Art and designיוסף ברלין

Joseph Berlin

Joseph Berlin was an architect who worked in Russia and in Mandatory Palestine, where he designed many buildings in Tel Aviv.

1877 to 1952Designing 80 buildings in Tel AvivThe Mograbi CinemaPartnership with engineer Richard PasovskyFounding the engineers and architects association

Died: 18 July 1952, Tel Aviv
Occupation: architect
Education: Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts
Founded: Association of Engineers and Architects in Israel (1921)

Joseph Berlin was born in 1877 in Mahilyow

Joseph Berlin was born in 1877 in Mogilev, in the Russian Empire, today in Belarus. He came from a family of 13 children.

He studied architecture in Saint Petersburg and began his career there. As a student he worked as a private tutor and met his future wife, the sculptor Miriam Berlin. They married in 1905 and had two sons and a daughter.

Before leaving Russia he built 12 buildings and won several public architecture competitions. In 1921 he moved to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. In 1922 he became chief architect of the Histadrut public works office and began a partnership with engineer Richard Pasovsky that lasted until 1929.

In 1922 he planned the first power station in the country, and that year he and Pasovsky founded an association of engineers and architects. He designed 80 buildings in Tel Aviv, including the Mograbi Cinema and the Ohel Moed Synagogue. His later work used Bauhaus elements, and from 1931 his son Zeev joined his office.

Berlin died in Tel Aviv on July 18, 1952. He was buried in Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.