South of Fifth
birthright israel: Trip of a Lifetime
Gone Shopping: Tel Aviv
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From the start Tel Aviv, which translates as “Spring Hill,” has been a destination for artists and designers. This reputation culminated in the 1930’s when many of the forerunners of the International Style emigrated from Europe and quickly set about molding an architectural mecca for the modernist set. Dubbed the White City, Tel Aviv boasts the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. Four years ago UNESCO declared Tel Aviv a World Heritage site prompting the city to restore many of its neglected structures. Architects are still drawn to the Mediterranean beach city for its continued embrace of progressive design. Philippe Starck and Richard Meier have residential projects in the works and Santiago Calatrava just finished a pedestrian footbridge in Petah Tikvah, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The city has also revived other landmark areas such as the old city of Jaffa (which is now home to upscale restaurants in addition to it famous antique bazaars) and the northern port area filled with cavernous lounges and fashion outlets. All this urban renewal has buttressed the city’s vibrant art and design community, with many designers opening showrooms and mass-producing their coveted designs. 
Gone Shopping: Tokyo
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Tokyo is a sprawling, blinking, shopping-happy city. Every bit of space—air and land— is used to satisfy the city’s 12 million inhabitants’ insatiable urge for the new, the shiny and the trendy. The city is a wonderland for design and architecture buffs; Tokyo’s streets sparkle with gems like the Prada store in the Aoyama neighborhood, designed by Herzog and de Meuron, which resembles a crystalline honeycomb and Toyo Ito’s concrete tree facade for the Tod’s flagship store in the neighborhood of Omotesando. These inspired retail structures are emblematic of the reverence between design and consumer culture that pervades Japan.