1. ¹Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
2. ²School of Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF, UK

Correspondence: Leslie Forsyth, Tel: +44-1312216175; Fax: +44-1312216006; E-mail: w.forsyth@eca.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper reveals the unique role played by urban design in the demarcation of the political-spatial order in Tel Aviv city centre within the context of glocalization and nationalism. By using European urban design concepts, the city has attempted to be part of western culture while at the same time trying to gain the right to possession of the place by adjusting those concepts to the local contested context. This proposition is illustrated by an exploration of urban design schemes and ideas along Rothschild Boulevards during colonial times and more recently. The investigation into the Boulevards exposes the process of development of the route, the regimes within which it took place and the means and actors involved in two time periods, the 1920s–1930s and the 1980s–1990s. The conclusions suggest that urban design was an active actor in developing the Boulevards as part of the national political economy managed by the city leadership.