Abstract

This article explores the untold story of Levantine architects who were active in Tel Aviv of the 1930s and 1940s, following the trajectories of cousins Zaky and Robert (Hillel) Chelouche and their contemporaries. Members of Palestine’s French speaking Sephardic-Mizrachi elite, these architects went to study in Paris at a time when French modernist architecture and urban planning was applied to France’s colonial project, and brought back with them to Tel Aviv architectural ideas which helped shape the city as a Mediterranean modern town, similar to other cities of the period, such as Casablanca. The contribution of these Levantine gentleman-architects to Tel Aviv’s celebrated architectural heritage has been largely overlooked by the prevailing narrative of the city as a “Bauhaus city,” of central European modernism. This article is challenging this narrative by presenting the important work and impact of these architects, and their clients, in the city, proposing a new understanding of the heritage of the so called “White City.”

摘要

本文沿着堂兄弟 Zaky 和 ​​Robert (Hillel) Chelouche 以及他们同时代人的轨迹，探讨活跃于 1930 年代和 1940 年代特拉维夫的黎凡特建筑师不为人知的故事。巴勒斯坦讲法语的 Sephardic-Mizrachi 精英成员，这些建筑师在法国现代主义建筑和城市规划应用于法国殖民项目时前往巴黎学习，并将他们带回特拉维夫的建筑理念，帮助塑造城市作为一个地中海现代小镇，类似于那个时期的其他城市，例如卡萨布兰卡。这些黎凡特绅士建筑师对特拉维夫著名建筑遗产的贡献在很大程度上被该市作为中欧现代主义“包豪斯城市”的流行叙事所忽视。