Blinding white
By Shani Shilo
When UNESCO added Tel Aviv's White City to the World Heritage List of
sites designated for preservation, it made white fashionable and
desireable. Thanks to the White City's historical designation, that
default color of Israeli architecture is now identified with quality.
"This is a trend that began about 15 years ago as part of Tel Aviv's
branding as the White City," says architect Sharon Rotbard, author of
the books "White City, Black City" and "Avraham Yaski: Concrete
Architecture." "In the mid-1990s, Ram Carmi began to talk about white
architecture at the same time that architects began whitewashing raw
concrete structures in conjunction with Brutalist architecture - for
example, the planned Amal School. Eldar Sharon also painted white the
Coor Building - now the Beit Amot Hamishpat Building - which he planned
with his father, Arieh Sharon.
"When French architect Jean Nouvel visited Israel, he suggested making
Tel Aviv a symphony of white, painting all the buildings in shades of
white, and strengthening its identity as the White City, just as
Jerusalem is identified with stone," Rotbard adds.
cont'd....
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