The image that Tel Aviv has of itself

In 2009 the department of Interior-Building and Environmental Design at Shenkar Collage of Engineering and Design opened a critical debate about the urban condition of the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo: Tel Aviv – Yafo: Old-New Metropolis. As home to multiple and distinct communities representing a wide array of ethnic, religious, social and political backgrounds, it is a unique metropolis. The past symposium embraced the multi-layered complexity particular to Tel Aviv-Yafo aiming to inspire a new dialogue that would serve as the foundations for re-examining the cultural-spatial dynamics of this city with an eye toward the next 100 years. Considering that the 2009 symposium dealt with issues such as the putative democratization of the city and the dissolution of traditional patterns of social, economic and cultural segregation, our proposal for the 2012 symposium is to reveal and discuss the important questions concerning sustainability and reprocessing architectural culture in the contemporary urban environment of the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Going back to the idea of “spaceship earth” we would like to attempt a visionary awareness to anticipate and mobilize the urban and architectural future of the city by bringing together four different voices that have been and still are studying the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. We find it absolutely fundamental to consider this 2012 dialogue as a work of thematic excavation through the stratification of themes of urban impact such as the condition of movement, mutation and consumption. Guest lecturers: Marco De Michelis, Since 1973 a professor of architecture history at the IUAV University in Venice. He is the new director of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti di Como. It been years that De Michelis is conducting a research on the history and theory of modern architecture, and follows with great attention international architecture especially on the relations between architecture and figurative arts. Born in Venice in 1945, since 1999 until 2008 he was the dean of the faculty of arts and design at the IUAV University in Venice. From 1999 to 2003 he was appointed the Walter Gropius Professor for the history of architecture at the Bauhaus Univesity in Weimar. In 2005 he has been appointed Mellon Senior Fellow at the CCA/Montreal. He has published extensively about contemporary architecture, including Heinrich Tessenow (Stuttgart/DVA and Milan/Electa 1991); Walter Gropius, Ludwig Hilberseimer (special issues of Rassegna, 1983 and 1986); Bauhaus 1919-1933 (Milan/Mazzotta 1996); Luis Barragan (Milan/Skira 2000); Enric Miralles (Milan/Skira 2002). He was the editor of "Ottagono" (1989-1991) and the chief curator at the Triennale in Milan between 1993 and 1996. In 2007-2008 he was a visiting professor at the Cooper Union of New York, and in the New York University Institute of Fine Arts in 2007. Since 2008 he is a visiting professor at Columbia University of New York. Gianluigi Freda Architect, Ph.d in architectural composition at the University of Naples Federico II, author of La collina della primavera. L'architettura moderna di Tel Aviv (FrancoAngeli, 2011). He is conducting both a professional career and research in architecture. Paola Liani Architect and co-founder of Tel Aviv based Paritzki & Liani Architects. Graduated from the I.U.A.V Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia where she also earned her Ph.D. In parallel to her professional activities she has been teaching in different institutions: Tutor Department of Architecture Composition I.U.A.V. Venice; Visiting Tutor M.Arch Department, The Bartlett School of Architecture, London; Visiting Professor Shenkar College of Engineering Tel Aviv. Luca Zevi Architect and urbanist, he worked on the revitalization of Italian historical centers and restoration of antique buildings. In Rome he planned the memorial of the bombing of San Lorenzo in 1943 and the National Museum of the Shoah. For the city of Rome he also contributed a recovery method named as Child scaled city. For the office of foreign affairs he contributed development projects for Albania and El Salvador. He directed The Architects Manual of Architectural Restoration (2003). He was a professor at the University of Rome and Reggio Calabria. Now he occupies with production of renewable energy through large infrastructural structures. In 2012 he was nominated director of the Italian Pavilion on the 13th International Exhibition of Architecture – La Biennale di Venezia. He has published the book Conservazione dell'avvenire, (Quodlibet, 2011).