Housing-Based Urban Planning? Sir Patrick Geddes’ Modern Masterplan for Tel Aviv, 1925

A groundbreaking urban planning approach by Sir Patrick Geddes for Tel Aviv, proposed as early as 1925, is highlighted for its innovative integration of housing and urban structure. This study reveals that Geddes' plan addressed Tel Aviv's pressing housing needs through cooperative neighborhoods based on self-help dwellings, challenging traditional urban planning paradigms. By analyzing three key planning processes—housing as a city problem, social utility for reform, and housing-based urbanization as self-help—the research offers a new historiographic perspective on Tel Aviv’s modern urbanism, emphasizing housing as the fundamental unit of urban living. This approach extends beyond Geddes' era to influence later brutalist housing estates in the 1950s and 1960s, providing insights relevant to broader town planning movements and pre-CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) urban planning practices.

Allweil, Y., & Zemer, N. (2019). Housing-Based Urban Planning? Sir Patrick Geddes’ Modern Masterplan for Tel Aviv, 1925. Urban Planning, 4(3), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v4i3.2182