Unesco World Heritage buildings in Tel Aviv damaged by Iranian missile strike

This article was first published by The Art Newspaper.

Two Bauhaus buildings in the Unesco World Heritage site of The White City in Tel Aviv were damaged by Iranian missiles on Saturday 28 February. One woman died and more than two dozen people were injured as a result of the blast, according to the Times of Israel.

The White City was constructed from the early 1930s until the 1950s, based on the urban plan by Patrick Geddes. It was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2003 “as an outstanding example in a large scale of the innovative town-planning ideas of the first part of the 20th century,” according to the Unesco website. “The architecture is a synthetic representation of some of the most significant trends of Modern Movement in architecture, as it developed in Europe. The White City is also an outstanding example of the implementation of these trends taking into account local cultural traditions and climatic conditions,” it adds.

In a Facebook post on 1 March the Bauhaus Center, which is dedicated to the architectural style, wrote: “These houses were more than concrete and balconies. They were symbols of survival, modernity, and the rebuilding of life in Tel Aviv—the White City. Their clean lines and simple forms carried a powerful story: architecture as refuge, architecture as hope. We mourn the loss of this cultural heritage and stand committed to preserving the memory and values these buildings embodied.” The centre also documented other White City built heritage damaged during the Twelve Day War in June 2025.