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This single-story house is designed according to principles of Passive Sustainability: Hot air is vented through clerestory-windows, precisely positioned openings trap the westerly breeze, and overhangs shade the south-facing windows. The house’s geometry, the swimming pool and the greenery create a cool micro-climate. The L-shape house encloses an inner garden with a swimming pool. Public spaces and master bedroom are on the south wing, while children’s bedrooms, family area and a garage are located on the west wing. A pergola shades an outdoor living area enclosed between the two wings. External facades have relatively few windows while the inner facades open to the garden via floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Materials are basic: white-wash, concrete and steel facades, exposed concrete ceiling and floor, brick internal wall and oak and black MDF carpentry. The sea-water hues of the swimming pool reflect the granite paving.
An existing single-story, semi-detached house from the 1950’s was remodeled and added a second story to accommodate a family of five.
The house, which follows the shape of the plot, is long and narrow, and apart from the entrance door the street façade is almost windowless. Toilettes on the ground floor and a deep balcony on the first floor buffer between the house and the busy road.
Relocating the main entrance from its previous position on the long façade enabled us to plant a large garden and outdoor living area, visible and accessible via large glass sliding doors, which extends the living space outside
In order to maintain sufficient privacy, the master bedroom is located on the ground floor and the children’s bedrooms on the first. The master bedroom is located behind the kitchen, and faces away from it, to a private small garden of its own.
Structural reinforcements form an architectural language through which the house’s history is revealed: addition to the ground floor is in exposed concrete, and the stairway opening cut from the existing ceiling is supported by steel columns.
The steel stairway, consisting of Z-shape elements, is the dominant feature in the living room. The stair railing continues upwards and merges with the first floor balustrade.
The ground floor is paved with gray stone, which is used also as cladding of the bathroom walls, while the children’s area is dark wooden floor. All carpentry elements are painted white.
The proposal aims at creating a dialogue between the structure and its urban surroundings. A public plaza opening to the south functions as a “breathing” urban space, and opens towards the urban and natural landscape to the south. A bridge across Rupin blvd. leads to the library’s plaza and enables pedestrian traffic between the museum quarter and the Knesset and government compound. The public realm diffuses further into a covered plaza under the main building, allowing informal or formal gatherings. The main entrance is one level below, and the library’s visitors are visible from the plaza. The public part of the library rises above the plaza as a porous and “breathing” mass. Huge page-like stone-fins line the facades at uneven intervals to create slits that allow for either narrow views east and west, or broad views north and south. Two enormous ‘book ends’ mark the limits of the public part and incorporate vertical circulation of both people and books. A nine-square-grid system of galleries and bridges is suspended between them. The east-west galleries serve for circulation and access while the book shelves are arranged in the north-south galleries. The reading rooms are nestled within the galleries’ grid. The scholar using the reading rooms is surrounded by an internal landscape of books and the ever present background of Jerusalem landscape. The grid structure of the halls and galleries allows multiple oblique views across the depth of the reading rooms’ wing. The operational part of the library lies underneath the plaza and opens to the west. An open, landscaped ravine penetrates three floors below plaza level, letting natural light and air into the depth of the plan. The library’s book treasuries lie below the operational wing in huge vaults that penetrate deep into the ground. A public crossing that leads from Rupin blvd. to the Knesset penetrates the vaults and allows pedestrians an unasked for, breathtaking view of the treasuries.
The house was designed for a family with two grown children at the end of a wooded Cul-de-Sac. The neighborhood is dominated by large, introverted houses, but thanks to the unique location of the lot we were able to design a house that can “raise its head” over the wall and look back at its environment without compromising privacy. The house’s layout, orientation and massing acknowledge the sun’s directions and the site’s environmental constraints. Climatic architectural design reduces costs of air-conditioning. “Heavy” functions such as parking garage, elevator, security room, etc. are lined along the southern edge of the plan and buffer between the living areas and a main road that passes two blocks away. This enables spacious living area and bedrooms with huge north- and west-facing apertures that open to a quiet and shaded garden and swimming pool. The kitchen faces the street through a ribbon window set in a stone wall. The top floor is divided in two: the master bedroom occupies the western half of the plan and faces the swimming pool, and the children’s rooms on the eastern half face the boulevards’ treetops. The two wings are separated by a double-height space crossed by two bridges. The northern half of this space is a skylight that brings natural light into the depth of the ground floor. The southern part of this space ascends to a clerestory window in the roof. When open, the clerestory window releases hot air to the roof and generates a natural circulation that allows a flow of cool air from the swimming pool area into the ground floor.
The house was designed for a family with 3 children, in a high-density neighbourhood. The street facade is modest and lower than the adjacent houses, and the lofty, one-and-a-half storey high interior is unexpectedly revealed only when entering the house. The exposed concrete ceiling floats 60 centineters above the peripheral walls using steel columns. The resulting clerestory windows provide outside views and ample natural light. The extension of the ceiling outside as an overhang blocks the sun’s heat and glare. To maintain privacy, the side walls are windowless, and the living room opens only towards the back garden
A split-level section enabled us to create a house which is much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. The master bedroom is partially submerged in the ground, yet well lit and cosy. The childrens’ bedrooms sit directly on top of it and are thus elevated and seperated from street level. The middle-, ground level holds the entrance and public zone. The living area is directly connected to the higher childrens’ area and the lower master bedroom
Materials are simple and typical to the area: exposed concrete ceiling, white-washed walls and oak floors. The approach path is combed concrete and the back garden holds a pine-wood deck
The building houses two faculties: A school of business and a school of government and diplomacy. By carving into the site and “submerging” the building into a large excavated garden below grade, the programme was accommodated within three stories, only two of which project above ground, thus maintaining the campus skyline. The building accommodates five lecture halls, 11 classrooms, seminar rooms, research institutes and offices
The gardens were laid out around the tombs of Baron Edmond de Rothschild and his wife Ada in 1954. The programme called for a new visitor’s center that will accommodate the growing needs of the place, which holds research and education activities, and draws thousands of visitors each year. The main building is excavated into the ground and its roof is planted with natural Mediterranean vegetation. The building accommodates classrooms, a gallery, a lecture hall, an auditorium and a cafeteria. Light penetrates underground into the building via skylights and sunken patios, and marks the inner circulation. Separate office and service buildings were designed as well. The project uses advanced water and energy recycling systems, and is the first in Israel to be nominated for LEED green building certification
The house’s form fully exploits the local building codes. The east facade, overlooking the adjacent building, is windowless. All the public areas and bedrooms open either to the west – towards the sea view, or to the north – towards the garden and swimming pool
The house is located in a new, high-density neighbourhood. The L-shape design enables orientating all bedrooms and public areas away from the street, towards a large secluded garden at the back of the house. There are very few windows on the street façade, while the garden facades are glazed floor-to- ceiling
The existing house is located within a one-story terraced residential block from the 1950’s, at the top of a slope, overlooking a garden that descends downhill in 3 terraces. The house was completely demolished from within, and the roof was temporarily supported throughout the construction. The street façade remained intact, while the back façade was torn open floor to ceiling, thus enabling the living area and master bedroom to overlook the garden through glass sliding-doors. A 75cm thick wall separates the public area from the bedrooms, and contains climate control ducts, storage and services. Privacy is maintained by means of steep topography and lush vegetation, despite large glass facades and dense environment
The apartment is situated on an old Tel-Aviv neighbourhood rooftop, and was re-designed for a family with three children. The apartment is dominated by contrasting views: a typical urban landscape to the south, against a vast panorama of a huge urban park to the east. The most significant interventions in the existing structure were the transfer of the master-bedroom to the roof level and the rebuilding of the stair. This act transformed the roof into a green garden – an active outside space accessible from both living area and master-bedroom. Upon entering the apartment one encounters a large wooden “mushrebiyeh” screen, that serves both as a structural element that supports the upper roof level and cantilevered stair, and as a compositional element that organizes the space around it. The southern, urban landscape is viewed via large windows and a balcony that was transformed into a herbal garden. The east facade is an entire sliding glass wall that fully exploits the park panorama. The master-bedroom opens to the roof garden through glass walls. The roof-garden’s topsoil was transferred to the 10th floor and arranged in a variating topography. Stone steps lead from the roof-garden to an elevated wooden deck. The deck commands a 180 degrees’ panorama and holds a swimming pool and a shaded sitting area. All windows are steel-framed with louvered shades. Steel pergolas with wooden slats shade all apertures fron direct sunlight. The floors are paved with local stone and the all fixed furniture is oak
The apartment is located in a 1930’s Tel-Aviv housing block. It was re-designed while preserving the charachter of the original space. An entrance hall leads to a west facing living-room. The living-room opens to a balcony with views to a small urban park. The kitchen and dining room are located in an octagonal space that originally held the same functions. There are bedrooms, a guest-room and a study. All the mechanical systems were incorporated into the design without violating the original layout. The steel-framed windows and wooden shutters are a precise reconstruction of the original
The semi-detached house was designed for a family with three children. Its L-shape encloses an existing pecan-tree. The visual contact between ground and first floors is achieved through a double-height space situated at the convergence point of the two L wings. This double-height space gives the impression of a bigger interiot than one would expect when watching from the outside. This central space holds the dining area and opens to an exposed concrete stair. A bridge that crosses the double-height space connects the master-bedroom and children’s area on the first floor. A curtain wall that rises the full height of the central space faces the pecan tree. Louvered shades enable outside views while protecting from direct sunlight
The kitchen is designed around a central isle and faces the living room and garden, enabling the parents to watch over their children. Sink, stove and storage are incorporated into the isle. Cabinets with a pantry, a refrigirator, an oven and extra storage surround the isle from 3 directions. The house uses local materials: White-washed walls, wooden floors (except for outside thresholds and bathrooms which are paved with stone), concrete stairs and steel-framed windows
An existing five-room apartment was re-designed to accommodate the needs of an elderly couple by means of reduced number of rooms, additional storage, wider corridors and the creation of a spacious living area for entertaining guests. Storage cupboards serve as partitions between different zones of the apartment. A free-standing kitchen acts as the centerpiece of the living area