conflicts. Lastly, Tel Aviv has been promoted and written about internationally, which facilitates an analysis of its image in the collective imagination and the disparities with historical reality revealed through scientific analysis. [...]

Read more : http://bcrfj.revues.org/index672.html

Vous pouvez consulter l’intégralité de ce dossier traduit en langue française sur le site du Centre de recherche français de Jérusalem : http://bcrfj.revues.org/document249.html

Deux ouvrages très intéressants de Catherine Weill-Rochant:
• L'Atlas de Tel-Aviv. 1908-2008

• Sur les traces du modernisme
Ce guide bilingue, français-hébreu, permet de découvrir, au fil de promenades commentées par des spécialistes, les trois plus importantes villes d’Israël : Tel Aviv, Haïfa et Jérusalem.

©Oleg Chermoshniuk

תל אביב

Tel Aviv | Asia House & Europe Israel Tower

Tel Aviv 100 by Jean-Baptiste Avril

Mark your agenda!

A new exhibition, titled "Silent City", will open at the Heder Gallery (Gottlieb street no 11) on December 4th 2008. This exhibition features beautiful black and white architecture pictures of Tel Aviv. (In 2003, Tel Aviv was designated UNESCO World Heritage Status for its "White City".) Jean-Baptiste Avril's intuitive timing and distinctive camera angles produced bold portraits of hundreds of modern structures. Through Avril's lens, buildings become unique studies of mass, shadow, and light. A book will be published (french, english, german, spanish & hebrew). The exhibition will close on January 15th 2009. Here's a copy of the press release and photos from the show. (Click on any photograph to examine a full-size version)

"I love chaotic cities. Rationally speaking, our relation is gratuitous. I owe them nothing and in return they expect nothing of me, particularly not a judgment. Chaos is the anti-conformism of humanity. Of course, it has its rules, but above all the freedom to find what you were not looking for.
Tel Aviv is in fact an old story of love and freedom. Rather like Athens, at one time, and Bangkok, at another. The freedom to live and take photographs. They have in common a delirious, cosmopolitan frenzy dotted with little islands of quiet bordering on the paradoxical. But what takes shape there is the presence of man and his everyday life.
I do not know exactly how many voyages and how many adventures. I know only the value of deserved time. Deserved because linked to the search for a necessary balance. It is indeed easier to co-operate with a consenting, consensual city. It is not the same with dreams and fantasies. I have even dreamed of living there! But what is the point of owning the dream, owning life…
But I am a photographer, I am only a photographer. After all, it is only a question of light and persuasion. A little air, too, particular smells, the rhythm of noise and silence, apart from my footsteps.
Photographing a city such as this one is not a rational process.
Early in the morning, at an intersection, I hesitate between two streets. In the first, an interesting building, perhaps even two. In the second, I see nothing other than the promise of a dreamy light. I choose the light…

Taking photographs is not passing judgement। A camera, a lens, two rolls of film in my pocket। Restricting options and choices as much as possible. No tripod, of course, because it gives a stability that I would gladly do without. Nothing but space and light, a sort of urban yoga."

Jean-Baptiste Avril

© Jean-Baptiste Avril

For more information about Jean-Baptiste Avril go check out his photo.net Gallery at http://photo.net/photos/jb-avril or visit his official website at http://www.jb-avril.com/.