Page 68 - Designing Ways 238

EVENTS

Contemporary Art Gallery

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

et in a former print factory at enforcing a mythic – out of the sands
the southern end of Tel Aviv, this tabula rasa modernism - as the history of
Sintervention within an existing Tel Aviv has been branded with, we were
industrial building explores the looking at its bastard forms that emerge
boundaries and potentials of re-use as a out of the TLV Jaffa hybrid at the places
design brief. The building on 117 Herzl of its overlap and seam. Not black, or the
Street was a mediocre architectural ‘authentic’ of romantic Oriental’s, nor the
product in the positive sense of the word. white of the conscripted modernism, but
It had other qualities too, being practical, dirty ‘bastard’ or mongrel modernism,
average, unremarkable, generic, and emerging not out of clear ideologies but
faded. But in fact, its actual neutrality out of the confusions and contradictions
allowed a major intervention that did not of urban life.
suffice with a mere facelift and the creation Thus, the gallery design is based on a
of a polished art space. On the contrary, ‘hot-cold’ interaction between extremes.
the intervention was set out to tackle Potential tensions are mapped, then
the existing building with contemporary highlighted: new versus old; sensual
tools and concepts aimed at manifesting versus alienated; exposed versus hidden;
the conflict between the found object/ high versus low; shining versus dim; clear
building, and the new use inserted into it. versus opaque; open versus closed; clean
The tension raised between these versus dirty. This, for us, is the city of Tel
two extremes can be described as a Aviv.
new category of space. Rather than re-

68 Issue 238 • dw