The Right to the City

The project proposes a scenario in which the city takes on a different form from the one planned by the entrepreneurs, bringing “the right to the city” back to all its inhabitants.
In 1967, Henri Lefebvre coined the term “the right to the city” as a demand for a civic, egalitarian, and democratic participation in the city.

In the era of neoliberal capitalism, the city has become an economic enterprise, functioning as an engine and a primary resource for capital accumulation and private entrepreneurship, and the claim for a right to the city resurfaces.

In this reality, the city is being promoted by private stakeholders who create showcase projects, instead of investing in more mundane issues. Such processes result in the commercialization of the city as a physical space and impair urban life.

The project uses Tel Aviv’s northern CBD as a case study, proposing a replanning that views the CBD as one, integral unit. This perception allows the creation of an inviting, democratic space and brings the right to the city back to people who live, work, and visit it.