ARIEH SHARON | Ariel Aloni

This time I talked to Ariel Aloni. He is a grandson of even two Bauhaus students: the architect, Arieh Sharon, probably the most famous Israeli architect, and the Bauhaus weaver Gunta Stölzl, the only woman who was successful in becoming a Bauhaus master.  As Ariel says: “There was no conversation with Sharon without the Bauhaus popping up!” And that is also true to his architecture. In his buildings in Israel and Nigeria Sharon still refers to what he had learned from Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer at the Bauhaus, and then elevated the concept by adapting to the climatic conditions that were very different from Northern Europe. In Nigeria he went even further and added also architectural aspects of the local Yoruba tribe.  After a career of nearly 60 years as an architect Arieh Sharon left roughly 800 buildings and is today known as the father of Israeli architecture and as one of the consequent pursuers of Tropical Modernism. He is less known for his work as a construction site manager for the ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau near Berlin, but we will get to that project, too.  There is no Israeli architecture prize that Sharon did not win. And even today everyone in Israel knows who Arieh Sharon is. It is time we get to him, as well.