Description

The wide variety of building types solidified in Bat Yam during the first few decades resembles a pastiche of architectural catalogs. Over the years, Bat Yam has provided space for Israeli social and architectural experimentation. Under the city’s overarching blueprint, Zionism’s narrative unfolded, and so did the everyday tales of city life. Massive investments in real estate in the last decade and effervescent plans for urban regeneration highlight the need to formulate Bat Yam’s unique urban narrative and examine how the elusive Bat Yam character expresses itself. Now is the time to think of Bat Yam as a fascinating place derivative of the Zionist project. It is the right time to think of Bat Yam and cities like it as the front room of Israeli residence, as a display of needs, actions, and the forces at play. It’s time to think of Bat Yam as prose.

Dr. Daphna Levine is an architect and urban renewal researcher. As director of the strategic planning department in the Bat Yam municipality, she led the city’s conservation plan; this book is the product of this fascinating endeavor.

Architecture in Flip-Flops: Bat Yam, 1920-1990
Daphna Levine