Ram Karmi and the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv

This essay presents the complex history of the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv’s impoverished Neve Sha’anan neighbourhood. Planned by the renowned Israeli architect Ram Karmi from 1964 onward and finally opened in 1993, the new station grew over the years into one of the world’s largest megastructures. Following his return to Tel Aviv after graduating from the Architectural Association in London in 1957, Karmi sought ways to articulate brutalist ideas and create “an entire city under one roof”. Designing the station provided such an opportunity. The essay outlines the evolution of Karmi’s various designs for the station and illustrates the powerful forces—economic, social, and political—involved in their conception and development. It concludes with a discussion of the controversial station today.