Talk:Architecture of Israel

Avoiding to give a definition. What is ISRAELI architecture? When does it start? 19th century? With Hurva? (Designed by a Turk.) Tiferet Israel? (Probably designed by a Russo-German.) Mea Shearim? (Designed by a German.) Is the architecture of Mandate Palestine part of it? If yes to both questions: how then is it demarcated from the architecture of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt from those periods? Or isn't it?

Is it only architecture designed by Jews who lived past the 1948 moment?

Jewish architects from Tel Aviv were expelled to Damascus & elsewhere during WWI and they have built there. Where do you put that work?

Barluzzi has worked in E & W Jerusalem, on Mt Tabor, but also in Transjordan, Bethlehem, Bet Jala etc.

What do we do with the "eclectic style" architects (our term) who strove to create an "Eretz Israeli style" including Oriental elements, some ancient, but also contemporary ones?

There are International Style buildings from the 30s and 40s, identical in style to those of today's Israel, but standing in Bethlehem, Jericho, Amman.

What is the (Lehi-bombed) town hall of Jaffa, designed by a Jew for a majority-Arab town in Ottoman Palestine?

What is the Palace Hotel (now Waldorf) in Jerusalem? The same as King David Hotel a few 100m away, or not? Both had a mix of Arab & Jewish financiers, owners, construction teams, from architect to chief engineer to construction company. What are the Arab buildings of Baka in Jerusalem and those of the Jewish-Israeli artists colony in Jaffa? Did Ottoman and Arab stone-built city houses have no impact on architecture in Israel? Jewish Israelis love to owe and live in them, but Israeli architects don't take inspiration from the "foreign element"?

DEFINITION FIRST! Then we can fight over how well, or logical, or meaningful it's formulated. As of now, we may as well erase the whole article. And the Architecture of Palestine article together with it. And then start from scratch, working at both in parallel. Arminden (talk) 06:19, 8 November 2020 (UTC)

A few notes, recycling removed material:

• Definition first and foremost. What is the architecture 'of Israel', the sum of all structures standing there? What is by contrast the 'ISRAELI' architecture?
• Ottoman Tanzimat period: representative architecture.
• The Templers introduced modern industrial buildings, hotels, farms and representative community halls, shops and workshops, etc. Not just "homes with tiled roofs like those in the German countryside". They also went with the time, adopting the latest architectural style (see Sarona).
• Templer rural housing as an influence on kibbutz architecture.
• Kibbutz (and moshav) architecture altogether: some of the best architects contributed or fully dedicated themselves to it. Ideology-driven, modular principle allowing for flexibility.
• Are very old buildings part of "the architecture of Israel"? See buildings (mainly ruins, with very few standing structures) from the Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Early Ottoman period.
• Architecture evolves in a certain space, and the 1948 Green Line didn't represent a natural partition, Jerusalem definitely didn't develop separate styles until 1948 in its eastern & western parts.
• Orientalism in the "eclectic" days of Zionist settlement. What kind of Orientalism? Accepted influence from biblical Temple descriptions, Western concept of Egyptian and Mesopotamian styles, not so by local Arab style.
• Change of paradigm driven by immigration, economy, international evolution, other factors.
• Arab housing: the loss of tradition, and what elements can still be recognised.
• The dominance of Moshe Safdie in national and other important projects.
• Imaginative thinking vs hyper-capitalistic development (see Safdie's evolution).
• The "old" moth-balled and preserved as house-sized museum pieces; Zionist narrative.
• Niche architecture: adobe & ecological (workshops, Neo-hippie lifestyle), unusual individual architects.
• Ecology, climate crisis. Arminden (talk) 00:22, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

The architecture of Israel begins with Zionist immigration to Palestine. The local vernacular architecture built by people in Palestine before that is the Architecture of Palestine. See pp. 3 & 39 here as well as the definitions given in Architecture of Palestine#Israeli and Palestinian architecture. This should be made clear in this article. And the info on Lifta belongs at Architecture of Palestine. Tiamut (talk) 08:23, 25 January 2026 (UTC)

Israeli architectural historiography divides Israeli architecture into periods roughly as follows:

1910s-1920s Initially 19th century Oriental Stone or Imaginary 1920s Zionism Eclecticism, Eclecticism painted Orient stucco 1930s-1940s Labor- International White White stucco International oriented modernism architecture on frontier Yishuv (Bauhaus) reinforced concrete 1950s-1960s Statehood New Brutalism Gray Exposed Besieged architecture concrete country 1970s-1980s Post- Neo- Stone Spirit of the into the nationalism modernism Orientalism place

According to Israelizing Jerusalem - The Encounter Between Architectural and National Ideologies 1967-1977 which cites several seminal works on Israeli architecture that would be useful to those who want to develop this page using reliable scholarly sources. Tiamut (talk) 08:39, 25 January 2026 (UTC)

• The Palestinians who built Israel is a review of the book Stone Men which is a good source for this article, describing how originally the local Palestinian labourers, materials and techniques were shunned by Israeli architects seeking to forge a unique modern brand for the newly established state. In the end, it is Palestinian labourers and limestone from Palestine's West Bank that are favored for building now to project antiquity and authenticity. Tiamut (talk) 12:36, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

• On Concrete and Stone: Shifts and Conflicts in Israeli Architecture Tiamut (talk) 16:36, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

Given the recent creation of Architecture of ancient Israel and the fact that the many sources I cited above do not speak of an Architecture of the modern state of Israel as preceding the 20th century, the material currently in the history section should be removed. The architecture of Lifta belongs to the Architecture of Palestine. Tiamut (talk) 11:11, 6 March 2026 (UTC)