Resumen de Israeli New Town Plans: Physical Transformations
The phenomenon of 20th-century new towns had one of its essential manifestations in Israel of the 1950s, when 34 new towns were created within less than 20 years. Since then the new towns have grown and changed profoundly. This paper questions the significance of the initial modernist scheme applied 50 years ago, and discusses how later physical planning coped with issues of growth of and change in the new towns. Analysis of growth and change profiles of the new towns shows: (1) where initial schemes were clear and appropriate to topography, and supported the towns' regional function, the original models were followed despite change in major urban components; and (2) of the four modernist prototypes applied in the 1950s- neighbourhood unit, garden city, orthogonal grid and linear city- the last one showed the greatest advantages for growth and change.
