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Einladungswettbewerb | 08/2016

White City Center Tel Aviv - Establishment of an Israeli-German Center for Heritage and Architecture (Max Liebling House)

Toolbox of Ideas

ein 2. Preis

Preisgeld: 1.500 EUR

merz merz

Architektur

Erläuterungstext

Intro: From Sand to Center
»The myth of the "white city that was born from the sands" was employed to make its conservation dear to ordinary citizens and politicians.« (Y. Rofe)
»Perhaps what Tel Aviv now needs is less myth, and more history.« (M. Epstein-Pliouchtch/R. Fuchs)

The »White City« stands for the world’s largest concentration of internationale style architecture. UNESCO praises the World Heritage zone for its size, coherence and homogeneous nature. Furthermore, the preservation zone is located in the core of Tel Aviv, unlike other international style areas, which are usually located in the city’s periphery. The architectural heritage of the White City is an integral part of Tel Aviv’s daily city life.

Planned as a Garden City in the desert, Tel Aviv is an excellent case of rapid urbanization. It is a well documented microcosmos and an outstanding example of the capability of the built environment to integrate multiple social, political, and historical discourses into one powerful image. When looking at the White City, understanding the way this conglomeration of modernist buildings became such a powerful image, is virtually as important as the architecture itself. Beyond the historical appearance of the White City lies the history of the city’s myths. Both are equally important. Both are incorporated in the buildings and infrastructures of the White City.

On the one hand, founding a center for the White City means to develop a sovereignty of interpretation. The White City Center has to absorb the current state of research and present it in a way that is comprehensible to all target audiences. It has to offer functions that are tailor-made to those using it (tenants, owners, tourists, scholars etc.). On the other hand, the Center should not prescribe a definite, fixed view on the architectural heritage of Tel Aviv. The Center should encourage to explore diverse perspectives, trigger discussions, and stimulate new, utopian thoughts.

First and foremost it will be a center for the people of Tel Aviv. It will offer modes of identification with their city’s heritage. However, this does not prevent the White City Center from being a tourist magnet. It rather emphasizes its touristic qualities. The character of all of the White City Center’s offers will profit if visitors – both tourists and locals – feel the Center is made for the inhabitants of the White City. The orientation to the people of Tel Aviv is a unique selling point and marketing factor for visitors from abroad as it is carrying out the spirit of Tel Aviv. The White City as a process rather than an open air museum, as a live and living experience rather than a »canned« history can be best communicated if the Center shows its purpose as a community hub that also serves as a tourist destination – not vice versa. The proposed concept for the White City Center including the »Detail« complies with these thoughts.


Conceptual Approach: A Toolbox of Opportunities
The overall aim of the White City Center is to transform the »rather introverted building« (concept call) of the Max-Liebling-House into an inviting, vibrant, and above all, public institution. It has to harmoniously integrate all required functions to ensure a facile, smooth and economical operation of the Center. The needs of all target groups (tourists, locals, owners, visiting scholars, students etc.) have to be anticipated and supported. The conversion of a residential building into a vivid public institution has to be carefully weighed up with the preservation of the original character of Karmi’s design.

Authenticity versus functionality always is a challenge when converting a historic building. If authenticity is understood not as a given fact but rather as an intellectual accomplishment of the beholder, this challenge and its specific solution should be made visible to ensure the experience of its authenticity. The conceptual approach relies on a sensitive refurbishment and on minimally invasive strategies. When the demanded functionality of the Center rules out the upholding of certain elements of the original building, all interventions are visible as such. Karmi’s original design, his general architectural approach, and his aesthetic legacy always is recognizable. Between the old and the new, between functionally guided interventions and the precise preservation of the original building, a tension evolves that contributes to the experience of the »authentic« architecture.

With these thoughts in mind, two basic options are proposed. Taking up the plans of Ada Karmi with the elevator at the northern façade and an additional staircase in between the eastern building shanks, both options could also work with an elevator situated inside the building’s center, making it even more accessible for all target groups while easing the building’s general circulation. Both proposed options also work excellently with the proposed exterior elevator. The submitted design proposal is to be seen as a toolbox of opportunities for the White City Center. The proposed two options are the substrate for further discussions. The conceptual approach has to be adjusted in close collaboration with the client, Ada Karmi, and all relevant preservation authorities.

Option 1: Going Down In History
The ground floor is conceived as a welcoming space for all target groups. The Café is located to the front with access to the terrace. The Café not only is a classic »museum café«, but a neighborhood meeting point. Next to the Café, close to the entrance, the Starting Point for tours through the White City is located. The Shop is situated behind the Reception Desk and next to the Café. All three functions can be operated by one person. Service Point, Digital Archive, and Library are situated in the rear apartment. The Library has access to the winter garden. The small and intimate space on the opposite to the library close to the elevator is dedicated to the life and work of Dov Karmi.

Exhibiting the Subconscious of the City
The permanent exhibition starts right after passing the Reception Desk with a Prologue that prepares visitors for their journey to the beginnings of the White City. Going down to the basement, literally on the level of the sand Tel Aviv was built upon, visitors travel through time to the beginnings of Tel Aviv in 1909 and, subsequently, to the foundation of the White City. Some of the walls in the lowest floor are removed to gain a sequence of rooms that is useful for installing an exhibition. The structural columns and supporting beams of the ceiling are left visible. All surfaces are painted black to focus on the exhibits and to allow a precise light dramaturgy. White semitransparent gauzes structure the themes of the exhibition, forming spaces without enclosing them. The gauzes can be used to print graphics or project movies or images. After being cut off from the light of day, wandering through the past, the »subconscious« of the city unfolds. Being beneath street level, detached from the busy city life with no connection to the outside, visitors can purely focus on the inside, the deep substrate of Tel Aviv. From here, a panoramic elevator carries the visitors to the rooftop terrace. From bottom to top the visit of the Max-Liebling-House unfolds a narrative that entices the visitors to explore the rest of the Center.

A House full of Bustling Activities
On the second floor the visitors get an impression of the original architecture when it was still used as a residential house. The model apartment in the rear of the second floor with original furnishing is also used for the artist residencies, in order not to emanate a museumized but rather animated atmosphere. On the street side the education pivot is located. Spaces for the Children’s Hub are provided as well as a class room for seminars and workshops. The kids have direct access via the central staircase to the front rooftop to play and take care of their urban garden projects where they can grow vegetables and fruits. They can prepare the harvest in their kitchen, bringing the idea of the Garden City back to life. On the first floor, the Gallery presents changing exhibitions in the rear part of the house. The part facing the street is reserved for staff and administration. Direct access to the balcony and an additional meeting room ensures a productive working climate.

Option 1 – »Going Down in History« – focuses on the different movements and paths through the building, using every part of the architecture’s infrastructure equally. The different visitor/user groups mingle. The Center fulfills its function as both a public and research institution, a place for tourists and locals, for architecture experts and artists. By putting the permanent exhibition into the basement, daylight issues are solved and a surplus of space is gained.

Option 2: Architecture Exposed
Option 2 takes a more radical approach to show the essence of Karmi’s building while simultaneously integrating the various functions of the White City Center. The ground floor is organized similarly to Option 1 with the Café towards the street and direct access to the Terrace. Service Point and Starting Point of the Tours through the White City share one space to bring together the visitors of the White City and its inhabitants.

Highlighting The Essence Of Karmi’s Building: Virtual Walls As Architecture Reading Aids
After being welcomed at the Reception, visitors go up to the first floor, which in its entirety is used for the permanent exhibition and the Gallery. All walls are removed, only outer walls and supporting elements are retained. I-beams are inserted where needed. One continuing space evolves to exhibit the past and present of the White City. The floor plan of the first floor, i.e. the positions of the removed walls are printed directly on the floor. At the ceiling, the lintels of the removed walls are kept. The original structure of the architecture is »readable«. On both sides of the removed walls, a system of thin steel ropes that are stretched between lintels and floor graphics accompanies the removed walls. Exhibits can be installed on the ropes, either hanging like pictures »on the wall« or as tables or showcases between the ropes to place architecture models and other 3D objects. The original built-in furniture as well as original installations like shower heads, toilets etc. are integrated into this system at their original positions. Like symbols, they now stand for the life and usage of the Max-Liebling-House. Tiles and other additions on the removed walls are shown like pictures at the exact same place, mounted on suspended boards. The apartment character of the floor is maintained. The building is fragmentarily complemented by its history. The building’s boundaries are made permeable. The documentation level is increased. The layout of the building is easier graspable because the »virtual walls« reveal the structure of the building. From the exhibition, visitors reach the Model Apartment on the next floor. Located to the front of the house, it gives a naturalistic impression of the life in the Max-Liebling-House. Staff is located on the same floor to the back. The roof can be flexibly used for events or as an outside extension of the artist’s studio. The Class Room is located in the basement.

Singularizing The Craftsmanship, Breathing Life Into The Building
Option 2 – »Architecture Exposed« â€“ focuses on understanding the building’s architecture, singularizing the craftsmanship of the interior, and animating the Center by placing all dynamic and lively formats to the front. Whereas Option 1 pays more attention to the flows inside the building, Option 2 aims at grouping similar functions together. The lower floors serve more public functions. All exhibition activities are concentrated on the first floor, where historic artifacts and architectural interventions both enhance the legibility of the building.

City Snippets
For the rooftop, an intervention is conceived that can be used by all, during normal opening hours as well as on special events. The City Snippets are seating accommodations that are freely distributed on both sides (Option 2) or on the rear side (Option 1) of the roof. Installed on movable white platforms, the blue chairs tempt visitors to sit down and relax. Looking up, a four to five meter high steel pole rises up out of the seating accommodation, on top of which a polished stainless steel plate is installed. Serving as a mirror, each of the stainless steel plates is angled at a specific part of the White City. On every chair, visitors get a different perspective, a different »snippet« of the surrounding city. The City Snippets frame the view and sharpen the visitors’ awareness of the White City.

Bright White City
As an optional addition to the proposed concept, the façade of the building could be minimally altered to maximize the visitor center’s visibility in midst of the neighborhood’s residential buildings. Coating the Max-Liebling-House with retroreflective paint, it becomes a bright icon of the White City. Retroreflective paint returns light back to the light source along the same light direction with a minimum of scattering. Retroreflection technology is commonly used on road surfaces, road signs, vehicles, clothing, and cat’s eyes. Observers encounter a unique interaction with light since it is returned towards its origin. Sunshine is reflected stronger. During the daytime, the building appears whiter than all other buildings. At night, passing cars and other lighting illuminate the façade. The White City Center transforms into a glowing white mark in Tel Aviv’s center.


The Detail: Zooming
»[The city] is seen in all lights and all weathers. At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a view waiting to be explored. […] Every citizen has had long associations with some part of his city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings.« (K. Lynch)
The design approach of the detail is deduced from the ever changing, highly subjective, fragmentary image of the city that evolves while walking through an urban setting. Experiencing a city means to adapt the zoom, to search for a vantage point, to change the side of the street to enjoy a building in its context, to come close to catch a glimpse of the inner life, and to zoom out again for a more complex image. Two options are proposed for the detail. Both can be implemented within the given budget. As they work both independently and complementary, one can choose to either put into action only one or both of them. However, both concepts are planned as potential multiples to be installed at specific places within the city. Whereas Option 1 is more person-specific, Option 2 is more site-specific. Irritation – Information – Inspiration is the purpose of the two proposed designs for the detail. People should be attracted by the detail, interact with it and, subsequently, understand the structure and history of the White City.


Detail Option 1: White Cityscopes
The objects of daily life are, as well as the city someone lives in, something of little attention. By alienating such an object, the »daily grind« is interrupted for a second – attention is created. The White Cityscope applies this trick by extending a street light by the factor of five. Deprived from its function – the light of the lamp hardly reaches the street –, the White Cityscope creates at first glance an »atopos«, an unclassifiable object with a peculiar placelessness to it. An eyepiece is installed at eye level transforming the excessive street light into a periscope. The White Cityscope enable the flâneur to take a different view on the White City. Zooming in and out at the eyepiece on the lower end, people get general info about the White City, the UNESCO preservation zones, and selected buildings. The White Cityscopes can be produced as multiples and scattered throughout the city. As site-specific installations they have a close connection to their specific urban surrounding. At the first zoom level, every White Cityscope has the same aerial view of Tel Aviv to then zoom in to a specific location with specific information. The last layer of the zoom, the close-up, surprises the viewer with an animated GIF with people moving inside a building, a tree gently swaying in the wind, lights going on and off, and other things that work as both eye-candy and education, as they deepen the understanding of how the White City works.

Detail Option 2: Unresolved White City
Unresolved White City plays with different perspectives and points of view. At crucial places of the city (e.g. airport, central bus station, beach, White City Center) a two by two meter backlit billboard displays a portrait of one of the builders of the White City. From afar, the portraits of e.g. Dov Karmi, Arieh Sharon, or Genia Averbuch are visible. Coming closer, the portraits dissolve into their respective work. On the third level, when standing directly in front of the billboard, the work again turns into another visual layer, and a text about the White City and specific buildings can be read. Unresolved White City not only is a play with viewpoints, but also a play with digital and analog technologies, as the image itself is presented analog, though its production relies on a complex algorithm that resolves millions of images into one. Unresolved White City acts as a visual interference in urban spaces, relying on the charme of digital simplicity in times of technological overdosage. It subtly pays reverence to the »Silicon Wadi«. Unresolved White City can also work as an international art installation that connects places outside Israel (e.g. Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Getty Foundation L.A., IIT Chicago etc.) with the White City. As a moving or migrating installation, Unresolved White City retraces the migration movements that in the end resulted into the development of the White City.

Beurteilung durch das Preisgericht

The members of the jury appreciated the architectural quality and the flexibility of the proposal that fulfilled the needs of a White City Center. The proposal included several ideas and alternative concepts which were regarded as a possible approach for further development of the Center. One of the details of the proposal (the “Unresolved White City”) was perceived as an interesting feature and as a base for further graphic design connected to the center. With an integrated view on task 1 (the concept) and task 2 (the detail) the potential of showing the public space inside the introverted building also to the outside was regarded as rather subtle.