Page 15 - The Architecture of Nadler-Nadler-Bixon-Gil

the vein of Tel Aviv’s 1930s modernism – whereas the
red tiled roofs of Ruppin College express the agrarian
ideal at the heart of Israeli culture. This period of rapid
growth and creation ex nihilo of institutions also allowed
the Nadlers and their partners to incorporate influences
arriving from Europe, the United States and South
America into buildings that represented an Israeli type of
“monumentality”; structures built with bare concrete that
defined a new identity, one of integrity, power and security
yet without resorting to national opulence.

Stylistic differences among the many buildings
the firm planned over the years and across the country,
illustrate both changes in Israeli society and the influence
of the architects that joined the Nadlers as partners. Yet
a common feature persists: all of the buildings seem to
emerge like rocks from the ground. Despite the functional
division of structures into separate massive parts, a sense
of organic unity remains throughout.

Shulamit Nadler spoke about some of the
principles that guided the firm from its very beginning.
Above all stands architectural integrity: “We favored
simple and clear designs, with stylistic consistency and
expressions that do not forget their purposes. We strove
for available and open architecture, one that speaks the
same language inside and out.” This succinct remark
describes the character of the firm’s architectural style. It
also explains the Nadlers’ ability to adopt new local and
international architectural concepts, in particular those
arriving with their partners, Shmuel Bixon, Moshe Gil and
Rina Elkon. All along, the firm’s work maintained a deep
organic structure implying a connection with the central
current of the modernist movement.

Besides the organic features – monolithic shapes,
emphasis on the material aspect, and direct connection
to the ground – an overview of the firm’s work reveals
a DNA strand anchored in natural law: a focus on the
construction and functional aspects; a link between the
detail and the whole; an adaptability to processes of
growth and transformation in which the entire planning
system is developed from inside out. These principles,
whose origins are in the early 19th century structural

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