The historic centre of Tel Aviv has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 2003. The Israeli city on the seafront includes a unique ensemble of over 4.000 houses in new functionalist style - a little known fact in this country - that have only recently been restored.

Under the title The White City of Tel Aviv - The Modern Movement, this exhibition organised by the City of Tel Aviv has been touring the world since 2004, and is to be shown for the first time in Austria at the Architekturzentrum Wien.

The Master Plan
In 1925 the Scottish urban planner Patrick Geddes was commissioned to structure the then fledgling Tel Aviv settlement with a master plan. He envisaged a garden city with a strictly hierarchic traffic network, organically organised and including numerous public squares. In the course of its realisation the density of the project had to be heavily increased - not least to cater to the flood of immigrants to Tel Aviv between 1930 and 1935, increasing the population from 50.000 to 120.000 inhabitants. This notwithstanding, traces of Gedde's original plan can be seen in many places.

The Architecture
Numerous architects of the city had orientated their plans around the formal language of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Erich Mendelsohn. This made Tel Aviv an experimental arena for the fundamental principles of Modern architecture - on an extraordinary scale. Today many of the houses are still in need of renovation. Nitza Szmuk, head of the local authority Preservation Group for many years and curator of this exhibition, has been engaged in the preservation of these valuable structures.

The Exhibition
The "White City's" development is presented in the form of plans and models. Historic and contemporary photographs provide an insight into the architectural language of the time, showing the influence that the European heritage had on what was created there. he diversity of surface quality and colours of different plaster are shown, as are precise analyses of the detail planning (e.g., the different types of balconies). A selection of historic film footage provides an animated image of the development of the city between 1920 and 1958. The presentation video for UNESCO and the current project for the conservation of these buildings are also included in the exhibition. Animated 3-D graphics of eleven representative buildings add depth to an understanding of the architecture of The White City. Almost 100 brief biographies of architects who worked in Tel Aviv round off the overall image.

Accompanying Programme
Guided tours
"From Vienna to Tel Aviv"
Dates: 02 March - 06 April - 04 May 2008, 11:00

A cooperation by the Az W with the Jüdisches Museum Wien

Selected exponents, ranging from the spectacular to the kitsch, in the collection of the Jüdisches Museum Wien and the guided tour of the exhibition ’The White City of Tel Aviv‘ show the history of and background to Zionism and the buildings of the Modern Movement in three Sundays of Twin Pack Tours.

"The White City of Tel Aviv"
Dates: 05 March - 02 April - 07 May 2008, 18:00

Symposiums
"Renovating The Modern Heritage" I
Date: 12 April 2008, 14:00

Tel Aviv has over 4.000 houses built in new functionalist style - an inexhaustible research arena for architecture historians and a major challenge to conservationists. To accompany the exhibition, and in collaboration with the Austrian Bundesdenkmalamt, the Az W is organising an international symposium dedicated to the challenge posed by 'Renovating the Modern Heritage'. The symposium focuses on the conservation of the original building substance as far as possible and updating the technological standard of the structures to meet contemporary standards and make alternative use viable.

The revitalisation of the modern architectural heritage is a challenge currently having to be faced by many countries. In Austria, too, innumerable period icons urgently require renovation, e.g. the Werkbundsiedlung needs renovating again, and the plan to open Villa Beer by Josef Frank to the public as a museum has not yet been realised. Accordingly, an international exchange of expertise from specialists in the field promises to provide a new impulse in Austria too.

Speakers
Berthold Burkhardt, Institut für Tragwerksplanung, TU Braunschweig
Jeremie Hoffmann, Conservation Department, Tel Aviv
Bruno Maldoner, Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, The Arts and Culture, Vienna
Bruno Reichlin, Akademie für Architektur, Mendrisio
Jan Sapák, Architect and Author, Brno

Following a panel discussion with Eva-Maria Höhle, Bundesdenkmalamt

"Renovating The Modern Heritage" II
Date: 16 April 2008, 19:00

It is not just listed Classical Modern buildings that require extensive conservation measures, many far more recent buildings from the second half of the 20th century are now also in urgent need of renovation - famous examples being Karl Schwanzer's "20er Haus", a number of schools by Viktor Hufnagl, or the legendary indoor baths at Gastein by Gerhard Garstenauer. Similarly, there is a whole range of such projects currently in the BIG real estate portfolio, primarily high quality school buildings with the surviving substance entirely in tact. Experimental projects of their time, in particular, are presenting architects and building physics specialists with tough new formal as well as technological challenges. Specialist lectures and practical examples at the BIG Az W event Renovating the Modern Heritage II show how these buildings are conserved with their features as far as possible intact but with the spatial agenda, thermal insulation and infrastructure adapted to suit the radically changed demands of contemporary use.

Speakers (in German)
- Wolfgang Gleissner, BIG: Introduction to the BIG building from the second half of the 20th century
- Peter Riepl, Riepl Riepl Architekten, Martin Kohlbauer, architect: Renovation and extension of the Bundesschulzentrum Kirchdorf an der Krems, Current examples
- Walter Prause, Building Scientist: Renovation problems from the viewpoint of building science and technology
- Adolf Krischanitz, Architect: Renovation: 20er Haus

Panel Discussion (in German)
Wolfgang Gleissner
Peter Riepl
Martin Kohlbauer
Walter Prause
Adolf Krischanitz
Eva-Maria Höhle, Generalkonservatorin Bundesdenkmalamt