Journal of Architectural Education

ISSN: 1046-4883 (Print) 1531-314X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjae20

Narrative-Myth and Urban Design

Iris Aravot

To cite this article: Iris Aravot (1995) Narrative-Myth and Urban Design, Journal of Architectural
Education, 49:2, 79-91, DOI: 10.1080/10464883.1995.10734670

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10464883.1995.10734670

Published online: 22 Aug 2013.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 18

View related articles

Citing articles: 2 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjae20
 Narrative-Myth and Urban Design
Based on the Cassirerean theory that comprehen-
sion in its fullest sense results from a variety of
modes of interpretation, this article discusses the
absence of mythical approaches in urban design.
It proposes a scheme for the construction of "nar-
rative-myths," a concept combining conventional
spheres of urban studies with subjects disre-
garded by professional procedures. The article
presents an experiment with narrative-myth in the
context of Tel Aviv, wherein fourteen texts pro-
duced by graduate students reveal tendencies of
impermanence and transitoriness. Though their
practical implications are a matter of creative in-
terpretation, such tendencies are indispensable
for the understanding of the local urban culture.
1. The image of the self and the critical image in the mirror.
Caricature by Dash . (To Live with the Dream, exhibition at the
Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1989],
p, 222.1
journal ofArchitectural Education, pp. 79-91
© 1995 ACSA, Inc.
IRIS ARAVOT, Technion 1.1. T, Haifa, Israel
THIS ARTICLE REPORTS ON AN EXPERIMENT, A
different approach to urban design, to be re-
ferred to as narrative-myth. Its main purpose
is the comprehension of the urban environ-
ment prior to phases of actual intervention.
The concept was triggered by a feel-
ing frequently expressed by students and
young professionals-namely, that conven-
tional analysis and problem-solving meth-
ods result in fragmentation, stratification,
and disintegration of the authentic experi-
ence of a city. Although it is commonly ac-
cepted that conventional analysis has its
advantages in terms of quantity, objectivity,
and systematization, something of the live-
liness of the city as a singular entity is lost.
Substitution of phenomenal reality for sci-
entific (or pseudoscientific) representations
never explains how the sum total of a city is
greater than its components.
Urban theories closely related to this
position tend to see each city in its own
terms, against the background of its singu-
lar multifaceted history. 1 However, al-
though revealing the complex singularity of
the past seems to be a regular practice
among urban historians, we are less clear
about how to grasp the immediate past or
the uniqueness of here and now. For ex-
ample, although the mutual dependence of
city form, ideology of power, and philo-
sophical theories is acceptable in regard to
the seventeenth century, contemporary po-
litical events seem to be relegated to the
sidelines by current acts of urban design. 2
Many aspects of local culture, the hopes,
beliefs, and general atmosphere of life, are
hardly considered relevant to professional
considerations (Figure 1). Even the concen-
trated expression of these aspects in film,
advertisement, or poetry, for example, are
not part of conventional background stud-
ies for urban design. All urban environment
is studied in similar, professionally conven-
tionalized themes and terms. We expect
79 Aravot
maps and figures to express the differences.
But maps and figures are already normalized
and only partial representations of urban
reality. They fail to grasp the actual authen-
ticity of the urban place. It might be said
that they fail to come to terms with the ge-
nius loci of the city.
Myths and Urban Design 3
Genius loci is a mythical term. In Latin, it
refers to both the guardian spirit of a place
and to the special atmosphere of that par-
ticular place: "Ancient man experienced his
environment as consisting of definite char-
acters. In particular he recognized that it is
of great existential importance to come to
terms with the genius of the locality where
his life takes place. , .. Survival depended on
a 'good' relationship to the place in a physi-
cal as well as a psychic sense. "4
The special attitude of the mythical
human to place and to the world in general
is termed by the philosopher Ernst Cassirer
"the mythical symbolic form." According to
Cassirer, all human culture is the product of
five distinctive "symbolic forms"-that is,
modes in which human beings impose order,
constancy, and meaning on the ever-chang-
ing phenomena of the world. 5 These are
myth and religion, art, language, history, and
science, all of which are equally valid. Each
symbolic form has its own unique perspec-
tive that cannot be reduced to any other.
Renunciation of any symbolic form is virtu-
ally an impoverishment of human ability.
The feature central to mythical inten-
tionality is characterized by Cassirer as the
"sympathy of the whole." "We are in the
habit," Cassirer says, "of dividing our life
into the two spheres of the practical and the
theoretical. ... We are prone to forget that
there is a lower stratum beneath both of
them . Primitive man is not liable to such
forgetfulness .... His view .. . is neither
merely theoretical nor merely practical. ...
It is sympathetic. "6 Thus the mythical per-
spective does not aspire to objectivity or
neutrality bur sees the world as saturated
with emotional qualities . This does not
override learning from experience, and there
is no hint of negation of rationality or of
belief in the absurd: "Myth and primitive
religion are by no means entirely incoher-
ent, they are not bereft of sense or reason.
Bur their coherence depends much more
upon unity of feeling." Most important,
"even in the life of civilized man [myth] has
by no means lost its original power." 7
The academic or professional search
for affinity between architecture (I refer to
urban design as part of architecture) and
other realms tends to exclude myth, perhaps
because "myth as a sacred narrative" is per-
ceived as too embarrassingly indistinguish-
able from legends and fairy tales, and
mythopoe ia-deliberate and conscious
myth making-is seen as too threatening a
retreat to the antirational .8 Still, one of the
paradoxes of architecture (and probably of
all creative activities) is precisely that ratio-
nal investigation reveals its mythical bases,
either as meanings of the architectural arti-
fact or as components of architectural dis-
positions, intentionalities, and approaches.
This is due to the dependence of architec-
tural content and attitude on interpretation
and implementation of values, indispens-
able for the creative act itself, but rationally
rooted only partially and unjustifiable be-
yond a certain limir. 9
Hence two inquiries ensue:
1. An empirical inquiry that should
display, classify, and analyze the essential re-
lationships between myth and mythology
and architecture in various times and places.
It should reveal mythical and mythological
contents, both directive and explanatory, as
November 1995 JAE 49/ 2
well as mythical functions concerning the ar-
chitectural artifact and architectural theory. 10
2. A speculative inquiry about the use
of mythical capacities during the creative
process.
This essay acknowledges the impor-
tance of empirical inquiry both in itself and
as a rationale for speculative inquiry. How-
ever, the intention of the experiment de-
scribed in this essay is not so much to
emulate precedents as to explore the mythi-
cal capabilities of urban designers. It seeks to
open up possibilities, rather than to discuss
what is extant. These possibilities belong to
the sphere of architectural narrative and are
to be employed as endeavors, approaches, or
channels to creativity in architecture.
Narrative and Urban Design
Design approaches with architectural and
urban narrative content have already been
widely acknowledged and legitimized in
postmodernist theories. 11 Prevailing ap-
proaches concentrate on (1) poetry or litera-
ture or (2) "free narration."
The aim of the first approach is to use
poetry and literature as sources for meta-
phors, analogies, symbols, and signs for ar-
chitectural or urban components or
compositions. The passages from narration
to design may be literal or interpretative in
varying degrees, but in all cases the
architect's contribution is neither more nor
less than reading and formal interpretation.
This approach is legitimized essentially by
the common denominator of architecture
and other forms of art.
For example, C. Anthony Antoniades,
an educator, examines the power of various
literary forms as vehicles for the stimulation
of work and as themes of architectural de-
sign. His students produce a "Palace of
80
Odysseus" influenced by Homer, "Sibyl's
Cave and the Infernal Regions" after Virgil's
Aeneid, and so on. 12
The best-known example of this cat-
egory is probably the Danteum by Giuseppe
Terragni Y This unbuilt project, based on
Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, was in-
spired, structured, and directed by Dante's
account of his journey through hell, purga-
tory, and paradise. T erragni himself left
notes of his conceptions in Relazione sui
Danteum (Report on the Danteum). He was
initially inclined to personify architectural
elements but ultimately based the relation-
ship of the Danteum to the Divine Comedy
on mathematical correspondence. He trans-
ferred the numerical divisions of the poetry
to geometric elements and organization in
space. We can compare Terragni's interpre-
tation of this text with that of Stanley
Tigerman. Tigerman 's Bathing Pavilion
Project as Homage to Dante's Inferno
(1980) is a purely metaphoric visualization
as permitted by a large bathroom . 14
In the second approach, "free narra-
tives" are not based on existing texts in lit-
erature and poetry, but are the outcome of
the talent of the designer, who is both the
creator of the narrative and its interpreter.
Sources for characters (components) or
plots (relationships) depend only on the
architect's personal preferences, history, ex-
perience, and so on. Narratives need not
precede architectural design, either logi-
cally or temporally. On the contrary, nar-
rative and design grow dialectically.
Support and the supported or direction
and the directed may exchange places, and
in principle, their themes unfold freely as
the work develops.
An example of this approach is
Lebeus Woods's narrative of an all-embrac-
ing cyclical cosmology wherein Humanity
and Culture are in perpetual movement be-
tween four cities or existential conditions:
the City of Earth (dawn, birth, spring, intu-
ition, socialistic), the City of Fire (noon,
youth, summer, ascent, heroic balance, po-
etry, aristocratic), the City of Air (dusk,
maturity, autumn, artificial, abstract, indi-
vidual, capitalistic), and the City of Water
(midnight, old age, winter, descent, prose,
bureaucratic). 15
A typical example of free narration in
architectural education is presented by Clive
Knights, whose students had to invent vari-
ous narratives of two lovers, a maker of
prosthetics and a maker of jewels, or a
maker of violins and a maker of jewels, for
whom they designed dwellings. 16
The present approach is designed to
explore the issues and scale of urban design
rather than those of a building. It differs
from the foregoing types of narrative in that
it introduces a twofold requirement of the
architect: (1) responsibility for context and
content and (2) subordination to some in-
ternal structural logic. The architect be-
comes the storyteller instead of merely a
reader. At the same time, however, the
architect's investigation and definition of
relevant spheres of life are required as
sources for themes and characters (as op-
posed to personal or random sources).
The plot for such a narrative-myth is
based on the revelation of parallels in the
various spheres oflife in the city under con-
sideration: parallel "characters or relation-
ships as manifested at specific intervals in
time or when undergoing metamorphosis.
The plot must evolve and present a course
or tendency that will channel design or
planning interventions. Of course, parallels,
plots, directions, and tendencies depend on
interpretation, as does the transfer from nar-
rative-myth to specific design.
Thus the specific story of here and
now and the genius loci form the basis of
the present approach. They are the counter-
parts of every narrative-myth.
A Priori and A Posteriori Urban
Narrative-Myths
Like a great work of art, a city at its best has
its unique integrity, its specific nature, and
its particular logic. When revealed, these as-
pects constitute the narrative-myth of the
city, as dependent on social, physical, eco-
nomic, and other "objective" variables as on
interpretative/subjective ones.
"Delirious New York" is an extreme
and successful example of such an en-
deavorY The narrative-myth of Manhattan
is initiated from the recognition of an un-
precedented cultural condition that devel-
oped at the end of the nineteenth century,
first in Coney Island and then in Manhat-
tan-namely, congestion of people, sys-
tems, and technology. This condition gave
rise to three general principles that have spe-
cial architectural and urban implications:
(1) technology as a superior substitute for
nature, (2) continuous multiplication and
rearrangement of functions and places
within the three-dimensional repetitive pat-
tern permitted by the skyscraper, and (3)
imposition of metaphoric models offering
"islands" of emotional shelter. Manhattan,
the brave new metropolis, with the Down-
town Athletic Club and Radio City Music
Hall as prototypes of the three principles,
flourished until the forties, when it failed
due to a profound lack of nerve. However,
as soon as Manhattanism, both as need and
potential, is recognized again, it may be re-
vived and reused, as many conceptual and
practical projects of the Office of Metro-
politan Architecture have been.
This may be considered an a poste-
riori urban narrative-myth: "a posteriori"
because the explanatory/directive narrative
appears, both logically and chronologically,
after the creation of the city itself, and "nar-
rative-myth" because, as with the myths cre-
ated in antiquity, it interweaves a motivated
81 Aravot
set of values with an imaginative/conceptual
order imposed on established facts and pro-
cesses. Like the myths of the ancient
peoples, it does not contradict experience
and common sense (or contemporary scien-
tific knowledge), but it imposes meaning
specifically on what is still inexplicable.
There is, however, another type of ur-
ban narrative-myth, which, though it re-
sembles the previous one in function , differs
very greatly in origin and potential. This sec-
ond type may be called an a priori urban nar-
rative-myth because it is based on an exalted
ideological concept that precedes any practi-
cal confrontation with actual situations.
Cities of extended organic develop-
ment provide fertile soil for a posteriori ur-
ban myths because their urban fabric is
stratified and saturated with detail, frag-
ments, and traces of earlier times and events.
Similar interpretation of newly planned
towns is more difficult, however, because
they are obviously relatively sterile and bare
and are dependent on explicit ideologies.
The Tel Aviv Experiments
Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest city-sometimes
referred to as "the only Israeli city" -is
quite remarkable from the above a priori/a
posteriori point of view. Despite being a
new town (founded in 1909), it provides a
wealth of sources for personal urban my-
thology, and despite its beginning and de-
velopment in a highly ideological milieu, it
has little ideological basis. 18
The Zionist creed has prevented the
establishment of an Israeli urban ideology
and hence the creation of an inclusive Israeli
urban narrative-myth. Although nineteenth-
century utopias like Theodor Herzl's
AltNeuland outlined urban visions, they re-
mained in the realm ofliterature. 19 After the
first world war, and with the rise of a local,

-
I<.HUH HAVfi()O
iJ ER.U.IAlBl
111111111""~.............-...:~a.:'~.-,.~......
, .• :!.
3. The 1932 image of Tel Aviv: a young energetic city of
workers. Poster for the first page of Keren Hayesod foundation
booklet. (To Live with the Dream, exhibition at the Tel Aviv
Museum, curator: Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 19891. p. 26.)
2. The Zionist pioneer (halutz) with his girl and as a lonely figu re
in the city. Wood engravings by P.K. Hoenich, 1938. !To Live
with the Dream, exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, curator:
Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 19891. p. 76.1
4. An advertisement for cigarettes inspired by Soviet images of
socialist youth. The background presents a progressive
agricultural setting. Even in the fifties, urbanism was looked on
as a hindrance to the creation of a new and healthy society. (To
Live with the Dream, exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, curator:
Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 19891. p. 42.1
November 1995 JAE 49/2 82
agriculturally oriented socialism, such uto-
pias were relegated to the margins of the Zi-
onist creed. Urbanism was looked on as a
hindrance to the creation of a new and
healthy society free from the restrictions and
deficiencies of the Diaspora (Figures 2 to 4).
Against this background, Tel Aviv
was a very unusual phenomenon. Its growth
from Ahuzat Bayit, the European neighbor-
hood of Jaffa, to the largest city in Israel
arose from sheer necessity rather than from
ideological preferences (Figure 5). Thus Tel
Aviv originally had no relation to a recom-
mended model or to a general urban myth.
Today, eighty-six years after its foun-
dation, an existential understanding of the
city, of its nature and being, apart from
fragmentary statistics and documented
events, encourages the production of a pos-
teriori narrative-myths.
While working with rwo groups of stu-
dents in 1989 and 1991, I proposed adopting
this position as a starting point for overall
interpretations of Tel Aviv. Several teams
were encouraged to put forward a posteriori
narrative-myths for the city to reveal systems
of specific laws that explain and link existing
phenomena. The students were free to draw
on any fields of knowledge, from prehistory
to politics, from the arts to philosophy. The
only requirement was to examine the wealth
ofTel Aviv phenomena as far as possible and
to link the objects or events selected by
means of some particular law or formula.
The working method was empirical
and deductive in accordance with the fol-
lowing scheme:
1. Background studies for the plan-
ning of Tel Aviv according to conventional
spheres of urban studies (that is, demo-
graphic aspects, land use, densities, statutory
data, economic data, etc.) and one additional
aspect (politics, ideologies, media-includ-
ing television and newspapers-light music,
 \II Nll'llll":"l :"11'1"\11 1'1ll'1,:"1 5. Speculations on future changes de-
•.._..l 1909-1948
riving from the examination and correla-
I

I tions, was expected.

I

I 6. Stages 3 to 5 could include an

'.\
I
analogous modeL

\
0 400 800
., l;;;;;;;t::::j
5. Tel Aviv from 1909 to 1948. Its growth from Ahuzat Bayit,
the European neighborhood of Jaffa, to the largest city in Israel
arose from sheer necessity rather than from ideological
preferences. (llan Shchori , The Dream Turned to a Metropolitan
[Tel Aviv: Avivim , 19901. p. 199.1
Thus the narrative-myths of Tel Aviv
had to be interpretations of the reality, not
opposed to facts bur through rhe discovery of
a specific order in the ever-changing flux of
the metropolis. As in "Delirious New York, "
the participants were nor restrained by para-
digmatic distinctions between the relevant
and the irrelevant, nor were they biased by
professional consensus about the good, the
true, and the worthy. T hey were required to
extract Tel Aviv's unique narrative. Thenar-
rative-myth had to be constructed logically,
rather as a scientific generalization is based
on empirical research. As with a scientific
theory, the narrative had to provide an expla-
nation of the extant as well as a direction for 6. The poor ecological condition of the Yarkon Stream. (Omri
the prospective. Yavin, Tel Aviv: A Legendary City [Tel Aviv: Kineret, 19891. p. 45.1

The Narrative-Myths
publicity, the arts---cinema, literature, paint- (Figure 7) and were replaced by a variety of
ing, etc.-were suggested). For sources, the Twenty-nine students produced fourteen "in" celebrations, from restaurants and pubs
students could use professional and other myths of Tel Aviv. Of these, seven were cre- to art and literature (Figure 8).
texts, personal observation, documentation, ated against the background of the climax of Tolerance beside lack of persistence,
and interviews. (Most of those involved had the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising). The easy acceptance, and easy desertion, exist-
prior acquaintance with the city, as their rest were written immediately after the Per- ence within a maze of changing concepts
hometown, a place of entertainment, or a sian GulfWar. and realizations (Figure 9)-all these are the
study project.) The narrative "The Secular Town foci of the myth "Kaleidoscope" by S. Ben-
2 . Choice of additional aspect of which Suffocated the Sand" by I. Sobel re- Shem. This is hardly surprising, forT el Aviv
study was requested, and as much docu- views the modifications of the Tel Aviv im- is a city of polyglot immigrants and provin-
mentation as possible of Tel Aviv phenom- age, which evolved from the naive, popular cial Israelis, each with his or her own ideas
ena according to this selection. approach into media and political images, and reasons for becoming part of the kalei-
3. Students were required to examine culminating in the "City which never stops" doscope of possibilities. (One of the most
all phenomena and to find a common de- (the slogan of the last municipal elections) . popular images here is Tel Aviv/New York,
nominator, trend, or "rule" which explains During the metamorphosis, an image of Figure 10.)
their existence. "Tel Avivness" was constantly culrivared, The narrative "Between Destiny and
4. A correlation between the exami- exalting the transient and artificial over the Fate" by R. Gerd and E. Zilberman reveals
nation and the conventional aspects of natural and historic (Figure 6). Earlier im- lifelike cycles rooted in the dualism Tel (de-
broader urban phenomena was sought. ages and values were rejected as nostalgic noting the past, archaeology, death) and

83 Aravot

niT nn -r---,~
7. A "revolving wedding cake," a caricature of Agam's 1970s ~t IP • 0~1
addition to Tzina (Dizenggof) Square, which had been a symbol
of Tel Aviv in the forties. (Qmri Yavin, Tel Aviv: A legendary City LEVA NT FAIR
[Tel Aviv: Kineret, 19891. p. 39.)
7-lOAPRIL 1932.
9. Idealization of the concept of the levant. Levant Fair poster,
1932.
10. 1965 elections poster. showing Hollywood inspiration. (To
Live with the Dream, exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, curator:
Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1989), p. 202.)
8. A variety of "in" celebrations, from restaurants and pubs to
art and literature . Yirmiahu Street. (Omri Yavin, Tel Aviv: A
legendary City [Tel Aviv: Kineret, 19891. p. 25.)
November 1995 JAE 49/2
Aviv (meaning "spring," that is, new
growrh, budding). Threatened by its ghosts,
including Arab Jaffa (Figure 11), the ciry on
the cliff abandoned by the founders ofTel
Aviv who set out to build the Ahuzat Bayit
neighborhood (Figure 12), the ciry is seek-
ing life, potential, the future. Any phenom-
enon that might be interpreted as aging or
as approaching "natural" death is quickly
eliminated. Within each cycle, the process
of searching and hunting is accelerated and
intensified until everything is discarded be-
fore it matures . Things die before realiza-
tion, maintaining an eternal potential. The
climax of the process, identified as "birth of
a dead embryo," returns the cycle to its be-
ginning. Architectural illustrations are the
Tel Aviv port, which only functioned for a
few months, and the new central bus sta-
v-i'>__...., tion, which has never been used at all. 20
The threat of the Tel evokes the am-
TEL·AVIV bivalent attitudes to the traditional Jewish
legacy-that is, the secular ciry versus reli-
gious tradition, celebration of the present
versus the "hope of two thousand years,"
which is expressed in our national anthem:
in other words, an ongoing condition of
impermanence and search for fulfillment.
The myths "Searching Tel Aviv" by
A. Meiroz, "Dreams" by M. Levy (Figure
13), and "Longing" by H . Lusky and D.
Azrieli (Figure 14) review dreams, ideas, and
ideals that flourished in the ciry and were
then abandoned. Seeking and searching oc-
cur in art and architecture, in education and
ideology. Changing sryles and beliefs aim at
achieving the local Israeli secular as opposed
to the Jewish and sacred-that is, the es-
sence of "Tel Avivness." Secular, place, plas-
ticity, and visualization are opposed to the
biblical imperative that forbade the creation
of graven images and idols. Israeli architec-
ture, Israeli art, and Israeli theater all express
a striving toward identity, to be located
somewhere between the traditional and the
84
 11. Arab Jaffa of the nineteenth century. IShlomo Shva, Rising from the Sands [Tel Aviv: Zmora,
Bitan, 19891, p. 13.)

·.-·- 1;.;~)::·..-· .. _ ..

.. ·. · ""
. :-
~..:.-

13. Urban nightmares: collage of Tel Aviv buildings. IM. Levy,

"Dreams" narrative-myth.)

12. The foundation of Ahuzat Bayit. !Drawing by Sharon Ben Shem, after the original photo in llan
Shchori, The Dream Turned to a Metropolitan [Tel Aviv: Avivim, 19901, p. 17.1

14. Foundation on sand and the image of the white city. (H.
Lusky and D. Azrieli, "Longing" narrative-myth.)

85 Aravot
 __
.....,......._
.............,..,..............
.,._. __. ....,.._
,.............,
............ .,._.,....,....
--·----
..__
...........................
·-W...,_""""IP7\--
-w ... ,. _,...._,_
_,.,._ ....
ra..-.,._.,_
__ ~

" .. . _ . _ . , . . _ _ _\l'mll

... ---
....... _ ............. .....,.-.w-
... ...... ,...""""IPt .....
~

..... . ,....,.
..,...,._
------~~-
,., _,,_,'""
.,.__~ _

_., ____ ...

._.. --.---
;:::.::.-~=== _,_~

__...,_,..........................-
__,.
_,_
. ~Q~I;il
,..._ .. .,1'11 .......P"'W,.......,._
-~---

...,..._ ...,..
............. _... ....__
__ _.,

.... ....
~
'
D
_
.
.
,
.
.
.
_
.......
--~ ~

......
......... ...,.........
---"'--_,.,.._
~----­
____
_,.., ___
___
....
._ .
.,..
_.
,_......-_
• _..""" ... .,. • .......,

...... .........
..........
...
.,..._,._
...._,.
......... ~=""'-'="'

.............___........
~-------
:c.~--====::
....,.,..
.,_,....,.._.,..,. ..,_ .,_ __
-
_.,.._.._~
........

15. Hydrophobia based on biblical texts is offered as an

explanation for Tel Aviv's orientation away from the sea. (0.
Halaf and Y. Levy, "The Conquest of the Sea" narrative-myth .)

16. Recent projects for the reclamation of the shore at Tel Aviv
are interpreted as a victory over the primordial enemy. (0. Halaf
andY. Levy, "The Conquest of the Sea" narrative-myth.)

November 1995 JAE 49/2 86


17. Collage representing ecological catastrophe. IS. Tsarlati
and A. Rapoport, " A Besieged Town" narrative-myth.)
modern and between the local and rhe uni-
versal.
Two thousand years of longing for
the city of]erusalem vitiated the capacity to
realize and left the founders totally unable
to come to terms with constructing a city on
the coast-the basic situation ofTel Aviv.
This is the principal theme in "The Con-
quest of the Sea" by 0. Halaf andY. Levi.
Ancient concepts of fear of the ocean and
the tradition of the abstract are offered as
explanations for Tel Aviv's orientation away
from the sea (Figure 15) . All of the main
arteries run parallel to the coast, none actu-
ally leads to the sea. Recent projects for rec-
lamation of the shore at Tel Aviv are
interpreted as a conquest, as a victory over
the primordial enemy (Figure 16).
Degeneration, change, and constant
seeking for the still unattained are closely
examined in "A Besieged Town" by S.
Tsarfati and A. Rapoport. The myth exam-
ines events in an apocalyptic era (Figure 17).
Pessimistic conclusions about the tenuous-
ness of the present situation are intended to
arouse moral accounting in such diverse ar-
eas as architecture and politics.
The political reality of Israel had little
influence on the myths, perhaps because Tel
Aviv is not where political events and clashes
occur, but rather where they are reduced and
subsumed to concept and polemic. How-
ever, one narrative-"Natural Separation"
by H . Koby, D. Zehavi, and U . On-fo-
cuses on a stratification reminiscent of Fritz
Lang's film Metropolis. As in a kaleidoscope,
all of the configurations are extremely un-
stable.
Conclusion
The experiments with narrative-myths can
be considered from three different points of
view: (1) as a way to exploit mental capaci-
ties that are, to a certain extent, neglected as
a result of the current domination of scien-
tific thought; (2) as a methodology for a
more extensive and profound understand-
ing of urban environments; and (3) as ap-
plied specifically to Tel Aviv.
Regarding the enhancement of the
mental capacities of the urban designer or
planner, the central question is why this
should be desirable. Following Cassirer, it is
my position that the renunciation of mythi-
cal capacity implies renunciation of a
unique mode of rendering the world closer
and more meaningful. 2 1 It is a perspective
that preserves the physiognomic aspect of
things as well as our emotional response to
them. No other human capacity, not even
that which establishes scientific approaches,
can offer substitutes or improvements for
the mythical capacity. Exploring our mythi-
cal capacity binds us to life in its most im-
mediate and vital manifestations. 22
The proposal of narrative-myth as a
methodology for urban studies also raises
questions like these: What sort of under-
87 Aravot
standing is added by this approach? Why
can't it be achieved through conventional
modes of urban studies? How is this addi-
tional understanding incorporated into the
urban planning or design process?
This article suggests that even before
formal-physical interpretation, the narrative-
myth has a central hermeneutical task of
clarifying the existential aspects of living in a
particular city at this particular time (Figure
18) . The understanding to be achieved
thereby is similar to Verstehen, a term used by
Max Weber and neo-Kantian philosophers to
denote understanding from within by means
of empathy, intuition, and interpretation, as
opposed to knowledge from without by
means of observation and analysis.
This understanding is neither achieved
nor sought by conventional urban studies
largely because urban studies aspire to scien-
tific objectific; that is, they regard the urban
sphere as an object. Scientific objects are
basically those that can be broken down
into components and relationships, prefer-
ably quantifiable ones. Such analysis is ex-
haustive in that nothing remains hidden or
veiled. The parts and the whole are com-
pletely open to derailed description that re-
veals correlation and causation. As opposed
to this, Verstehen is continuous because the
hermeneutic cycles are endless. Therefore,
narrative myths are contributions to the
Verstehen of urban places even though there
is always room for further understanding
and interpretation.
With this general recognition of con-
textual values in urban design, a process is
initiated that brings to mind paradigms and
their predetermined and limited concerns. 23
By creating the narrative-myth, it is hoped
to broaden, implement, and ultimately le-
gitimize new concerns as contextually rel-
evant in urban design. Using a Cassirerean
terminology, we would say that urban de-
sign should lean on all five symbolic forms,
 19. "Refugees on the Alenby Bridge" by Ruth Schlos, 1967.
Despite differences in political climate, life in Tel Aviv continues
its usual celebration . (To Live with the Dream, exhibition at the
Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Batia Donner. [Tel Aviv: Dvir, 19891,
p. 248.)

and narrative-myth can be regarded as the

contribution of the symbolic form "myth."
There is no single recommended way
to incorporate narrative-myth into profes-
sional and practical activities. Rather, it is a
method emphasizing negative and positive
values of a specific urban society and its
"ethno-logic"-the structure of reasoning of
decision-making agents in that urban soci-
ety.24 There may be several systems that in-
corporate the values emphasized by a
narrative-myth, just as there may be innu-
merable systems that incorporate social jus-
18. Ahuzat Bayit, the first Tel Aviv neighborhood . Drawing by the poet and artist Nahum Guttman ,
circa 1920. His images of the "Little Tel Aviv" were frequently used by the students to contradict tice, equality, and other values. These may
present images. be evaluated, for example, according to their
utility. This article, however, is not con-
cerned with the evaluation of urban values
and ways to incorporate them-neither in
principle nor specifically for Tel Aviv.
Hence, it is hardly relevant to look for pre-
determined means of putting narrative
myths into practice.
The narrative-myths of Tel Aviv were
created in 1989 and 1991. Despite the dif-
ferences in political climate at these times-
in 1989 during the "Intifada," life in Tel
Aviv continued its usual celebration, whereas
20. The "White City" image was created by the Bauhaus-style architecture of the thirties. (For
during the Gulf War, Tel Aviv for the first
example, Karoscal House by Richard Kaufman, 1930-31) !WHITE CITY, Exhibition at the Tel Aviv time became the target of long-range mis-
Museum [Tel Aviv: Museum Publication, 1984, 1986], p. 22.)

November 1995 JAE 49/2 BB

 siles, which made this formerly safe haven
the most dangerous sector in the country-
there was little noticeable difference in the
themes of the myths (Figure 19). For all of
their variery, the notions of impermanence
and transitoriness are nonetheless the exis-
tential experience that they have in common.
These are the two basic values that form the
common denominator of the narrative-
myths created in the experiments. Tel Aviv
has been erected on sand, and as in an arche-
typal metaphor of moving sand, so it is with
the city. It is continuously changing accord-
ing to specific rules, as interpreted by the cre-
ators of the narrative-myths. What should be
done with such values, is a different issue.
To summarize, a narrative-myth pro-
vides glimpses at the actuality of a city as in-
terpreted by a specific person at a specific
time. The imaginary sum total of all narra-
tive-myths is probably the truest description
of a city. However, because this sum total is
in constant fluctuation, it is beyond the grasp
of conventional methods of learning, under-
standing, and design and planning processes
because conventional methods are based on
constancy, generalization, fixedness, order,
and everything for which "objectivity"
stands. As opposed to that, narrative-myths
exploit subjectivity. This, however, does not
necessarily lead to solipsism, but to an
intersubjective Verstehen. It is my conviction
that no trodden ways to exploit narrative-
myths can be offered; every individual can
and should find his or her own way toward
authentic interpretation of a city.
Notes
I. Lewis Mumford, The City in History (Lon-
don: Marrin Seeker and Warburg, 1961); and Eiler
Rasmussen Steen, London: The Unique City (1934)
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
2. Mumford, City in History, chaps. 12, 13.
This is not to be confused with "community architec-
ture" and other movements and strategies rhar aim at
the empowerment of urban design users. It goes with-
out saying that every instance of public participation
in urban design processes has political significance.
This article, however, refers to the exclusion of politi-
cal events that otherwise fill in our everyday life but
are not connected specifically tO one urban design
project or irs users .
3. The author thanks Professor Brian Goodey
for referring her to the meaning of urban myth in texts
by urban folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand. His concept
is of the enduring folktale translated to the urban set-
ting in the United States and does not overlap with the
present use of the term myth in the context of urban
design. See Jan Harold Brunvand, The Vanishing
Hitchhiker: Urban Legends and Their Meanings (Lon-
don: Picador, 1983); and Jan Harold Brunvand, The
Choking Doberman and Other "New" Urban Legends
(New York and London: W. W . Norton & Company,
1984).
4. Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci
(New York: Rizzoli, 1980).
5. Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (New York:
Bantam, 1970).
6. Ibid., p. 90.
7. Ibid., p. 89.
8. Jeoffrey Broadbent, Design in Architecture
(Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, 1973).
9. I. Aravot, "Architectural Arrifacts and Their
Linear Justification," journal ofArchitectural Planning
and Research 8/1 (Winter 1991): 11-23.
I 0. See, for example, Iris Aravot, "Interpreta-
tions of Myth in Contemporary Architectural Writ-
ing," journal ofArchitectural Planning and Research
(forthcoming, 1995).
II. For a wide range of examples, see C. An-
thony Antoniades, Poetics of Architecture: Theory of
Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990).
12. Ibid ., pp. 107-119.
13. T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum (New
York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1985).
14. Stanley Tigerman, Stanley Tigerman:
Buildings and Projects, 1966-1989, ed. S. Mollman
Underhill. (New York: Rizzoli, 1989) .
15. Lebeus Woods, "Architecture, Conscious-
ness and the Mythos of Time," A.A. Files 7 (Summer
1984): 3-13.
16. Clive Knights, "In Defense of Metaphor,"
in Michael Linzey, ed. Writing, History, Architecture,
Myth: Proceeding ofPaper Conference (Auckland, New
Zealand: University of Auckland, 1991), pp. 239-54.
17. Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York (Lon-
don: Thames and Hudson, 1978).
BS Aravot
18. For example, The White City exhibition at
the Tel Aviv Museum (Figure 20), curator: Levin
Michael. WHITE CITY Exhibition at the Tel Aviv
Museum. (Tel Aviv: Museum Publication, 1984,
1986) .
19. Theodor Herzl, Alt-Neuland (1903). He-
brew translation: Sokolov Naum, "Tel-Aviv."
(Vienna.)
20. The new central bus station, with irs six
floors of commercial facilities, finally became opera-
rive in 1993, but economists already analyze irs failure
as a shopping center.
21 . Cassirer, Essay on Man.
22. For example, when we experience urban
places as giving a sense of "hereness," "enclosing,"
"friendliness," "dreadfulness," etc.
23. A prominent example is the modernist ap-
proach, as defined in the Athens Charrer. See Le
Corbusier, The Athens Charter (Grossman, 1973).
24 . Eric Cohen and Ari E. Ben, "Hard
Choices: A Sociological Perspective on Value Incom-
mensurability," Human Studies !6 (Winter 1993):
267-97.
Appendix
The following are three abstracts of the stu-
dents' narrative-myths of Tel Aviv. They
were selected principally because of the rela-
tively large number of phenomena they in-
corporate . The abstracts are presented
through quotations from the students' origi-
nal texts. (Translation from Hebrew by the
author. Comments in square brackets are
the author's.)
':A Besieged Town " by S. Tsarfoti and
A . Rapoport
Deriving alternative areas of study from the
political situation in Israel during the last
decade, the text "A Besieged Town" uses
Beirut and Lebanon as an analogy. (Beirut,
formerly known as the Monte Carlo of the
Middle East, has become a focus of threat
and destruction.) This work on Tel Aviv was
written before the Gulf War-that is, when
there was not a single collective memory of
an armed strike against the city. The abstract
skips the list of political events (phenomena
from the selected sphere of interest) and con-
centrates on the last phase of the work: the
hypothesis (based on the phenomena) and
predictions drawn from it. "The Siege" de-
picts an existential feeling at the time of writ-
ing (especially due to parallels with Beirut in
Lebanon) as well as being under siege due to
a future concentration of a large proportion
of Israelis in Tel Aviv after the Palestinian
State is established. The prediction is based
on a fictional diary of future events.
Hypothesis: Tel Aviv reflects Israeli
society in search of easy and temporary so-
lutions, both local and provisional, as a
record of expression of lack of faith in per-
manence and in the remote future .... The
city refuses to acknowledge its situation and
position, not just from the physical aspect
[facing away from the sea, the Yarkon River,
and the old ciry of Jaffa] but also culturally.
... Siege is extinction, imprisonment. In
such a case, the citizens must question their
physical and emotional preparedness in
times of stress and need.
Prediction: [in the form of diary of fu-
ture events]: The government has ordered its
employees to leave their offices in Jerusalem
and to relocate in a new government enclave
in northern Tel Aviv .... The residents of
Maalei Adumim completed their transfer to
Tel Aviv today .. . . Today, 15,732 people
were permitted to enter the city.... It was
only a question of when this invasion would
occur because the city has now expanded to
the outer limit of its capaciry.... Beneath the
surface, rumors and threats have begun to
circulate. Foreigners have commandeered all
the water resources .... The foreign immi-
grants are changing the character of the ciry.
... The municipaliry has decided to eject the
squatters from the green avenues. High walls
are being constructed on each side, and access
is only permitted once a month, to groups
not exceeding one hundred and for only one
November 1995 JAE 49/2
hour at a time ... . The Ayalon River will be
flooded for the fifth stage of defense and
against invasion ... Barriers have been con-
structed on all bridges over the Ayalon and
the Yarkon. Nobody is allowed to enter the
city ... Groups of armed youths have re-
cruited hotheads and fanatics in order to cre-
ate disturbances .... The authorities have
created "Tel Aviv Islands," which are cor-
doned off and heavily guarded by the Civil
Guard and private security organizations ....
Sirens sounded a continuous note
. . . the enemy is advancing from the north.
. .. The approach of the enemy is constantly
discussed.
"Between Destiny and Fate" by R. Gerd and
E. Zilberman
In the text, "Berween Destiny and Fate," R.
Gerd and E. Zilberman chose for additional
study a specific review ofTel Aviv's urban
history: destruction of buildings and institu-
tions. The analogy here was psychological.
Hypothesis by analogy: Two forces
have been operating in the ciry since it was
founded: (1) youth and flowering (Aviv)
and (2) age and death (Tel). These opposing
forces promote conflict. This is resolved by
a cyclical process wherein fear of aging leads
to premature death of places in the city so
that they can be remembered as always
young. The process expands until the situa-
tion is reached where "tels" (artificial mau-
soleums) are created. After this stage, the
process recommences. In consequence, a
further process is observed in the city: the
destruction oflandmarks that express hope-
lessness of renewal. The new landmarks are
in themselves symbols of contemporary
progress.
Illustration: In the existence of Tel
Aviv, from its establishment until today, we
have identified three cycles, starting with
conflict and ending with creation of tels.
90
1.) From the rwenties to the forties:
Example of a place that ceased to function
before its time: the Casino (1923-1933) .
Example of the creation of a tel: the Levant
Fairgrounds, which became obsolescent af-
ter three years. An old landmark that was
destroyed: Gymnasia Herzlia (the first high
school in Tel Aviv). A new landmark: the
Shalom Tower (commercial offices and
stores), originally the tallest building in the
Middle East.
2.) From the fifties to the seventies:
Examples of the creation of tels: the South-
ern Railway Terminal, which has hardly
functioned since it was constructed, and
Kikar Hamedina (The State Plaza), the cen-
ter of which is 200 meters in diameter,
which has been standing idle for thirty years.
Example of the destruction of an old land-
mark: the new Dizengof circus, a concrete
construction covering the intersection of
four streets, with a kinetic sculpture of water
and fire, replaces the old circle at ground
level, with a circular pool in the middle.
3.) From the beginning of the fifties
to the present day: Constant change of"in"
and "out" venues. Examples of the creation
of tels: the Atarim Plaza (a deck of restau-
rants and cafes on the shore over a roadway,
with parking and two stories of shops;
sparse activity: the commercial floors are
unused), and the new Central Bus Station,
which has never functioned. Examples of an
exchange of landmark: The City Gardens
Mall, a commercial center and exclusive
high-rise condominium, which replaces the
zoological gardens.
"The Conquest of the Sea" by 0. Halafand
Y. Levi
The additional sphere of study for the text
"The Conquest of the Sea" by 0. Halaf and
Y. Levi, was Israel's ancient history. No
analogy was suggested.
Hypothesis: Judaism, the "hydropho-
bic" culture that emphasizes the verbal-
conceptual and rejects the visual-aesthetic,
produced a coastal city that turns its back
to the sea.
Illustration: The story of Tel Aviv is
the story ofTel Aviv and the sea, which did
not start with the new city builders, but in
ancient times .... The biblical tradition de-
picts the conquest of sea monsters and the
total authority of the Deity over the giants
of the creation .. . . "On that day will the
Lord smite with his strong and mighty
sword the leviathan, and the crooked sea-
serpent, and slay the crocodile of the sea"
(Isaiah, kaf-zayin, A-B) . . .. Only this cul-
ture Oudaism] has the Tora [The Law] ...
and has become a paradigm of verbal tradi-
tion without physical affinities to place ....
With the establishment of the first Hebrew
city [Tel Aviv] .. . originally a suburb with
a strong Eastern European tradition, ... the
sea was not acknowledged as a potential as-
set. During the twenties, the mayor [Meir
Dizengof] claimed that Jews had not the
slightest interest in sea-bathing. Industry
was more important. Accordingly, a large
area of the shore was appropriated for in-
dustry, and only poor immigrants con-
structed a few miserable huts there. Indeed,
the sea was regarded by pioneers as no more
than a sewage dump for the city.... Tel
Aviv considered the ocean as an obstacle to
its construction, faced away from the shore,
and identified the broad thoroughfares run-
ning parallel to the sea [Dizengof, Ben-
Yehuda, etc .] as its real assets . . . . The
91 Aravot
history of Tel Aviv indicates that a similar
attitude applied to the Yarkon and to nature
in general. . .. Geddes's apartment block
had a tiny garden in the center and, for bet-
ter protection, the buildings were raised on
stilts. In time the garden became a public
shelter. The waters of the Yarkon, as they
flowed to the sea, were returning to the
desert [The National Water Carrier
Project] . . .. The river became a dirty,
brown, stinking strip. In the new city plan,
Tel Aviv conquers the seashore and converts
it into dry land [hotels-among them the
project "Gateway to the Sea," designed by
Safdie, which includes an airport and artifi-
cial islands].