Loose ends: the role of architecture in constructing urban borders in Tel Aviv–Jaffa since the 1920s

Abstract

A border is an ideological socio‐cultural construct by which communities define and defend their territory. But what are its formal and spatial configurations? How is the border architecturally conceived and perceived? This paper investigates these questions through analysis of three border typologies – the door, the bridge and the gateway – fostering a new discussion of architecture as a border‐making practice. It also relates to how architects and planners contribute to conflict, and to ethnic and physical barrier‐making by not being fully aware of the cultural and political implications of their actions. These ideas are discussed in the context of Israel/Palestine and the dynamic of the demarcation and separation between Israelis and Palestinians since the early twentieth century. It focuses specifically on the border zone between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the Menshiyeh quarter. By examining border‐making from architectural and urban perspectives, the paper expands the political‐historical discussion of Israeli boundaries and clarifies the relationships between conflict (destruction), architecture (construction) and the everyday life of groups and individuals in today’s world of modern nationalism.

Notes

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16. The conceptualization of the bridge and the door, as two typologies of borders, was originally defined by George Simmel. G. Simmel, Simmel on Culture, Selected Writings. London: Sage Publications, 1997. His evocation of the bridge makes a provocative comparison with that of Heidegger in the essay ‘building, dwelling, thinking’ in Poetry, Language, Thought. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1971.

17. G. Simmel, ibid., p. 173.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid., p. 172.

20. R. Kark, Jaffa, A City in Evolution 1799–1917. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben Zvi, 1990.

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25. High Commissioner for Palestine, letter, 6 July 1936, Public Record Office, 1936, CO 733/313/6; High Commissioner for Palestine, letter, 29 December 1937, Public Record Office, 1936, CO 733/341/14; H. Samuel (High Commissioner), Report to the Colonial Secretary on the Situation in Palestine, Haycraft Files, Oxford: Middle East Centre Archive, St. Anthony’s College, 1924; Wauchope, Extract from a Letter, 18 July 1936, Public Record Office, 1936, CO 733/313/6.

26. T. Segev, One Palestine Complete, Jews and Arab under the British Mandate. UK: Little and Brown Company, 1999.

27. P. Geddes, Town‐Planning Report, Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1925.

28. On the formal decision on 8 April 1921 see: Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1921.

29. E. Mills (Chairman), Rents Inquiry Committee Report, 14 February 1938, Public Record Office, 1934, CO 733/262/5.

30. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv and Jaffa in the War of Independence, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 1–3 (1952) 47, Tel Aviv Historical Archive (in Hebrew).

31. Survey of Palestine, Jaffa–Tel Aviv, Scale, 1: 1250, National Archives of Maps, 1924; Survey of Palestine, Jaffa–Tel Aviv, Scale, 1:2500, National Archives of Maps, 1938.

32. P. Goldman, Tel Aviv, transformation of a suburb into a city 1906–1935 in I. Kamp‐Bandau and N. Winfried (eds) Tel Aviv’s Modern Architecture 1930–1939. Berlin: Wasmuth, 1994; R. Kallus, Patrick Geddes and the Evolution of Housing Types in Tel Aviv. Planning Perspectives 12 (1997) 281–320; A. Nitzan‐Shiftan, Contested Zionism – Alternative Modernism: Erich Mendelson and the Tel Aviv Group in Mandate Palestine. Architectural History 39 (1996) 147–80; Y. Shavit and G. Bigger, op. cit. [22].

33. R. Fuchs, The Palestinian Arab House and the Islamic Primitive Hut, Muqarnas – an Annual for Islamic Art & Architecture 15 (1998) 157–77.

34. N. Payton, The Machine in the Garden City: Patrick Geddes’ Plan for Tel Aviv. Planning Perspectives 10 (1995) 359–81.

35. O. Betser, Apartment Houses in Tel Aviv in the Thirties – their development, concept, and design. Haifa: Technion, unpublished MA thesis, 1984.

36. A. Nitzan‐Shiftan, op. cit. [33].

37. R. Kallus, op. cit. [32]

38. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, Menshiyeh Neighbourhood, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 1–2 (1936) 33, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, p. 3 (in Hebrew).

39. Ibid.

40. E. Mills, op. cit. [29].

41. Police, Report on the Origin and Beginning of the Jaffa Riots April, 1936, Public Record Office, 1936, CO 733/314/5.

42. E. Mills, op. cit. [29]; Chief Secretary, Questions of Relief and Compensation in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, Public Record Office, 11 August 1936, CO 733/313/7.

43. Palestine Post, Jaffa’s Jewish Quarter, 29 November 1938, Public Record Office, 1938, CO 733/375/12; Palestine Post, The Jews of Jaffa, 14 February 1938, Public Record Office, 1938a, CO 733/375/12.

44. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv in the division report, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 4–3 (1937) 57–58, Tel Aviv Historical Archive (in Hebrew).

45. Ibid.

46. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, op. cit. [30].

47. I. Borden, Thick Edges: Architectural Boundaries in the post‐modern metropolis, in J. Rendell and I. Borden, Intersections. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 240.

48. The Planning Committee, Menshiyeh, 1.8.6, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 7, 3 (1965) 251 (in Hebrew).

49. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, op. cit. [30].

50. Following the war Jaffa was ‘emptied’ of its 95% Arab citizens and transformed from a thriving cultural and economic middle‐class Arab centre into a poor neighbourhood of Jewish and Arab refugees. E. Rogan and A. Shlaim, The War for Palestine; rewriting the history of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

51. Prime Minister David Ben Gurion demanded that all of Jaffa be annexed to Tel Aviv. However, the city’s mayor, Israel Rokach, supported only the annexation of the Jewish neighbourhoods and resisted any additional territorial extensions without appropriate economic support from the government. The latter accepted these claims and decided to provide Tel Aviv with areas for expansion in return for providing municipal services to Jaffa. A. Golan, The Demarcation of the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Municipal Boundaries following the 1948 War: Political Conflicts and Spatial Outcome. Planning Perspectives 10 (1995) 383–98.

52. Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, The Formal Annexation of Jaffa to Tel Aviv, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 5–6 (1949) 73–4, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, p. 73 (in Hebrew).

53. Ibid. p. 74 (in Hebrew).

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid.

56. For further reading see Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, The History of Tel Aviv Boundaries, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 12 (1945) 156–7, Tel Aviv Historical Archive (in Hebrew); Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv, The Formal Annexation of Jaffa to Tel Aviv, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 1–2 (1950) 4–7, Tel Aviv Historical Archive (in Hebrew).

57. S. Cohen, A New Heart for Tel Aviv–Yafo, The Jerusalem Post, 1 November 1962.

58. Ibid.

59. Achuzot Hof, Protocol of the Directorship, 30 May 1963, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 7, 3 (1963) 251 (in Hebrew).

60. Achuzot Hof, Town Planning Competition for the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Central Area Redevelopment Project, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1962 (in Hebrew).

61. The Menshiyeh Neighbourhood Committee, To Mordechai Namir, 14 May 1962, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1962, 04‐2685 (in Hebrew).

62. J. Rabinovitch, To Mr. Shifman, 26 November 1962, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1962, 04‐2684 (in Hebrew).

63. The council replied that ‘… the goals are mutual … to implement the Menshiyeh development plans, and to create an environment that will bring prosperity, increase employment and education, and raise the social level’. Pamphlet, The Truth About Menshiyeh Plan, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1936, 04‐2685 (in Hebrew).

64. Two prizes and six recommended awards were given by the jury, as announced in the final report. The Jury Report, Town Planning Competition for the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Central Area Redevelopment Project, 1.9.63, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1963, 04‐2684.

65. M. Tafuri, Razionalismo critico nuovo utopismo, concorso per la ristrutturazione della zona centrale di Tel Aviv–Giaffa. Casabella 293 (1964) 18–42.

66. This is similar to other attempts to use architectural practices to promote national claims. See, for example, S. Bozdogan, Modernism and Nation Building, Turkish Architecture Culture in Early Republic. Seattle: Washington University Press, 2001; L. Vale, Architecture, Power and National Identity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

67. Consisting of W. Holford (Chairman), L. Kahn, P. Vage, B. Zevi, A. Sharon, M. Amiaz (City Engineer), Y. Perlestain, Y. Dash.

68. Y. Ben Seira, Menshiyeh, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1965, 04‐2618 (in Hebrew).

69. His objections to the proposed plan were based on three main points: (1) traffic and its intensity; (2) the idea that establishing a new commercial centre would be a means of connecting Tel Aviv and Jaffa; and (3) the ‘concrete and modernistic’ architectural language of the project.

70. A. Horovitz, What will be the Identity of Tel Aviv–Jaffa in the Future, Yediot Iriat Tel Aviv 8–9 (1954) 2–8, Tel Aviv Historical Archive (in Hebrew).

71. A. Horovitz, Gardens and Bathing – or Commerce in Along the Sea Shore of Tel Aviv–Jaffa, 9 March 1962, Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1962, 04‐2685 (in Hebrew).

72. Y. Ben Seira, Urban Regeneration, Tel Aviv Historical Archive,1965a, 04‐2618C (in Hebrew).

73. Ibid. p. 4.

74. Ibid.

75. The new Tel Aviv master plan, prepared in the 1980s by Adam Mazor, completely changed the conception, giving the city a new direction. A. Mazor, Master Plan of Tel Aviv and Jaffa: The Activities in the Business Center in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Ramat Gan: Urban Institute, 1983.

76. P. Bogod and U. Pigardo, Jaffa Gate – Jaffa Promenade. Tel Aviv Historical Archive, 1992, 2343 (15) (in Hebrew).

77. See K. Nesbitt, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965–1995. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996; M. Hays (ed.), Architecture Theory Since 1968. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998.

78. A. Rossi, The Architecture of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982.

79. A. Colquhoun, Twentieth‐Century Concepts of Urban Space, in A. Colquhoun (ed.) Modernity and Classical Tradition, Architectural essays 1980–1987. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991, pp. 223–33.

80. K. Frampton, Prospects for a critical regionalism. Prospecta: Yale Architectural Journal 20 (1983) 147–62; A. Tzonis and L. Lefebvre, The Grid and the Pathway. Architecture in Greece 15 (1981) 164–78.

81. C. Norberg‐Schulz, Genius Loci: towards a phenomenology of architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1980; R. Krier, Urban Space. New York: Rizzoli, 1979.

82. A. Vidler, The Third Typology, in L. Krier (ed.) Rational Architecture: The Reconstruction of the European City. Bruxelles: Archives d’Architecture Moderne, 1978, pp. 28–32.

83. F. Jameson, Postmodernism: or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso, 1991.

84. M. Levin, Overthrowing Geography, Re‐Imagining Identities: A History of Jaffa and Tel Aviv 1880 to the Present. New York University: PhD dissertation, 1999.

85. E. Ziv and A. Eden, The Exposure and Preservation of the Sea Wall of Old Jaffa, 5.7.98. The Architects’ Collection, 1998 (in Hebrew).

86. However, due to differences in levels between the wall and the land surface, the plan could not be implemented. This has resulted in a metaphorical ‘wall’ being marked along the promenade. As one of the architects described it:

The natural state of the wall was weak … the stones had been damaged over the years by electricity cables and water pipes … it was impossible to expose the wall, though we wanted to very badly. But we did think it worthwhile to mark the wall … not to reconstruct the thing itself but to create an analogy … (A. Eden, interview 22 January 2002).

87. P. Bogod and U. Pigardo, op. cit. [77], p. 8.

88. H. Lefebvre, op. cit. [5], p. 39.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tali Hatuka

* Tali Hatuka is currently a Fulbright post‐doctorate fellow at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has recently completed her PhD dissertation in Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. She has a BArch. from the Technion and an MA in Urban Design from Heriot‐Watt University, Edinburgh College of Art and has taught Architecture and Town Planning at Technion. Her research and publications focus on the relationship between extreme events of violence, everyday life and the built environment.

Rachel Kallus

Rachel Kallus is a senior lecturer in architecture, urban design and town planning at the Technion in Haifa. She has an M.A. in Architecture from MIT and a PhD from the Technion. She has worked as an architect in the USA, the Netherlands and Israel, mainly in the area of housing, planning and design. Her research focuses on the interplay between planning policy and architectural design and examines the relationships between policy measures, their physical outcomes and their everyday lived experience, especially in relation to equity, equality and social justice. Rachel Kallus has lectured and published extensively on these topics in various planning and architecture publications.