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Tel Aviv's Central Bus Station is like a stone cast into the water, making waves and circles in space and time. This chain reaction might change the reality of Southern Tel Aviv, but also of the entire city, seeing that the building has no beginning and no end. Road and sidewalk collide into the Station, creating one big living-and-breathing system, ever-changing and developing. The different ‘joints’ designed as part of the Station’s body can reach out into the surrounding neighborhoods and give them life but also destroy them, as would an elephant in a china shop.

LOOK FOR THE BLUE PATH

Human civilization is reflected at its most flourishing in this ‘greenhouse’ that is Central Station; a positive, infinite “Pandora’s Box”, in which anyone can search for an identity and come to life anew inside the intense social action referred to as “city-life”.

LOOK FOR THE PURPLE PATH

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Very little information is given to the architects regarding the psychological aspects that are to be included in the general planning of a Central Station, which is the densest concentration of human traffic within a city, flooding its gates by tens of thousands during peak hours. The architects are to give shape and form to this urban reality as it unfolds every day and hour and thus create an experience which is as friendly and structured as possible.  The buildings of a modern city intersect and become multi-functional, creating small cities within the big one, a kind of “Indoor Metropolis”.

LOOK FOR THE GREEN PATH

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LOOK FOR THE PINK PATH

The station mirrors society at its most dynamic, pushing the individuals out of their personal zone and requiring an immersion of self into the broader social framework – one which can easily become a befogging labyrinth, blurring personal identity with the system.

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LOOK FOR THE ORANGE PATH

The station is no place of social etiquette but one of function and operation, and of pure and simple joy; a kind of urban ‘living-room’ bursting with colors and flavors reflecting the local folk cultures amidst a lifeless and grey urban environment. The station becomes a threshold for Tel Aviv – an all-encompassing portrait, with no embellishments.

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