Geddes Gardens
Tel-Aviv
Research & Survey
Client: Tel-Aviv-Jaffa municipality
& Liebling Haus - White City Center
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
2018-2021
In collaboration with Arch. Adi Har-Noy
HaNevi'im garden, 1938. Photographer: Zoltan Kloger. Source: Israel's archives.
The research was commissioned in 2018 by the Conservation Unit & White City Research Center, City of Tel Aviv. It focuses on the 'block gardens' in Patrick Geddes's 1925 plan for the city. Perhaps more than any of the plan's components, these gardens reflect Geddes’s unique vision for the relationship between society and nature in the 'Garden City'.
The research used historic maps, archival documents and newspaper articles, and charts the complex regulatory mechanisms which over years allowed significant changes to most gardens. The 1925-1926 versions of the Geddes plan are compared land ownership data, drawing conclusions as to the blend of conceptual and real-life considerations which shaped the Geddes gardens as we know them today. A detailed survey of each of the gardens and their connecting ‘Rose and Vine Lanes’ analyzes and outlines the gardens' significance and their future potential within the evolving city of Tel Aviv.