Gdynia & Tel Aviv: Two Cities Built with Hope for the Future Hashtag (topic) #architecture #Features Nagłówek super artykułu Title on page in header Gdynia & Tel Aviv:Two Cities Built with Hope for the Future Image or video plaza_izrael_statek32.jpg Podpis dla multimediów The sea & the beach, photo: Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz Header text color rgb(255, 255, 255) Enable audio for video Off Negative header audio button Wyłączony Negative side audio button Wyłączony Zawartość (treść strony Super Artykułu) Columns style both columns static Left column Although there’s a common belief that the First World War changed the global order in a way that triggered the collapse of empires, a shift in the global power balance and the development of technology, many of these changes had actually begun much ear Right column Map of Europe, 1915, photo: Rand McNally and Company Columns style right column static Left column Symbolic map of Europe – The War of Liberation 1914-1915, photo: Polish Central Archives of Historical Records Right column Before the First World War shifted countries’ borders, the world was ruled by great empires and monarchies that included many different ethnic and national groups. Tekst Many of these endeavours were similar in various countries, despite cultural differences. Extremely interesting parallels between two cities that were symbols of the formation of the Polish and Jewish states – Gdynia and Tel Aviv – were discerned by the creators of an exhibition titled Gdynia - Tel Aviv that was presented in late 2019 and early 2020 at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, and from 30th April to 30th August 2020 at the Gdynia City Museum. The exhibition’s curator, Dr Artur Tanikowski, juxtaposed not only the history of the creation of these two port cities, but also the narratives constructed around them for propaganda and political purposes. Although Gdynia and Tel Aviv are very far away from each other, it’s possible to find many similarities in how these two ‘white cities’ by the sea were built. Text size standard fonts size Podpis obrazka Gdynia – map of the city & harbour, 1930, photo: National Archive in Kraków; Tel Aviv – map of the city & harbour, 1930, photo: Wikimedia.org Picture width full width Display image with no height limit Off Tekst A gateway to a new world Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column Tel Aviv was founded in 1909. There is a famous archival photograph of a group of people crowded together in the middle of the desert – these were the first settlers. Right column Meir Dizengoff, photo: Wikimedia.org Tekst Tel Aviv was conceived as a ‘gateway’ to the future Jewish state, through which Jews from all over the world would be able to enter their own country. This symbolic meaning was extremely important in the way Tel Aviv was planned and built. The city could not be an ‘ordinary’ settlement, and with its urban planning and architecture it had to clearly signal the uniqueness, modernity and progressiveness that it could offer to the new inhabitants arriving there. The idea of a garden city developed in the late 19th century by the British urban planner and social activist Ebenezer Howard was used as a starting point for the city’s layout. In Tel Aviv, every house was to be a detached building surrounded by greenery. This presence of greenery in the desert city was meant to be one of the attractive and distinguishing elements of Tel Aviv, making it unique. Text size standard fonts size Fullscreen gallery items Text Building a city in the desert was a huge challenge. Podpis obrazka The sea & the beach, photo: Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz Text position left top Text During the long period of Tel Aviv’s growth, it was a place of clashing cultures and intense contrasts. Podpis obrazka Modern architecture, photo: Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz Text position left top Text Although Tel Aviv’s mainstay was the port, the city was also equipped with other types of infrastructure, such as a railway. Podpis obrazka Yehuda Halevy Street train station in Tel Aviv, 1944, photo: Wikimedia.org Text position left top Tekst The Jewish port city was conceived from the very beginning as a modern city constructed in the ‘Western’ style. With a few exceptions, it was decided to depart from local building traditions and turn to modernism, which was gaining popularity throughout the world. The ‘Eastern’ style was preserved in only a few buildings, for example synagogues. The traditional, regional forms of architecture seen in the domes and arches of synagogues were meant as a nod to the past and to familiar forms, symbolising cultural continuity. Text size standard fonts size Fullscreen gallery items Text Even before the Bauhaus-inspired ‘international style’ took hold in Tel Aviv, the city was already being built according to modern forms of ‘Western’ architecture. Podpis obrazka Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, 1922, photo: Wikimedia.org Text position left top Tekst The Middle Eastern international style Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column The modernist style dominated construction in Tel Aviv in the 1930s, when Jewish architects began arriving in the city to escape the fascism gaining ground in Europe. Right column Rimon Cinema (later named the Allenby Cinema), 1934, designed by Salomon Gepstein, photo taken in 1936 with an announcement of Jan Kiepura’s performance, PH, photo: press materials of the POLIN Museum Fullscreen gallery items Text Zina Dizengoff Square, named after the wife of Tel Aviv’s first mayor. It has a circular arrangement with a diameter of seventy metres and is surrounded by many of the most successful implementations of the ‘international style’ in Tel Aviv. Podpis obrazka Zina Dizengoff Square, view from the north, 1934, designed by Genia Averbuch, LC, photo: POLIN Museum publicity materials Text position left top Text The modernist quarter, known as the White City, is a must-see spot in Tel Aviv. Nowhere else in the world was such a coherent series of buildings constructed in what was considered the most modern style at the time. Podpis obrazka Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, view to the north, LC, photo: POLIN Museum publicity materials Text position left top Text The modernist quarter of Tel Aviv, known as the White City, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003. Podpis obrazka Zina Dizengoff Square, view from the north, 1934, designed by Genia Averbuch, LC, photo: POLIN Museum publicity materials Text position left top Tekst On the Baltic Sea Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column In 1920, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Poland received 140 kilometres of coastline. Right column Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Columns style right column static Left column The Post and Telegraph Office at 10 Lutego Street in Gdynia, one of the most important public buildings, was meant to symbolise the significance and modernity of the new city, 1929, designed by Julian Puterman-Sadłowski and Antoni Miszewski, photo: Henryk Poddębski / MMC Right column The development of Gdynia was twofold: on the one hand, great emphasis was placed on the construction of a modern port (which quickly became one of the most important ports in Europe, with excellent technical infrastructure such as huge cold stores and Tekst Modernism first & foremost Text size standard fonts size Tekst Elegant and monumental, the geometric forms of modernist office and apartment buildings began to fill the centre of the new city. Modernism on such a scale, in the space of the city centre, had never existed in any Polish city – the fact that Gdynia stood out due to the accumulation of such impressive buildings along wide avenues was perfectly in line with the intended propaganda. The housing estates built outside the centre were also in the modernist style – no idyllic cottages or tenement houses were built here, but simple blocks of flats immersed in greenery whose cleanliness, order and geometry corresponded to the dynamics of a modern city. Text size standard fonts size Fullscreen gallery items Text One of Gdynia’s most elegant streets, 10 February Street, was named to commemorate the date of Poland’s symbolic union with the sea on 10th February 1920. The photo shows one of the most important and successful buildings, combining modernist and maritime styles – the former ZUS office building, designed by Roman Piotrowski. Podpis obrazka Gdynia, 10 Lutego Street, 1939, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text Housing estates were built in successive districts of Gdynia for the new inhabitants flooding into the city. Usually they were simple and modest, but this didn’t prevent them from having contemporary, modernist designs. Podpis obrazka Modern blocks of flats in Gdynia, 1923-1938, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text Like in Tel Aviv, the first years of building the new city were a time of contrasts. In Gdynia, fishing and agricultural traditions were gradually replaced by urban space. Podpis obrazka Marshal Józef Piłsudski Avenue in Gdynia, 1932-1936, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text A large role in creating value and prestige for the new city was played by public buildings – government headquarters and bureaucratic offices. The photo shows the modern building of the District Court in Gdynia, the most important pre-war architectural design by Zbigniew Karpiński, who designed the extremely modern, multifunctional Eastern Wall complex in Warsaw in the late 1950s. Podpis obrazka District Court in Gdynia, 1939, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text According to the architects working in Gdynia, modernism was suitable both for residential and public architecture. It also appeared in buildings connected to the port and industry. Podpis obrazka Cotton Exchange Building in Gdynia, 1938, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Columns style right column static Left column Parish Church of the Holy Virgin Mary Queen of Poland in Świętojańska Street in Gdynia, 1923-1939, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Right column There weren’t many deviations from the modernist style in pre-war Gdynia, but those that were created did not arise by chance. Fullscreen gallery items Text Considered in the early 20th century as a good reflection of the Polish spirit, the manor style appeared in many architectural designs but was particularly common in railway station buildings. The station in Gdynia was one of the largest. Unfortunately, it did not survive the Second World War. Podpis obrazka Railway station in Gdynia, 1939, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text The building of the command of the Polish Navy in Gdynia makes historical reference with its geometric, classically inspired columned portico, which was meant to emphasise the gravity of the institution which had its headquarters here. Podpis obrazka The headquarters of the command of the Polish Navy in Gdynia, 1928, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Tekst A city of new opportunities Text size standard fonts size Columns style left column static Left column ‘We will overtake the Free City of Gdańsk with the Rapid City of Gdynia’ was one of the propaganda slogans intended to emphasise the economic and political importance of Gdynia. Right column Miskovits, Spre o Viata Nova (Towards a New Life; The Promised Land), 1935, film poster, CZA, photo: press materials of the POLIN Museum Columns style right column static Left column Polonia: the fastest ship on the line, ca. 1936, poster, CZA, photo: press materials of the POLIN Museum Right column Large-scale public investments helped to give the cities a modern and multifunctional image. In Gdynia, for example, there was a complex of extremely modern trade halls built between 1935 and 1938, designed by Jerzy Müller and Stefan Reychman. Fullscreen gallery items Text The Levantine Fair was a way for the city of Tel Aviv to demonstrate its modernity to the rest of the world. Even the very process of building the exhibition pavilions was impressive. Podpis obrazka Levantine Fair in Tel Aviv, photo: Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz Text position left top Text The Polish pavilion at the Levantine Fair in Tel Aviv in 1934 had austere, geometric forms because this style was considered the most progressive at the time. Podpis obrazka Levantine Fair in Tel Aviv, 1934, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text It is estimated that 114,000 Jews emigrated from Poland to Palestine between 1923 and 1937. It was with them in mind that the Polish PKO Bank opened a branch in Tel Aviv in the spring of 1933. Podpis obrazka Branch of PKO Bank in Tel Aviv, external view, 1934, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text The Trade Hall Complex, built in Gdynia in 1937 according to a design by Jerzy Müller and Stefan Reychman, is a demonstration of both structural innovation and a modern approach to urban commercial spaces. Podpis obrazka Trade Hall Complex in Gdynia, 1937, designed by Jerzy Müller and Stefan Reychman, photo taken in August 1938, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Columns style left column static Left column Both coastal cities were of great political importance. Tel Aviv was ‘the first Hebrew city’ and Gdynia was ‘the Polish gateway to the world’. The port played an important role in both cities. Right column Suitcase sticker, Gdynia-America Line, M. S. Piłsudski, 1934-1939, photo: MEG Tekst Politics, industry & entertainment Text size standard fonts size Tekst Despite the existence of numerous and obvious differences between Gdynia and Tel Aviv, one cannot fail to notice that the significance of architecture – not only serving utilitarian functions but also propaganda – was similarly understood in both cities, and that great importance was attached to architectural forms for creating the image, character and status of a city that aimed to be a place of youth, strength and joy. The history of these two port settlements, borne from both practical and political needs, contains a concentrated version of the ideas of an era when the world was being divided in new ways, solidified by decisions made after the First World War. This makes the work of the creators of the Gdynia - Tel Aviv exhibition all the more valuable. By drawing parallels between the two cities, they have increased awareness of the broader historical context in which the two cities arose. Text size standard fonts size Fullscreen gallery items Text The main boulevard leading through the centre of Gdynia to the port often served as a venue for public events. This photo clearly shows how well the modernist architecture blended with modern (for the time) cars. Podpis obrazka Rally cars in Gdynia, 1938, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text Resting on the beach was part of the lifestyle of the new residents of Gdynia. Podpis obrazka Beachgoers at the Baltic seaside, July 1932, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text The pier in Gdynia was an important place for creating a self-image. One had to walk here, present oneself and be seen if one wished to gain a respectable social status. Podpis obrazka The beach in Gdynia: women strolling on the pier, 1938-1939, photo: www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl (NAC) Text position left top Text Due to its location on the coast as well as the energy and vitality of its new, young residents, from the very beginning of its existence Tel Aviv was also a fashionable resort – a place where people could relax and have fun. The city has managed to maintain such an image to this day. Podpis obrazka Woman under an umbrella on the beach in Tel Aviv, LC, photo: POLIN Museum publicity materials Text position left top Tekst Originally written in Polish, translated by Scotia Gilroy, Jun 2021 Text size standard fonts size More Super Articles Title A Dream City Refound: Białystok through the Lens of Augustis URL https://culture.pl/en/interrupted-country/a-dream-city-refound-bialystok-throug… Thumbnail Title The Silesian Museum: The Architecture of Identity URL https://culture.pl/en/interrupted-country/the-silesian-museum-the-architecture-… Thumbnail Title Karol Hiller: The Alchemist from the Evil City URL https://culture.pl/en/interrupted-country/karol-hiller-the-alchemist-from-the-e… Thumbnail Introduction In the early 20th century, two cities were born that have a great deal in common – despite being far away from each other and existing in completely different political and cultural conditions. Not standard color version Off Series label Start reading Summary In the early 20th century, two cities were born that have a great deal in common – despite being far away from each other and existing in completely different political and cultural conditions. Cover moshe_matosowsky_budowlancy_16.jpg Thumbnail size standardowy
