Ada V. Segre & Yulia Leonova
In 1934 Erich Mendelsohn was commissioned his first building in Eretz Israel, a villa for Chaim Weizmann, “a president-to-be in a state-to-be”. The outstanding status of the client, the zenith of the glory of the architect, his spiritual affinity with the Land of Israel, the exceptional topography of the site, – everything promised that a masterpiece was going to be created. Later recognized as such, the architecture of Weizmann House has been widely researched; less so, the landscaping of the estate.
While being laid out on a hill proportionate to the house, and organically bound with it, the garden is an inseparable part of the Mendelsohn’s volumetric composition. To date, its design is essentially the same as the original; it illustrates Mendelsohn’ approach to landscape architecture: connections between in and out, up and down, orthogonal and circular, static and dynamic.
The well-known expressionist sketches by Mendelsohn – the two arcs outlining sky and earth encircling the building — are literally embodied in the Villa Weizmann setting.
To reach the villa, one has to undertake a ceremonial entrance through the curving drive, which offers a sequence of changing viewpoints of the south façade, the latter being the most representative.
Amongst the garden’s features, the winding terraces are unique: Mendelsohn referred to them as “amphitheatralischen Terrassen”, as they were displayed in a theatrical formation. There are elements in the garden echoing the architectural forms of the building, amongst them those relating to theatrical forms.
All these, whilst they are characteristic of Mendelsohn’s style, also comply with trends in garden design of the first three decades of the 20th century. Amongst them, the rationalist “architectonic” and the “expressionist” garden inspired by a several metaphysical theories of the milieu of the architect, play a significant role.
To reveal these points, the present contribution is comprised of an outline of the history of the designed landscape, as well as of a description of the garden with its special features. These are contextualized through stylistic analysis and by comparison with other similar Mendelsohn projects. An evaluation of the garden from the conservation perspective, both as part of the whole site and on its own right, is also proposed.
Ada Vittorina Segre, A graduate in ornamental horticulture (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1980), and at the University of Bologna (1986), she specialized in Conservation Studies at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York University (D.Phil 1995), held post-doctoral positions (Technion, 1996), & at the Centre for Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti (Florence, Harvard University, 1997). She has been professionally involved in the conservation of: Secret Gardens at Villa Borghese, Rome and Doria-Pamphilj garden, Genoa & others (1998-2010). She has undertaken research applied to conservation on Templer’s Sarona, White City Gardens, Weizmann Institute landscape, Bialik garden in Tel Aviv, Ramat Hanadiv Memorial Gardens. She teaches Conservation of Historic Landscapes at the Western Galilee College and art history at the Technion (2010-2023).
Yulia Leonova, MA in Art History at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Research: Garden City Movement, Modernism, Expressionism, Crystal Architecture, White City of Tel Aviv, Patrick Geddes, Israeli Brutalism. Content expert in Ideal Spaces Working Group (Karlsruhe). Published articles on: Houses of H. N. Bialik in Tel Aviv and A. M. Gorky in Moscow; Light and shadow in Israeli architecture of the 1930s–1960s; Patrick Geddes’ ‘Inner Gardens’ of Tel Aviv; “Production” of city space by the artists of the early Tel Aviv; etc. Presented at the international conferences in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Porto. Participated in Venice Biennale for Architecture 2018.