Panama, Casco Viejo
Panama, Casco Antiguo

Cities are a reflection of the people who lived and built them. There is no doubt about that, as architecture is made to our own meassure and that of our dreams and comforts. Here is an interesting article by journalist David Kaufman at the Financial Times which compares the eclectic styles of Tel Aviv to Panama´s Casco Antiguo.


ECLECTIC AVENUES
By David Kaufman
Published: November 7 2008 19:50 | Last updated: November 7
2008 19:50

South Tel Aviv’s Yehuda Halevi Street is an exercise in urban ­aesthetic contrasts. Located at the meeting point between the Israeli city’s historic, Ottoman-era Neve Tzedek district and modernist, mid-20th century White City, it heaves with compound-like buildings. Many – elegant in their austerity – are designed in pristine Bauhaus style, with form-follows-function façades, port-hole windows and rounded balconies. But, between these boxy beauties, there are unexpected riots of ostentatiousness:
Romanesque columns, Arabic arches and bijoux Venetian balconies. These buildings are startling stand-outs amid the quarter’s clean, calm character – examples of an overlooked but widespread architectural style known as “eclectic”.
Found in cities across the world, from Asia to the Americas, the genre flourished from about 1900 to 1930, just prior to the Bauhaus era, marrying myriad styles that were popular at the time – from neo-Egyptian to renaissance revival, classic Ottoman to art deco and arts and crafts. A result of an early version of globalisation, its ascent can be linked to the mobility of migrants between the various British colonies, who imported and incorporated the cultures they encountered beyond their home shores.

This article can be found at THE FINANCIAL TIMES