Stephan, R: More Than Bauhaus

In 2003 Tel Aviv became a UNESCO WorldHeritage site. On this occasion Tel Aviv wasdescribed as a "synthetic representationof some of the most significant trends ofthe Modern Movement in architecture, as itdeveloped in Europe".Today the "White City" in Tel Aviv with itssome 4,000 buildings from the 1920s and1930s is renowned as the largest collectionof so-called Bauhaus buildings in the world.What does it mean that the architects ofthese projects arrived from all over Europe,and only six of them were Bauhaus alumni?Over recent decades the word Bauhaus hasbecome synonymous with modernity in art,design and architecture. Often disregardingthe original intentions of the School, foundedin 1919 and closed in 1933, it serves asa label for all kinds of merchandise. Amongthem architecture is the most prominent.But, what is Bauhaus? And, is there such athing as a specific Bauhaus architecture?In search of an answer to these crucialquestions, students from Germany, Israeland Austria studied the original Bauhausbuildings in Dessau, Germany, beforetraveling to Tel Aviv, Israel to undertakefurther research. For them, the questionremained: Bauhaus or not?