On my last visit to Tel Aviv, I went looking for the elusive splendour of Bauhaus architecture on a wide, lush, tree-lined boulevard called Rothschild. I had heard about this motherlode of what is known in Israel as International Style, but I never found time to see the buildings. Although the city has often been called grey and drab, here I discovered an area of white and ecru cubic buildings, known for their right angles and smooth facades.
The founding father of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, developed this style in the 1920s, and many of his students and architects immigrated to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv, bringing with them their Bauhaus vision.
Surprisingly, Tel Aviv has the largest collection of Bauhaus buildings outside of Europe. Over 1,500 Bauhaus edifices exist throughout “The White City,” and it’s no surprise that the street of Rothschild is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage site.