Tel Aviv-Yafo

In recent years, different cities have risen to global awareness, becoming Global Cities. This common phenomenon is part of some contemporary changes: the process in which the world becomes a Global Village; the information revolution that enables the exposure of cities in various media; and the individual revolution, which led to an increase in leisure time, thus allowing a tourist to visit more cities than ever before. As part of this phenomenon, various cities, including Tel Aviv-Yafo, intended to explore their place in the new world order: what features has each city have in order to draw global attention? What does each city have to offer the world? And what can the world learn from any of these cities?

Tel Aviv-Yafo is a modern city which investigates itself and its place in the world for a few decades now. Its branding as the White City; as a beach, holiday and sea city; as a cultural and economic hub - these are just few of the means Tel Aviv takes in order to become a Global City. In each of these cases, architecture, design and urban planning have taken a major part. In the focus of the attitude towards the buildings built in Tel Aviv in the 1920's and the 1930's stands the architectural history as a mean of branding Tel Aviv as a unique city. The development of the beachfront, which begun at the 1970's, drew the global attention to the city's leisure culture. The inauguration of the new wing in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will surely grant Tel Aviv its place on the global map of art.

The graduates' projects of the Azrieli School of Architecture in Tel Aviv University are related to this phenomenon and intend to observe where Tel Aviv-Yafo needs to be heading for in order to establish its status as a Global City. The observation was done from a critical point of view and with a wish to investigate the consequences and the meaning of branding Tel Aviv-Yafo as a Global City: what is the price the city pays in the process of becoming a Global City? Do all her residents benefit from this process? And can the city leverage itself beyond the processes it has been going through over the past few years? The students' works presented here are a result of a whole year's efforts, in which the student investigated a variety of architectural and planning strategies.

This project, a collaboration of the Azrieli School of Architecture with Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, is first of its kind. On behalf Of the School of Architecture I would like to thank Hila, Eytan and Suzanna from "Tel Aviv Global City" for their full and fertile collaboration and to Tel Aviv Municipality for its support. I hope this project is just the first step in the collaboration between the School of Architecture and Tel Aviv Municipality.

DR. ARCH. ERAN NEUMAN

HEAD OF THE AZRIELI SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE