Brutalism in Israel

Israel adopted brutalism with unusual conviction in the 1960s, as a young state building institutions at speed found that raw concrete suited both its budget and its climate. Deep brise-soleil, shaded courtyards and heavy sculptural massing became a national idiom, visible across university campuses in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheba. The desert city of Beersheba in particular was planned as a laboratory of concrete experiment.

The most radical strand came from Alfred Neumann and his students Zvi Hecker and Eldar Sharon, whose polyhedral geometries produced the Dubiner Apartment House (1963) in Ramat Gan. Arieh Sharon, author of the state's first master plan, moved from Bauhaus roots toward monumental concrete institutions, while Michael Nadler and Shulamit Nadler designed major civic and university buildings. Libraries, laboratories and memorials from this period still define the look of Israeli public architecture.