Diamonds of Jerusalem stone shroud the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance's new Ari Kushner Building, but the solid skin they make dissolves in places, disappearing entirely at the entrance. Matthias Hollwich, founder of New York-based architects HWKN, describes the facade design as ‘a gesture of invitation’. Inside the box-shaped 2,500 sq m building, an atrium cuts through three floors of performance spaces and studios. The project was a collaboration with Erez Ella, founder of Tel Aviv-based HQ Architects (HQA), which co-designed JAMD’s extension with HWKN, addresses a fundamental question: ‘How do you let chaos into architecture?’ 

Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance’s Ari Kushner Building by HQ Architects and HWKN 

In 1985, JAMD moved into its existing home – a massive, modernist building designed by Nadler Nadler Bixon Gil and shaped like an inverted ziggurat in Givat Ram in West Jerusalem, an area of green hills and valleys peppered with government and educational buildings. When Hollwich heard that the academy wanted to expand, he flew to Israel. ’As soon as we came close to the building, there was music in the air, it was magical,’ he recalls. He formed a collaboration with Ella, who had won the JAMD 2012 competition for an extension to the original building, and whom Hollwich had met when working under Rem Koolhaas at OMA.

The new building’s plot cuts into a steep slope, directly below JAMD’s main building on the crest of the hill. The new Kushner Building – also known as the Advanced Inter-Arts Center Building – overcomes the original home's visual domination with its striking stone skin. It was a 1918 British municipal mandate that required Jerusalem’s buildings to be faced with Jerusalem stone, retaining the city’s ancient ubiquitous vernacular texture. As Hollwich comments, the pale stone ‘is in harmony with the landscape around it’. On the Kushner Building, it is used in a completely novel way. Three-centimetre thick squares weighing up to 120kg are tilted at 45 degrees and form a 700 sq m screen around the concrete building. Laid over apertures, these squares become smaller, introducing transparency to the largely solid box volume.  

The entrance through the stone screen leads into an atrium called ‘The In Between’. Yellow velvet acoustic strips are hung all around it, setting a bright, welcoming tone, while criss-crossing staircases and bridges bring spatial drama. Their black steel balustrades are mounted on concrete that is thick and rough, ‘allowing it to be what it is’ as Ella comments. The brutalist dimension they bring to the space ‘is not by accident’, he adds. 

HQA worked with local consultants David Huja Acoustic Design to perfect the acoustics in the Kushner Building. Stacked on one side of the atrium are 14 small practice and teaching rooms, and every one is ‘box-in-a-box insulated’, explains Ella, so silence can prevail, no matter what is going on next door. Designated halls each had different acoustic requirements, from the 115-seat Recital Hall to the pine-clad 60-seat Opera and Vocal Studio. The spacious Dance Studio is double-height, and the 90-seat Jazz and Improvisation Studio doubles as a shelter in the event of missile attacks, a requirement under Israeli regulations.  

In JAMD’s original structure, you often encounter a mild chaos of people, equipment, and furniture that has colonised its courtyard and corridors. Ella says that in the Kushner Building, ’the challenge was to physically and conceptually break down the barrier’ to the old building, so that the social interaction, vital to collaboration, could spread into the new building. 

A passage from the older building’s lowest floor now physically connects with it, channeling this spirit of informality between the buildings. The new roof, commanding a view over the neighbourhood across the valley, also connects to the old building’s outdoor space. Two roof pavilions provide shade, and perhaps a stage too. Citing the Beatles’ final rooftop concert in 1969, Hollwich declares that ‘if you have a roof, use it. You don’t always need an audience.’ 

The Kushner Building is more than a facility that efficiently fulfils JAMD’s programme. There is a sense of joy that radiates from its surprising screen. It rises into the bright but complex atrium space, and not least, permeates the creative interaction that the architecture fosters. 

hwkn.com 

hqa.co.il 

Approximately three and a half hours by car from Tel Aviv, through the sweeping Arava Valley and the awe-inspiring Ramon Crater, an unobtrusive sign that reads ‘Six Senses Shaharut’ indicates a left turn, where, after another ten-minute drive, the entrance to this unassuming hotel appears as if from nowhere.

Six Senses Shaharut: an escape to desert wellness

Six Senses Shaharut opened its doors just over a year ago. Like other Six Senses locations, it offers guests the chance to reconnect with themselves amid natural beauty. The hotel places an emphasis on meaningful experiences, whilst being at the forefront of the wellness movement. This, coupled with the majesty of the surrounding Negev Desert, where the Edom mountains of Jordan glow red on the horizon, makes for an unforgettable retreat.

Ten years ago, Israeli entrepreneur Ronny Douek acquired the site, and began work on a purpose-built hotel. Considerations around the local environment, vistas, and carbon footprint meant this property had to grow slowly and quietly. The design, by Tel Aviv-based Plesner Architects – a modern interpretation of a Nomadic Nabatean building – is at one with the desert, and seems woven into the very fabric of nature itself.

The hill that occupied the site was meticulously excavated, its remaining rock carefully carved, reshaped into pathways and walls, the latter never exceeding a height that would detract from the expansive views. 

Plesner Architects designed the building to benefit from natural light and ventilation. It also minimised the use of artificial light at nighttime, to avoid distracting from the star-mottled sky. 

The LEED-certified hotel has top-notch eco credentials: residual heat from the hotel’s chillers is used to heat water; wastewater is treated on site and then used to irrigate the organic herb gardens (which in turn supply the hotel kitchens); and food waste is composted to become fertiliser and biogas. 

Such strategies underscore the hotel’s symbiotic relationship with the local environment and people. A stay here is like being offered a seat at the table of a future, where luxury, social consciousness, and relaxation are the ingredients for a continually evolving conversation on self and planetary betterment.

Six Senses Shaharut welcomes a wide array of guests – couples, families (children must be over 12 years old), friends on adventures and groups on business trips. The hotel’s guest experience manager is available to plan bespoke itineraries. One can venture into the desert in a 4x4, hike the terrain with knowledgeable guides, learn about local ecosystems, escape to Petra in nearby Jordan, or snorkel in the Red Sea. 

Guests who prefer to stay at the hotel do not lack options either. There are always sunbeds available by the stunning outdoor pool, complete with spectacular views and ever-so tame dragonflies hydrating poolside. The spa, gym, fitness and yoga classes, sauna and hammam provide additional opportunities to recharge, reconnect and re-energise.

A  selection of local, organic, traditional Israeli dishes is available at the hotel’s Midian restaurant, while the Jamillah cocktail bar offers a more casual dining experience alongside a carefully curated vinyl collection. 

Six Senses sites cover the globe, take a look at our previous coverage of Six Senses Ibiza, and the London Six Senses flagship hotel and residences.

sixsenses.com; Hevel-Eilot, Negev Desert, Israel 8886500, Shaharut, 8886500, Israel

The area surrounding Jerusalem’s industrial Sapir Center has long served as a pilgrimage for creatives. Located in the city’s south-west region, it’s home to artist studios, yeshivas (Jewish educational institutions), as well as Bezalel Academy of Art and Design's ultra-Orthodox branch. Its latest addition is the new outpost of Gordon Gallery, known as one of Tel Aviv’s most distinguished and long-standing art institutions. 

‘We are thrilled to usher in the next era of Gordon Gallery and further progress the dialogue between secular Israeli art and the religious connotation of Jerusalem,’ explains Amon Yariv, the gallery’s director, ‘the dichotomy of the new space and solo shows by two innovative painters to attract art seekers to explore Israeli art from a new perspective.’

The space – which will also feature a publicly accessible library and archive – has been inaugurated with two solo exhibitions by Israeli artists Ofer Lellouche and Aviva Uri, on view until 5 February 2022. At the heart of Lellouche’s exhibition, titled ‘Recent works’ is an imposing bronze sculpture, The Hug, whose raw, earthy colours reflect the building’s history. Nine of Lellouche’s reliefs line the walls and offer insight into the conception of the sculpture. 

Meanwhile, ‘Death in God’s Realm’ presents iconic works by Israeli artist Aviva Uri, ranging from work created in the 1960s, through to the time of her death in 1984. The works are infused with raw gestures – scenes of both angst and vitality – which continue to influence a generation of Israeli artists. 

The industrial space has been given new life by Tel Aviv-based Salty Architects, who have transformed the neglected workshop into a light-drenched space while retaining the rugged, industrial history of the building’s past. ‘The challenge was to set the space apart from its surroundings without being ostentatious,’ say architects Motti Rauchwerger and Hadar Menkes.

‘Inside the gallery, we designed a circular space, and it is important that one can keep moving in the space and be surprised. One of the surprises was the natural light in this industrial area. Once we opened the façade, we realised that wonderful natural light permeates the space.’

INFORMATION
gordongallery.co.il

Located on the city's coveted ‘Golden Mile', a stretch of seafront chock full of aspirational architecture and a cool, urban vibe, this Tel Aviv apartment lacks not in striking wide vistas that bring together modern design and the calming, blue waters of the Mediterranean. Featuring a contemporary apartment interior design created by architect Alex Meitlis, this family home also has plenty to offer when it comes to internal views too. The concept bridges classic minimalism, where a pared-down decor allows the eye and mind to rest, and a dash of glamour, through its refined material palette, art and furniture selection. 

Meitlis, who is currently based between London and Tel Aviv, but grew up in the latter and has strong, first-hand experience of the Israeli city's bright light and seafront views, drew on its natural surroundings and Mediterranean tones for his design. Light colours, reflective surfaces and large windows that open up to long and wide views were crucial in his concept. At the same time, the architect added a ‘cinematic quality', aiming to create a space the evolves during the course of the day and is dynamic as light and shade travel across the interior. 

There are shimmering white marble floors, white plaster walls and a handful of brass panelled surfaces that turn golden when the sun hits them. This movement and energy is balanced by the calmness brought about by the sleek, crisp white surfaces, minimalist approach in shapes, colours and decor, and an overall highlighly refined detailing and atmosphere. Meanwhile, black marble bathrooms contrast the openness and lightness of the living spaces, cocooning the user. 

Carefully chosen furniture such as the Eames dining chairs and an Italian midcentury lamp in the dining room, are complemented by specially made pieces, making this a truly bespoke and highly crafted piece of interior design.

Located high in the 28-storey The David Promenade Residences tower, this Tel Aviv apartment is a sculptural and dynamic piece of interior architecture, its clever, high-end design enhancing its impressive setting and signature seafront views.

INFORMATION

alexmeitlis.com

Stella McCartney has long operated from a sustainable standpoint – pioneering eco-initiatives long before they became luxury's trendiest topic – but as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the brand has taken further stock of its environmentally-aware ethics, mapping out a business-focused blue print for the future, released to align with its prismatic S/S 2021 lookbook.

The visually striking result is the Stella McCartney A-Z, an alphabetised manifesto, revealing the most important words that make up the McCartney mindset for 2020 and beyond. The letter line up includes C for ‘Conscious', T for ‘Timeless' and R for ‘Repurpose'. To bring some artistic oomph to McCartney’s manifesto, the designer has called on an impressive roster of creatives, including Chantal Joffe, Rashid Johnson, Jeff Koons, and Cindy Sherman, to illustrate her alphabet. ‘I wanted the artists to have full creative license, and really take the word they chose and run wild with how they wanted to depict it,’ she explains of the multicoloured, mixed media result, which amalgamates typography, collage and photography. ‘You could look at it as the visual equivalents of all the personal, political, spiritual, global, funny, touching, lovely, profound conversations of 2020.’

McCartney has also enlisted Wallpaper* Design Awards Judge Alex Israel to create the artwork for ‘H’: Humour. ‘We speak about serious things here when we talk about the environment and animal welfare, so it’s important to lighten the tone and use a humorous approach,’ she says of the brand relevance of the term. ‘Alex and I see eye to eye on the absolute necessity of having a laugh in life. His practice never shies away from humour, for example, I love the distinctive series of self-portraits he did, painted on fibreglass panels shaped like his own head’.

Long-inspired by the cinematic mythology of his hometown of Los Angeles, Israel conceived his ‘H’ artwork while exploring the hills in Bronson Canyon, near Los Feliz. The H of the famed Hollywood sign appears to have strolled from its hilltop location down to a residential roadside below. ‘“H” also stands for home, Hollywood, hiking, and heist,’ Israel explains. ‘I had a vision of the H from the Hollywood sign hitch-hiking through the hills…or maybe it was hijacked?’

‘I have always adored the energy of Alex’s work and how he depicts the culture of his hometown with colour, optimism and nostalgia,’ McCartney adds. ‘I knew he would have a lot of fun with this project so we absolutely had to have him!'

INFORMATION
stellamccartney.com

Once known for its warren of dusty, languid backstreets, today Jaffa is a hotbed of development, as time-worn buildings increasingly find new life as design-led hotels. With just 10 rooms, and occupying an Ottoman-era former private residence, Elmina is the latest.

Taking its name from the Arabic word for port, the hotel is a study in the changing face of the neighbourhood – with room interiors by Michael Azoulay that fuse Art Deco, British Mandate-period references with tidy, timely notes; its history of travel and trade manifest in African textiles and dazzlingly printed rugs.

Equally layered in aesthetic is the Ron Arad-designed rooftop bar and lounge, that features woven furniture handmade by Senegalese artisans – a collaboration between Arad and Italian label, Moroso.

Elmina’s distinctive, story-driven branding and identity was devised by Ark Visual and Dov Kroll - the sharp curves seen throughout inspired by the property’s historic window arches and Jaffa’s fierce, orange hued sunsets informing the colour palette.

ADDRESS

9 Shimon Ben Shetach St
Jaffa
Tel Aviv
Israel

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On a clear day you can see the Jerusalem hills from the roof garden of the Jaffa Penthouse. Turn to the north and you’ll notice the modern ivory buildings that gave Tel Aviv its nickname, the White City. Pivot further and you can watch the sun fall clear into the Mediterranean, past a palm-lined beach.

These sweeping views and the 5,500-year-old timeline they represent inspired the design of this 1,500-square-metre apartment in the ancient, multi-ethnic enclave of Jaffa. Local practice Baranowitz Goldberg and Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem used warm Mediterranean stone and marble to construct a space with sweeping views from end to end, interrupted by sculptural dividers resembling megaliths.

The rooftop terrace may be the crowning glory of this property, currently on the market for US$65 million, but the journey there is quite a ride. Downstairs the architects have built out from the pared-back envelope with vast banks of wood and marble, pleated and sliced like modernist paper-cuts. Partitions crack apart like ruins; louvre-shaped travertine pillars cast shadows like sails on a dhow; a sinuous spiral staircase mimcs the intrepid rounded corners of Tel Aviv’s celebrated Bauhaus buildings. These non-walls allow a steady flow of light – and people – to bypass, even into the peek-a-boo master bedroom.

Opportunities to develop property in this prehistoric Mediterranean port come along rarely. The prolific developer Aby Rosen took over the original building, a French malaria hospice from the 19th century, and financed its restoration with plans for a luxury hotel on the site. In the process, workers discovered a 13th-century crusaders’ bastion. The hotel, simply called The Jaffa, took a decade to complete. The penthouse completed late last year.

The apartment’s neutral palette echoes the heat, dunes and sandstone that define the landscape. Furnishings by Carl Hansen, B&B Italia and De Padova are a natural accompaniment. Drifting from one seating area to the next mimics the experience of exploring the cool alleyways in the old city. Then you turn around to gaze out the full-height windows. The view, like looking down from a mountain, is biblical.

INFORMATION

pitsou.com; baranowitz-goldberg.com

Off a tree-lined street in Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek neighbourhood, The Levee is a 1913 villa reborn as a smart urban stay, featuring eight sprawling apartments and a 24-hour concierge.

The meticulous renovation from Bar Orian Architects sees original concrete details exposed – intended to evoke the Japanese wabi-sabi notion, in which beauty is found in austere imperfection. In places, fragments of sea shell can still be seen buried in the century-old cement, made from sand sourced on the city’s shores. 

Israeli-Belgian designer Yael Siso oversaw the loft-like interiors, which mix contrasting materials like marble and velvet, brass and sandstone. In the furnishings she adopted an international outlook, tapping the likes of Molteni, Cassina, Moooi and Moroso. Yet the aesthetic is ultimately rooted in Tel Aviv. The sense of diverse references is redolent of the wider city - best viewed, of course, from the panoramic windows of the swish, rooftop-spanning penthouse.

ADDRESS

16 Yehuda Halevi

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If you find yourself in Marseille on a cloudy summer night, gaze up to the sky and you just might see the Bat Signal. Projected from the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse, it pierces through the dark night and casts a familiar emblem in white light, as though the city were summoning Gotham’s favourite superhero. This is the audacious headliner for Californian artist Alex Israel’s Batman-themed exhibition at Marseille Modulor (MAMO), the contemporary art centre founded in 2013 by designer Ora ïto.

Israel is the seventh artist to take over MAMO for the summer, following on an older, and largely Francophone roster that has included Xavier Veilhan, Daniel Buren, Dan Graham and Felice Varini. He often engages with the seductive power of Hollywood, reframing movie props as readymade sculptures that capture a cultural moment, and at MAMO, Israel’s choice of subject responds in part to the architecture.

Occupying the top levels of the Cité Radieuse, the art centre comprises a double-height gymnasium with a striking curved ceiling, and a roof terrace anchored by an undulating chimney. The elegant bulk of the concrete building, combined with sweeping views of the city’s terracotta rooftops and the azure Mediterranean, make it the perfect superhero’s lair. But the artist was also inspired by Marseille’s historic reputation for violence and crime, explaining, ‘It’s the idea of this really tough and gritty city which made me think of Gotham.’

Israel fixated on the 1989 Batman film (directed by Tim Burton, and with production design by Anton Furst), which he’d first seen as a six-year-old. ‘It deeply and profoundly impacted me like those kinds of experiences do when you’re young,’ he recalls. The artist particularly liked that Batman doesn’t have any superpowers. ‘He just has to do the best he can as a human.’

As far as solo exhibitions go, this one is succinct. A Batmobile has materialised in the centre of the gymnasium, which has been darkened to emulate the iconic Batcave. Grumbling engines, billowing smoke heighten the sense of drama, and give the impression that the car is about to speed off. Within the dim space, the aquiline form and scalloped tailfins of the Batmobile seem to take on a new aura. ‘In the dark, it loses its objectness and becomes this reflective surface for light, and kind of a breathing thing,’ he muses. ‘It’s almost like a memory or a fantasy.’ Israel is interested in how the installation will inform the viewer’s perception of a car that he calls ‘the ultimate fetish’.

Meanwhile, on one corner of the roof terrace sits the Bat Signal, housed in a modified Second World War era searchlight – the same make as the one that appears towards the end of the movie. By day, its white exterior contrasts with a mirrored reflector punctuated, of course, by the Batman logo. After sundown it lights up, its conical beam in delightful dialogue with the form of Le Corbusier’s chimney. Weather permitting, Batman’s emblem will glow amongst the clouds – a world first, considering that the movies had relied on special effects. ‘It seemed perfect in this specific place above a city with a history that aligns with the meaning of Batman,’ explains Israel. ‘This is a symbol of hope, heroism and courage, of Hollywood and America.’

Ora ïto had planted the idea of this piece two months ago when, in a last-ditch effort to convince Israel to take on the show, he’d told the artist, ‘You can do whatever you want. You can even put the Bat Signal all over Marseille.’ At the opening last week, the French designer seemed delighted, and perhaps still in disbelief that his casual remark has now become reality. ‘What’s genius about the show, I think, is that the old building becomes the art piece. For me, Alex is the new Andy Warhol.’

INFORMATION

‘Alex Israel’, 8 June – 31 August, MAMO. mamo.fr

ADDRESS

Centre d’art de la Cité Radieuse
280 Boulevard Michelet
13008 Marseille

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Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus architecture has long been a draw for design devotees, who travel to the Israeli city to see the some 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings that were built there from the 1930s onwards. Designed by German-Jewish architects who immigrated to the region to escape the Nazi regime, the white plaster apartment buildings have been attracting increased interest in recent decades – particularly since 2004, when Tel Aviv was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site and approximately 1200 buildings were listed for preservation.

‘The city followed and established policies and categories of preservation in order to encourage their renovations, retrofits and extensions,’ explains local architect Avital Gourary, who believes that the continued popularity of the Bauhaus buildings is down to their modest architectural language. ‘What followed is that investors, developers, architects and designers took an integral part of what the city is going to become. It created many opportunities.

Gourary, who runs Tel Aviv firm AN + alongside architect Natanel Elfassy, recently restored a 1930s building in Neve Tzedek, one of the city's oldest districts. The 600 sq m property was snapped up ten years ago by Bauhaus enthusiast and hospitality entrepreneur Mati Broudo, who fell in love with the location. The renovation process saw the architects empty the centre of the building and carve it into three apartments and two studios.

Now it is the home of local hospitality entrepreneur Mati Broudo.

‘We introduced a new stairwell, which was a major characteristic of the modern movement,' explains Gourary. ‘It appears on the façade as a glazed wall that's nicknamed the "thermometer window". Our aim was to give back the stairwell its social and environmental importance that used to exist in the time these buildings were built.

‘Thanks to a skylight above and the fact that it's open to the exterior on one side, the stairwell also functions as a patio. This light-flooded indoor/outdoor space connects the entrance, the apartments, the backyard, and the roof garden. ‘The patio is the place where people meet, feel the breeze, and interact with the neighbours,' says Gourary.

Inside the apartments, the interiors are designed as open plan spaces that cleverly merge social and private spaces while providing a level of separation. For example, bedrooms are visually separated by sliding walls or split levels, but remain part of the living spaces. 

The White City of Tel Aviv has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site due to its large concentration of Bauhaus architecture.

Keen to retain the building's original character, the architects spent a great deal of energy mapping out the relationship between old and new. The outlines of the old structure's windows, for instance, are reproduced onto the new inner facades of the patio allowing views into the surrounding spaces, public or private.

‘Our intention was to create the most intelligent design possible, not the most spectacular one,' explains Gourary. ‘With the Broudo House we wanted to show that with small architectural intervention you can turn an existing building, into a new piece of architecture. Not because it will necessarily be more beautiful but because our act will clearly express an intention of turning the existing building into something new. That's what we called "Rethinking Bauhaus".'

Explore more Bauhaus coverage here

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the AN + website

Billed as Israel’s first chef accelerator dining destination, L28 Culinary Platform is a novel rethink of the traditional restaurant.

With a perpetually evolving programme, budding chefs are given residencies of six months to showcase their originality and skill, and afforded full creative licence to develop their own menu concept.Taking the reins for the restaurant’s launch is Galilee born-and-raised Shuli Wimer, who honed her craft at London’s acclaimed River Café.

Designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, L28 occupies the ground floor of the Start-Up Nation Central HQ, an NGO on a mission to connect the world with Israeli innovation. In the heart of the city, it’s a majestic, double height space that tells a story of modern Tel Aviv. Here the industrial and natural embrace, as polished concrete walls are combined with sharp wooden strands that fall from the ceiling in wave-like forms, while a vegetation wall sidles up to the black-steel-framed open kitchen.

ADDRESS

28 Lilenblum Street

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As you might expect of Wallpaper’s Designer of the Year, Pierre Yovanovitch has had a busy 12 months. Besides chairing the jury for the third International Festival of Interior Architecture in Toulon, including his masterful curation of L’Erotonomanie de Mademoiselle Oops, Yovanovitch has completed residences in London, Brussels, Paris and Tel Aviv, too. Sitting out the drearier days of winter, it is the latter that we are particularly enamoured of.

The 200 sq m apartment, on the 16th floor of a new residential tower in the south of Tel Aviv, is a fantasy seaside city escape. The owners are a French couple working in fashion (return clients of Yovanovitch), and you sense they’ve had fun creating something bold together. ‘A second project means more trust,’ explains Yovanovitch, ‘hence the possibility to make bolder proposals. The client is a fairly radical personality, yet the result here is more radical than our previous work. The main reason is Tel Aviv: if one is not going to be bold in Tel Aviv, where can one possibly be bold?’

Yovanovitch took on the project before the building was completed and remodelled the layout to suit the practical needs of his clients. This meant opening up the floorplan to create a generous kitchen, dining and living area, with two en suite bedrooms, all connected by a 16-metre long corridor. Curtain windows look out over the beach and the sea on one side and the city on another. Linen curtains diffuse the intense light, creating an ethereal atmosphere throughout, which is grounded by Yovanovitch’s deft and generous use of natural materials.

‘We wanted to add rawness and roughness,’ he explains, pointing to the grey Ceppo stone flooring and the shockingly red travertine wall that lines the corridor. ‘I always look for texture, and increasingly, colour. These two components allow one to draw simple, rigorous lines and achieve a striking result. I used stone, wood, ceramic – raw materials with personality.’ A subtle warmth is evident in the handcraft that Yovanovitch accentuates in his approach, particularly in the custom elements his studio designed: the carved oak headboard, a circular chestnut sofa, a pivoting wall lamp and ceramic petal sconces.

Yovanovitch is a particularly courageous curator. His custom designs are interspersed with exquisite midcentury pieces spanning Italy, France, Scandinavia and the US, by Ponti, Perriand, Ditzel, Tynell and Nakashima, to name a handful. They reinforce the warmth of craft and the texture of time through their patina. A striking wall piece by German artist Imi Knoebel animates the dining area, while custom hand-knotted rugs add pools of softness underfoot.

There is a confidence in Yovanovitch’s playfulness, which makes for wonderfully light-hearted interiors that are simultaneously robust and enigmatic. Porky Hefer’s woven nest, comically perched on legs between the dining table and the balcony, is a case in point. And yet this is no gimmick; Yovanovitch’s genius lies in rooting everything carefully and poetically in the human experience. ‘When you lie in the nest after a meal and fall asleep,’ he explains, ‘you wake up and see only the sky and the sea from your perch.'

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Pierre Yovanovitch website

The Jaffa

  A 19th century, neo-Roman former hospital turned lavish hotel, The Jaffa is the kind of titanic, rambling property that begs to be explored. A new wing was added to the historic building during renovation to increase the footprint dramatically, creating a tree-festooned private courtyard from which runs a New York Italian restaurant, Jewish deli and smart pool area. Designer John Pawson’s sharp, minimalist style is a forceful counterpoint to the traditional architecture. In the lobby, a 13th-century Crusader wall meets mid-century furnishings from Shiro Kuramata and Pierre Paulin, along with artwork from Damien Hirst.  

www.thejaffahotel.com.

4 Louis Pasteur Street, Tel Aviv, Israel; 

Tel: 972.3 516 200; 

Rates from: $500

Brown Beach House 

While Tel Aviv’s beaches are arguably the liveliest in the Middle East, the city’s promenade was once dominated by soulless hotel chains with drearily uniform façades. Among the first to shake things up, Brown Beach House brought a boutique sensibility to the coast, with playful branding and eye-catchingly graphic interiors – from Elin Langlieb and Leopard Hospitality. Classic resorts of the 1950s provided the initial inspiration, and even though there’s a dash of Miami and a sip of The French Riviera in the design, the volume has been notched up to reflect Tel Aviv’s altogether more boisterous spirit. 

www.brownhotels.com.

64 Ha’Yarkon Street, Tel Aviv, Israel;

 Tel: 972.3 760 5000; 

 Rates from: $167

The Drisco

 With its Ottoman inspired interiors, The Drisco veers from the unrelentingly hip mid-century and modernist styles more generally seen in Tel Aviv. Boldly patterned rugs, preserved oriental tiles and original murals evoke something of a bygone age – fitting, considering the hotel’s storied past. Built by Evangelist pilgrims in the late 1800s, it once played host to the likes of Mark Twain and Thomas Cook as the region’s most splendid stay. Over a decade’s work from architect and designer Ari Shaltiel has seen the hotel returned to its former glory, with 37 rooms, five suites and an ambient lobby bar. 

4-6 Auerbach Street, Tel Aviv, Israel; 

Tel: 972.3 741 0000, 

 Rates from: $230

www.thedrisco.com.

Hotel Saul

 A 1940s office building turned millennial minded boutique, the 34-bedroom Hotel Saul is as much a neighbourhood hangout as a youthful bolthole. Its ground floor features Tel Aviv’s first gourmet ‘sandwicherie’, Barvazi, while the fourth floor terrace is a space to kick back and make use of the board games on offer. So far, so retro. Dan Troyim’s whimsical interiors knit together flashes of decorative kitsch with handsome walnut furniture, while whitewashed brick walls play canvas to lolling pot plants. And if there’s any remaining doubt as to the joint’s target demo, rooms feature Netflix and buckets of popcorn to order. 

17 Tschernichowski Street, Tel Aviv, Israel; 

Tel: 972.3 527 7700, 

Rates from: $115

www.hotelsaul.com.

Lily & Bloom 

An ode to Bauhaus and a tale of Tel Aviv given form, Lily & Bloom draws together the dual personalities of the city – on the one hand modernity, in the shape of the fictitious Ms Lily, and on the other, classic refinement, embodied by Mr Bloom. The 37-room boutique, and former 1930s bank, represents a compelling love affair between the two. Studio MU’s design incorporates period elements, such as the bank’s original safe, to hammer home a sense of history, while contemporary touches include specially commissioned mezuzas with Marc Chagall artwork, and handmade Italian furniture. 

48 Lilienblum Street, Tel Aviv, Israel; 

Tel: 972.72 248 4848; 

Rates from: $190

www.lilyandbloom.com.

Poli House

 Situated on the frenzied Magen David Square and just metres from the raucous market stalls of Shuk HaCarmel, Poli House is an exercise in energetic aesthetics. It’s the first project from renowned designer Karim Rashid in the city, and his brazen signature style abounds in every bulbous, neon coloured piece of furniture and serpentine architectural line. Featuring 40 rooms and suites, the renovated Bauhaus building is now the square’s most defining structure, and on a typical weekend the throbbing music and crowd-chatter from its destination rooftop bar is enough to cut through the din of the traffic below. 

1 Nahalat Binyamin Street, Tel Aviv, Israel; 

Tel: 972.3 710 5000;

Rates from: $170

www.thepolihouse.com. 

The Norman 

Tel Aviv’s Nachmani Street, in the heart of the White City, sees neat low-rise buildings huddle behind bowing trees. Despite the proximity to Rothschild Boulevard, here the frenetic urban pace slows to a gentle stroll. This more languid air runs through The Norman, with its wooden ceiling fans, gentle light and flickering curtains. Sagrada’s David d’Almada is responsible for the nostalgic design, drawing upon a romanticised 1920s. Statement light pieces from Collier Webb throw great curving shadows across the grand public spaces while the 30 bedrooms and 20 suites feature an artfully discordant assembly of prints and daring colours. 

www.thenorman.com.

23-25 Nachmani Street, Tel Aviv, Israel;

 Tel: 972.3 543 5555; 

 Rates from: $550

The Lighthouse 

While the Brown Hotels group is known for its bijou but characterful properties, The Lighthouse represents its largest project to date – a 100-room, Brutalist-style tower block that looms over the bustling Allenby Street. But though bigger in stature than Brown’s other digs, the trademark charm remains. Leon Avigad – co-founder of the group – partnered with local architect Nestor Sandbank on the design. It’s a riot of carefully curated peculiarity. A birdcage swing in the lobby entices guests to shirk off their inhibitions and dimly lit hallways are emblazoned with flashes of flamingo pink and marigold. 

Migdalor Tower, 1 Ben Yehuda Street, Tel Aviv, Israel;

 Tel: 972.3 974 7045, 

 Rates from: $170

www.brownhotels.com. 

The Setai

 Once an Ottoman prison, today there are few who would complain about a stint in The Setai. Although it bears an initial similarity to the nearby The Jaffa – both renovations of deeply historic buildings, bolstered by contemporary architectural additions – venture inside and a markedly different vision unfolds. ARA Design leaned heavily on period influences, with Arabesque motifs, Turkish rugs and light fittings with ornately tessellated grills – a staple of Islamic design. The hotel’s restaurant and bar blend contemporary Israeli food culture with traditional Turkish elements – the latter dressed with bespoke Brazilian blue marble conceived by local architecture studio, Baranowitz & Kronenberg. 

22 David Raziel Street, Tel Aviv, Israel,

 Tel: 972.3 601 6000;

 Rates from: $520

www.thesetaihotel.co.il. 

The Vera 

A 39-room boutique close to artistic Neve Tzedek and hip Florentin, The Vera manages to marry the industrial with the comfortable, seducing guests with its feeling of cosseted privacy – the natty wraparound courtyard alone is a pocket of ease in an otherwise unruly metropolis. Inside, polished concrete and unplastered walls are made friendly with soft seating, plush rugs and stacks of photography tomes that invite visitors to linger. Yaron Tal Studio led the interiors charge, and guestrooms are a pithy combination of black and grey. The dual-level rooftop, meanwhile, is a terrific spot from which to take in the nearby Shalom Meir, Israel’s first skyscraper. 

www.theverahotel.com.

27 Lilienblum Street, Tel Aviv, Israel;

 Tel: 972.3 778 3800; 

 Rates from: $190

With its glut of plant-based eateries and decidedly veg-focused population, Tel Aviv has been called the vegan capital of the world. But even with over 400 vegan joints in the city, Opa restaurant represents a vision as fresh as Chef Shirel Berger’s acclaimed fare.

Located in the scruffy-but-hip Levinksy Market, Opa’s curt, modernist façade is a departure from the tumbledown grocery shops and wholesale stores that otherwise dominate. With its combination of glass and dry wall it’s ‘more art gallery than restaurant', says Craft & Bloom’s Emma Shahar, who partnered with architect Vered Kadouri on the design.

Inside, the style draws from Berger’s cuisine – clean, minimal and locally sourced. Neutral plaster walls and buffed concrete flooring play canvas to restrained furnishings, with ceramics by Telavivi makers Merav Waldman and Leehee of Out Wandering, while neat decorative lights were designed by Craft & Bloom and made in Jaffa. A discreet inner patio, painted in white, is fashioned from Hevron stone – hand cut just 25 minutes outside the city. 

The relative simplicity of the interiors articulates a clear, but quietly told, story of provenance, central to Opa’s ethos. Chef Berger – who formerly headed the kitchen at Sarona Market’s now defunct Miss Kaplan – sources from a single, family-run farm 40-minutes north of Tel Aviv, working with seasonal produce to create dishes that are intended to please the eye as much as the palate. Macadamia milk is combined with sourdough crumb; dehydrated Dijon mustard with mint and lemon zest; and oyster mushrooms with crispy tapioca, in a menu that delivers an inspired take on vegan cuisine, even by the standards of its capital.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

8 Ha-Khalutzim Street

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At ground level, it is Tel Aviv’s neat rows of bright white Bauhaus buildings that feel most indicative of this metropolis on the Mediterranean. The serrated skyline meanwhile, is dominated by vast contemporary shards of glass and steel. Slightly at odds with both is the Migdalor – or Lighthouse – tower, a 16-storey, 1970s office block that, until recently, was wallowing in grim disrepair. But as is now frequently the case in a newly booming city, a bright young hotelier stepped forth to drag the Brutalist-style building back from the brink, and reimagine it as a sprightly, design-led hotel.

The Lighthouse is the latest opening from Brown Hotels and, with 100 guestrooms and suites (rising to 160 in phase two), its largest project to date by some stretch. The group’s co-founder Leon Avigad partnered with local architect Nestor Sandbank on the interiors – a curated vision of peculiarity and whimsy.

Rather fitting for a building that is itself something of an outsider, there’s little by way of understatement. A birdcage swing hangs in the lobby, antlers are mounted on walls and on the colour front, flashes of flamingo pink and marigold bring a sense of vitality to moodily-lit hallways.

Bedrooms are larger than average for the city, and some feature vast terraces with outdoor Jacuzzis, garden walls and clear views to the Mediterranean Sea or panoramic vistas of the Tel Aviv skyline.

With an Israeli-centric food offer, guests can make use of a fifth floor restaurant specialising in fish and dairy. While for those who prefer to keep the party going, Brown Hotels have also partnered with local events group, ARIA, on a slew of in-house nightlife options – including a rooftop bar that is the new shining light atop this thankfully revived lighthouse, ensuring guests are unlikely to run aground on the treacherous shores of boredom.

ADDRESS

Migdalor Tower
1 Ben Yehuda St

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Hidden behind an unassuming gate on a small, cobbled street in the old city of Jaffa, just five minutes walk from the new John Pawson-designed hotel, The Jaffa, is the wellness centre Yoko Kitahara, named after its eponymous owner.

What was two 500-year-old Ottoman-era homes, is now a stripped back, serene ‘house of treatment’ with five peaceful treatment rooms and a retail space, where guests are invited to enjoy what Kitahara describes as a ‘minimalist and accurate experience’.

The building, which features expressive, vaulted ceilings, smooth tiled floors and walls finished with a traditional mix of clay and sand in the softest natural shades, feels entirely rooted in its local history and architectural vernacular. Yet with Kitahara’s own subtle hand applied to the interior design, there’s an immediate sense of her Japanese heritage: humble, respectful, unadorned, but with added vintage elements, such as a pair of Eames chairs, a Scandinavian coffee table, and low-key lighting.

A tearoom with a bespoke Tatami mat made in Kyoto, looks out to the sea. A quiet soundtrack, a subtle waft of incense, an invitation to take Japanese tea and soak one’s feet in an ashiyu wooden bath prior to treatments, ensure every sense is gently engaged.

Kitahara moved from Japan to Tel Aviv 13 years ago and began practising her own type of massage, which blends both eastern and western techniques, drawing upon traditional Shiatsu and Swedish massage. This wellness centre, which opened in October 2017, offers a compact and effective treatment list including the house massage Hogushi Aroma – Hogushi means ‘to release and open’ in Japanese – as well as facials and a body scrub. All products used are organic.

‘We try to make a treatment flow, it’s more of a philosophy of how to treat the people and to connect with nature,’ explains Kitahara. ‘That’s really important for me – to give more. We use a lot of breathing techniques between therapist and client. The use of aromatherapy and essential oils, hot towels, changing the temperature – it’s like a voyage of relaxation. We want people to come and enjoy it in a very simple way’.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Yoko Kitahara website

ADDRESS

Kikar Kdumim 5
Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

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San Francisco and Tel Aviv-based architecture and design studio Axelrod has renovated an apartment in the 1934 Zamenhof Clinic building in Tel Aviv. The former medical building designed in Bauhaus-style, like many of the buildings in the neighbourhood, underwent a transformation into a residential complex with much of the original interior architecture retained.

Axelrod’s job was to bring definition and domesticity to the 200 sq m, irregularly shaped shell. Principal architect Irit Axelrod led the design, choosing to embrace original features of the building such as the rough concrete ceiling that was left exposed, as well as a heavy structural pillar and the electricity and air-con ducts.

Balancing this preservation of the architecture’s commercial character, careful attention was paid to the remaining surfaces across the apartment. Herringbone oak flooring by Dilegno brought warmth, stain-painted concrete walls brought a softer more finished texture, while glass, custom cabinetry and black steel partitions developed the identity of the space.

A free-standing container with a black steel patina finish that floats in the middle of the open plan space solved the practicalities of the design. It hides an en suite bathroom, guest bathroom and powder room, storage and a laundry room. Meanwhile, its exterior hosts a bespoke shelving system for the display of the client’s books and art, and tucked into the container’s fourth side is a neat office desk.

Across the whole loft, clever use of lighting shapes the space, creating a continuous aesthetic through wiring, fixed lights and over-sized lamps by ViaBizzuno and David Groppi.

The master and guest bedrooms are located on the other side of the container, separated by a custom-made two-sided wardrobe above which a glass wall extends to the ceiling to create a light partition, that adds to the spacious aesthetic of the loft. Sliding doors neatly extend from the wardrobes, to close off the bedrooms for privacy when required.

Stainless steel DaDa kitchen islands and aluminium grey cabinets reflect light across the space while continuing the industrial look. In the heart of the space around which daily life revolves, Eames dining chairs, a Vitra lounge chair and sofa by Living Divani further set the Bauhaus scene.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Axelrod website

A former office building from the 1940s has been reinvented as Hotel Saul, a thoroughly modern addition to Tel Aviv’s boutique hotel scene.

Named after the great Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky, this 34-room-bolthole chronicles the city’s compact but colourful history. The ornamental grandeur of the art deco period is alluded to with brass tiles; further nostalgia is incorporated with restored street lamps, vintage balcony railings, and wood panelling.

Yet don’t be fooled into thinking this is a heritage-style property. Architect Dan Troyim has catered to design-conscious urbanites with a decidedly contemporary interior that contrasts whitewashed brick walls and exposed concrete against the sleek lines of walnut furniture. While the pared back furnishings are pure bachelor pad, homely splashes of colour are added by framed geometric prints, the verdant leaves of a potted plant, and the smoky blue of handwoven Turkish linen.

Hotel Saul takes its commitment to millennial creature comforts seriously. Swing by the Barvazi cafe in the lobby for gourmet sandwiches with home-smoked meats and cheeses, or head to the fourth floor for board games. Should a ‘Netflix and chill’ night be in order, there’s an in-room account, plus Nintendo and Playstation games. Peckish? They’ll even deliver a bucket of popcorn to your door.

ADDRESS

Tchernikhovski St 17

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Flexibility and imaginative engineering meet at the building site for ToHA – a.k.a Totseret Ha-Aretz – in Tel Aviv. The new development, designed by Ron Arad, has been rising fast in the Israeli town, gearing up to make its mark on the city’s skyline.

The result of a joint venture between local developers Amot and Gav-Yam, the complex consists of two towers – one 28 storeys and the other 63 storeys high – which are situated next to each other on a common base of commercial facilities and a split-level planted and landscaped public space. Offices will occupy the upper floors, while two roof terraces at the top will host a number of restaurants and facilities open to the public. A sky bridge will connect the two towers.

Located a stone’s throw from the train station in the heart of Tel Aviv, the project stands out not just for its overall modern style and nature – the site was a rare opportunity for a new-build scheme in the centre of town – but also for its distinctive volume. The buildings’ eye-catching outline was carefully sculpted to negotiate various requirements, from lighting needs to several site constraints and local planning regulations.

Indeed, the structure is full of ingenious solutions, spearheaded by the team’s innovative thinking. Its unusual distribution of massing, stepped façade and the internal arrangement were key. ‘We refer to this as the upside-down building’, says Arad. ‘Plant and machinery are placed down below, freeing up the roof and upper levels for delight and enjoyment. We managed to achieve a seriously small footprint for such a large building, with “legs” that are sprouting from a lush park, rather than a shopping mall’. This gesture helps free up ground space for circulation to create a sense of space and avoid unnecessary density.

‘The lower technical levels are clad with a permeable façade of cross-mounted panels, creating an “X” pattern’, continue the architects. ‘This woven-like arrangement allows for plant facility ventilation, and provides a coherent aesthetic to the first seven floors of the building.’

Currently, construction is moving full steam ahead at the Tel Aviv building site, and the team aims to complete Phase 1 – the first tower – by the end of 2018. That is when construction will begin on the second and last phase, aiming for full completion of the second tower and surrounding landscaping by 2022.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Ron Arad website

Geographically The Vera sits neatly within touching distance of three of Tel Aviv’s most distinct areas: the grand stretch of Rothschild Boulevard, with its steely high rises; the artistic Neve Tzedek; and Florentin, the latest ‘hipster hood’, where locals ease into relaxed bars via elegantly faded facades.

In its design, overseen by Yaron Tal Studio, the 39-key boutique draws from each, blending sharp, considered modernity with a sense of put-your-feet-up ease. In the lobby-cum-bar, relaxed furnishings, a help-yourself wine machine and a scattering of curated coffee table books invite guests to linger. Raw, unplastered walls and polished concrete nod to the historic soul of the building, which – like so many others in the city – is a renovation project.

It is the first solo hotel from Danny Tamari, a native who cut his cloth working for the likes of Rocco Forte Hotels and Morgan’s Hotel Group, and in many ways it is his love letter to the city. Tamari’s idea was to create a ‘local anthology’: a project that showcases Tel Aviv’s fertile talent and speaks to a creative, idiosyncratic destination. Bespoke furniture comes from Tel Aviv-based designer Tomer Nachson, while Ohad Benit developed unique light fixtures. 

Guestrooms stick to a pithy combination of greys, white, black and brown, while on the dazzling dual-level rooftop, wood meets Mediterranean greenery. From here guests can gaze across to the handsome Shalom Meir Tower, an iconic 1960s skyscraper currently undergoing a facelift. It is the view of a city constantly reimagining itself – much like the view indoors. 

ADDRESS

Lilenblum 27

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If only the walls could talk at The Setai, a property that’s been accommodating people for the last millennia. Located in the ancient port city of Jaffa on the southern fringes of Tel Aviv, the hotel pays homage to its fascinating – and sometimes brutal – history through distinctive design features and Ottoman-inspired decor. 

Over a 12-year renovation period, local firm Feigin Architects have carefully integrated archaeological features even as they added two floors and a new wing. Spectacular stone archways date back to its days as a Crusader fortress while spiked iron bars set atop heavy stone windows recall its use as a prison during the Ottoman era. Glance up to spot the royal seal of Abdul Hamid II – the last Sultan to rule with absolute authority before the empire crumbled – stamped in stone above the hotel entrance.

Building upon this legacy, ARA Design have created rich interiors that blend the tech-driven modernity of Tel Aviv with Jaffa-specific references. In each of the 120 rooms, traditional Turkish rugs and intricate, Arabic-inspired light fixtures nod to the hotel’s Middle Eastern heritage. A sunny central courtyard draws upon another tenet of Islamic design while, in the cavernous ground floor bar, jewel-coloured armchairs sit under a glittering chandelier. In the basement spa, a hammam awaits. 

ADDRESS

David Razi'el St 22

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Hotel Nordoy is a bit of a local treasure in Tel Aviv’s buzzy Nachlat Binyamin. Its beguiling façade – an eclectic marriage of rich dusky pink walls and striking silver dome – has been greeting visitors on the corner of Gruzenberg and Nahalat Binyamin since the hotel opened its doors in 1925. 

Years of service had up until recently left the hotel in a rather tired state, but thanks to a changing of the guard and meticulous restoration and renovation by the folks who introduced wonderfully quirky Cucu hotel to the city’s burgeoning boutique hotel landscape, Tel Aviv’s oldest hotel is back in the game. 

The newly relaunched Hotel Nordoy is a contemporary, intimate proposition of 20 smartly furnished rooms and suites, a rooftop lounge, spa and a soon-to-be-opened restaurant. 

Much of Hotel Nordoy’s charm lies in its original features and local architect Amnon Bar Or has overseen a sympathetic architectural restoration of the building to retain as many of them, including that of the main stairwell and the exact shade of pink that adorned the exterior walls almost 100 years ago.

Inside, contemporary East-meets-West interiors by designer Omer Leichter sees a warm palette of brown and nude sit alongside accents of gold, marble and leather in all the rooms. Guests can expect a curated selection of artworks on the walls, crisp white cotton bedding and Ahava toiletries from the Dead Sea.

ADDRESS

7 Nahalat Binyamin St

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Known as Israel’s cultural capital, Tel Aviv has an architectural identity that is a tale of two cities. The sun-drenched secular metropolis is loved internationally for its bohemian Bauhaus treasures, with some 4,000 historic buildings scattered across the broad, verdant boulevards of its White City district.

Then there’s its less recognised postmodern legacy: perhaps best summarised by the 34,500 sq m spacescape of the Azrieli Centre – its epic trifecta of towers completed by Eli Attia & Yaski Sivan Architects just shy of the millennium, reflecting all the futuristic optimism of the late 90s through its design.

This split personality is soothed by Jaffa, the historical port just south of the city that has now become the go-to destination for Tel Avivian nightlife entertainment. Countless clubs and 24-hour art venues like the new Magasin III are setting a new standard for the city’s late night culture junkies.

Meanwhile, Israel’s startup scene continues to flourish in the ‘Silicon Wadi’ tech cluster surrounding Tel Aviv. Venture capital-friendly tax breaks introduced during the 90s through Israel’s Yozma business incubator programme combine with the warm weather and high living standards to encourage a more or less steady stream of tech outposts in Tel Aviv.

Giants like Facebook, Apple, and Amazon get cosy with specialist groups like WeWork, drone safety startup ParaZero and VR darling Magic Leap, all of which have bought into multiple floors of upcoming tower projects including Ron Arad’s ToHA development, Pitsou Kedem’s C6 Tower and the 72-floor Sarona Tower which nears completion.

Tel Aviv’s endless blue skies may yet have found their match in the city’s vertical expansion.

C6 Tower
Architecture by MYS Architects and interiors by Pitsou Kedem
2019

Tel Avivian architectural mainstays MYS Architects join forces with designer-favorite Pitsou Kedem to realize the $50m, 50,000sq m Acro C6 Tower. Climbing to 34 floors, the mixed-use tower will primarily consist of office units anchored by 3 floors of commercial activity. Conceived of as an art-architecture fusion, the Bauhaus-inspired structure will host its own art gallery, conceptual light installations, and bespoke carpeting as part of its interior design by Pitsou Kedem.

Rothschild Tower
Richard Meier & Partners
2017

A household name in the West, Richard Meier’s Bauhaus-inspired residential tower straddles the lengths of the famed Rothschild Boulevard, and bumps elbows with concurrent products of Tel Aviv’s current tech tower boom including the Sarona Tower and iconic Azrieli Centre.

ToHA Towers
Ron Arad
Scheduled for 2018

It’s rare for a 1.8 hectare site to become available in any city centre; British architect Ron Arad’s in-progress ToHA will grace its namesake, Totzeret Haaretz Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv near the bohemian paradise of Carmel Market. Nicknamed the ‘Iceberg’, its two office towers clock in at 28 floors and 63 floors, together offering 160,000 sq m of floor space. Still, the complex will remain light on its feet, supported by slim core ‘legs’ enmeshed within densely planted landscape.

Bein Arim Tower
Miloslavsky architects
2021

Whatever way you cut it – 100 stories, 400 m tall, or 150,000 m² of floor space – Bein Arim tower will be epic. Already building its reputation as Israel’s own Empire State building, the triangular-shaped structure will take root near the Savidor Central Railway Station at the eastern end of Tel Aviv. Its three sides will symbolically and financially link Tel Aviv to neighbouring Ramat Gan and Givatayim, as partnered cities in the project.

Tel Aviv School of Entrepreneurship
David S Robins (Robinsalliance) and Dan Price (Price Piltzer Yawitz Architects)
2016

Stationed like some industrial aquatic creature on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship melds Mediterranean Bauhaus with factory-like exposed functionality. Fins of metal mesh and concrete shield the dark glazed glass façade, which allows a generous glimpse into the building’s inner activity. A suspended steel central staircase anchors the top three floors of classrooms and offices to the open public space and exhibition hall below.

Gordon Gallery
Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture
2017

Gordon Gallery’s third outlet in Tel Aviv is nestled on the southern fringe of the city, leaning into the adjacent gallery hotspot of Shapira. A glowing slab of concrete sandwiched between carpentry workshops and a zipper factory, the airy 165 m² space is intended to host a range of contemporary artwork.

Magasin III
Goldschmid Arditi Ben Naim Architects
2018

Swedish contemporary art museum and foundation Magasin III opened its Jaffa outpost in early 2018, taking the all-hours lifestyle of the city as its point of inspiration for a 24/7 programme. Tapping Israeli architects Goldschmid Arditi Ben Naim for the sophisticated renovation of the 100-year old building, Magasin III’s light-washed interiors never sleep, but mark a new dawn for Tel Aviv’s art scene.

Photography: Youval Hai

Arsuf Residences
Gottesman-Szmelcman Architecture
2017

Still, the techies gotta sleep too sometimes, and Western media outlets’ dominant typecast of Tel Aviv’s architecture scene as sleek modernist residential projects isn’t without reason. This razor-sharp residential complex by Israeli-Franco Gottesman-Szmelcman Architecture was built for the gated coastal community of Arsuf, Israel, just north of Tel Aviv. It offers stunning sea views and borders the scenic Apollonia National Park. Each of its ten apartments has its own unique layout and size, cultivating the sense of a mini-village.

Working with the existing urban fabric is many architects’ bread and butter, with extensions and refurbishments making up a large chunk of the more city-dwelling practices’ residential projects; yet this doesn’t mean the designs are any less inspirational than their more rural – and often larger – counterparts. Israeli Kedem Shinar’s latest interior design is a case in point.

Created within an original 1960s, 110 sq m apartment in the heart of Tel Aviv, the project consisted of the complete transformation of the interiors into a space that is ‘contemporary and young’.

The architect’s solution revolved around opening up the public spaces, uniting living, kitchen and dinning areas into a bright, coherent whole. ‘The original apartment layout contained a very long and dark living room, across a length of only half of the building façade’, recalls the architect. ‘This prevented the penetration of light to the deeper parts of the house. The biggest challenge for me here was to increase the sense of light and spaciousness of the public area.’ Offsetting this, the more private spaces are tucked away at the back of the house, and include the master suite and two children’s bedrooms.  

Inspired by two-dimensional design, the architect incorporated plenty of graphic details and references, such as a custom-made lamp in the living room, which ‘climbs up the wall in straight angles, white tile cladding with colourful grout in two bathrooms, thus creating grid-like compositions’, she explains.

‘I was influenced by a blend between de stijl graphic design with linear straight angles and areas of colour, but with a muted, softer palette of colours,’ she continues. ‘The local Tel Aviv Bauhaus architecture is a further source of inspiration – including clean linear lines, white washed walls as well as black profile windows.’

The chosen materials play a key role in the apartment’s overall feel. Shinar opted for light grey hardwood floor that mimics the tone of concrete, but adds warmth. Custom-made carpentry and exposing the original ironmongery highlight the building’s historical character and 1960s design, creating a clear thread that brings together past, present and future.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Kedem Shinar Design website

Hotelier Leon Avigad has dusted off a 19th-century villa in the Russian Compound district of Jerusalem to transform it into Villa Brown. Unlike his Tel Aviv properties, this one does not tap into the 1970s disco or Miami Beach vibe, but instead takes its cues from the late Ottoman Empire period, a cultural pinnacle of Jerusalem, and its former owner, a storied doctor at the Rothschild Hospital, whose own soirées were legendary.

Local architects Galit Shifman Bar-Natan and Michal Cohen Magen have quietly restored the villa, adding two new floors, including a rooftop terrace that looks onto the neighbouring Ethiopian Church. The building’s golden Jerusalem stone, that gives the city its visual harmony, is a striking background for the subtle Ottoman décor; the front desk is a prayer stand from Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood, ornate golden trays are from the Muslim quarter in East Jerusalem, while the 24 guestrooms are done up in jewel-coloured velvet textiles

The Cave Bar has been dug out of the villa’s old well and an arched courtyard, overlooking the hills of Jerusalem is the perfect spot for high tea.

ADDRESS

54 Ha'Neviim St

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From its perch on King David Street, a short stride from the Old City’s western Jaffa Gate, the David Citadel has kept tabs on Jerusalem’s visiting elite since it first opened its doors nearly two decades ago.

Now in a bid to maintain its iconic status, the property has been coaxed back to life by Italian designer Piero Lissoni, whose mood board takes its cues from the city’s honeyed tones; timber wall panels and oak parquet flooring sets the scene for a masculine aesthetic that is pulled together with custom Lissoni-designed furnishings, lighting by Flos and a rich colour palette accented with royal blue, bottle green and threads of gold.

Meanwhile, graphic serigraphed glass panels in each of the guest rooms have been inspired by Scottish artist David Roberts’ 1834 tour of what is now modern-day Israel.

The Seasons restaurant is due to re-open soon, but no matter: a taste of that famous Israeli breakfast can be sampled at the nearby Mahane Yehuda Market, a quick 20-minute walk away. 

ADDRESS

7 King David Street

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Taking inspiration from its next door neighbour, the Bezalel Academy of Arts, Jerusalem’s newest boutique hotel pays homage to the city’s local design and Israel’s artistic past and present.

Housed in a restored landmark building among the winding lanes, hidden courtyards and small synagogues in the city’s central Nachlaot neighbourhood, the 37-room property has been designed by local duo Michael Ankava and Uri Ben Dror, who have brought Jerusalem’s unique artistic energy indoors. Both Bezalel graduates themselves, the pair filled the interior with locally-made furniture including traditional tiles that grace the lobby and suspended light installations by Tel Aviv-based Naama Hoffman, which line the halls. Each guest room meanwhile, showcases artwork from the hotel’s collaboration with the renowned Jerusalem Print Workshop.

Bezalel’s Israeli flavour doesn’t end at its interiors; every morning, guests are treated to a traditional breakfast sourced from Jerusalem’s busiest market, Mahane Yehuda, just steps from the hotel, and local wines served in the cosy dining room or the open-air patio are the perfect start to an evening before stepping out into the lively neighbourhood and taking a short walk to some of the best restaurants and religious sites of the Old City – ideal for visitors looking for a mix of old and new.

ADDRESS

1 Mesilat Yesharim Street

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Adjacent to Tel Aviv’s bustling Carmel Market, in a 1930s Bauhaus building, restored by architect Nitza Szmuk, the 40-room Poli House is the newest property from family-owned hospitality outfit, the Dayan Group and the Brown Hotels collection.

Inside, Canadian-American designer Karim Rashid has taken his cues from the tech-savvy, forward-thinking city, with neon colours, mesmerising graphics and ultramodern shapes. Elevators flourished with custom mood lighting and LED screens that display the local weather conditions, whisk new arrivals up to the rooftop for check in, where an infinity pool and sweeping city views make for an impressive first impression.

Downstairs, immerse yourself in a novel from the onsite bookstore while sipping on organic coffee in the Breakfast Café’s secret garden, or simply stroll over to the  market next door for a high-voltage dose of Tel Avivian food and culture.

ADDRESS

1 Nachalat Binyamin St

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The history of the Bauhaus in Tel Aviv begins before Israel existed. A number of German Jewish architects, fleeing the tyranny of Hitler – who had shut down the then Berlin-based Bauhaus by 1933 – arrived in Mandatory Palestine in the early 1930s, and set about constructing buildings in an atmosphere of social and political idealism that perfectly suited the Bauhausian aspiration of improving quality of life through design and architecture.

Between 1930 and 1948, together with architects from the region, they developed a distinctive style, influenced by Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus in Europe, but adapted to the fierce Middle Eastern sun and the exigencies of the terrain and culture.

The result was the emergence of a distinctive local modernism – easily recognisable in its use of white plaster, recessed windows, flat roofs and long narrow balconies, introduced for the climate. This can be seen in 4,000 buildings today in Tel Aviv – the largest number in the Bauhaus or International Style of any city, anywhere in the world. In 2003, the White City – as this collection of structures is known – was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and more than half of its buildings are now under protection.

'Today, efforts are being made to restore many previously neglected buildings, and one can see already quite a lot of wonderfully restored buildings throughout the White City,' says Micha Gross, of the Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv. The centre, dedicated to archiving and documenting the White City, arranges guided tours every Friday.

Meanwhile, to celebrate the remarkable history of the Bauhaus in the city, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is presenting a new exhibition (a 1984 show on Bauhaus at the museum popularised the term 'White City') featuring a wealth of material, documentation and photographs. The survey also includes works by Bauhaus masters Oskar Schlemmer and Walter Gropius, connecting their concerns to those of contemporary designers such as Konstantin Grcic, Van Bo Le-Mentzel, Studio Minale-Maeda, Front Design, Unfold and Opendesk. Proof that, heritage status notwithstanding, the Bauhaus in Tel Aviv is still very much alive.

INFORMATION

’The Bauhaus #itsallaboutdesign’ is on view until 7 January 2017. For more information, visit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art website

ADDRESS

Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Sderot Sha'ul HaMelech 27
Tel Aviv-Yafo, 61332012

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Paritzki & Liani, the Israel-based architecture firm founded by Paola Liani and Itai Paritzki, has unveiled the first-ever Kure Boutique beauty salon (and store) located on the popular Frishman Street in the heart of Tel Aviv. The beauty clinic specialises in pedicures, manicures, facial treatments and hair removal, as well as treatments aimed at men.

Located on the ground floor of a residential building, the design duo was tasked to create a 'bright and multi-purpose salon'. To create an atmosphere of natural light in the space, they designed two stretched backlit plastic membranes and positioned them along different distances on the main walls in order to enhance the depth of the room.

A thick black carpet covers the stairs and the walls of the second floor. The basic idea of this part of the clinic was to recreate an overall sense of softness and hushed atmosphere over the floor. The glass wall of the treatment rooms further extends this level, by the vis-à-vis mirrors and the large number of fluorescent neon lights on the ceiling.

'In this project we explore the walls as emitters of different hues of experience. The contrast is between the permanent white back-light, the fluorescent walls in the entrance area and the primordial darkness of black where black plays the role of void of light, as in the plate of Robert Fludd,' the duo said. (Fludd was a 17th century physician and occultist, who included a black page in a 1617 publication.) 'The lack of light keeps a roughness that drags you inside. In our work, many details evoke the immaterial phenomena of illusion in space.'

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Kure Boutique website

Photography: Amit Geron

Tel Aviv continues its boutique hotel building boom with the addition of White Villa, an intimate property without pretence but lots of character. 

Inspired by Le Corbusier, original architect Samuel Barkai designed the house as a private residence in 1947. Like most properties built in the international style of the time, the two-floor villa stood on poles above street level. Today the property features 18 simple but elegant rooms, a rooftop patio, a spiral staircase that runs through its core, and a verdant front porch where breakfast and drinks are served. Rooms on the ground floor open to private terraces while a handful of other rooms feature balconies. Though on the small side, the feeling throughout is light and airy thanks to white-on-white decor and elegant furnishings. Bespoke toiletries are by local perfumer Erez Zelinsky Rozen. 

Architect Stephano Dorata took five years to complete the project due to Israel’s strict preservation codes. During that time Dorata worked meticulously to maintain the spirit of the house by adding fireplaces and elegant banisters. Common areas are limited to a lounge decorated with comfortable sofas and a bookshelf lined with Taschen and Phaidon tomes, while the breakfast room features a handful of tables. A lush front porch offers additional seating for a morning coffee or afternoon cocktail. 

Ideally located on Ben Tsiyon Boulevard, the property is an easy stroll to Dizengoff Centre, Rothschild Boulevard and the beach. Guests can borrow a white beach cruiser bikes to explore the city. 

ADDRESS

Ben Tsiyon Blvd 25

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Early one recent Monday morning, while much of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art was just waking up, one expansive room had already come to life. The walls, filled with the work of Israeli artist David Tartakover, were inspiring conversations that ranged from political to personal – just as the artist intended.

Tartakover is perhaps the most famous artist in Israel, something he accomplished by tackling the country’s political history head-on in his minimalist poster design. Born in 1944, before Israel established statehood in 1948, Tartakover has borne witness to his country’s cultural and political evolution and been an active participant – he won the coveted Israel Prize in 2002.

Simply titled 'David Tartakover: The Exhibition', the Tel Aviv retrospective draws from nearly every area of Tartakover’s design work. The artist and curator Irith Hadar did not work chronologically, and six open-plan sections allow Tartakover’s straightforward image and text combinations to reveal the weight of Israel’s history.

Collages of newspaper clippings and photographs illustrating the 1967 war sit alongside Tartakover’s well-known ‘anniversary’ posters, which chronicle the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in the years that have followed. Photographs from the series I’m here – which insert and identify the ‘artist’ himself in news imagery – are found around the corner from a wall dubbed 'Tartakover and Friends', a salon-style hang of cultural imagery that inspires him.

'Tartakover leaves things open for thinking and for rethinking,' Hadar says. 'It’s not that he says "this is the way". He takes phrases we know, images we know and he combines them in a way that you have to think about them.'

The exhibition runs until 24 October, and is sure to keep visitors thinking and rethinking long after they leave the museum.

INFORMATION

’David Tartakover: The Exhibition’ is on view until 24 October. For more information, visit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s website

Photography courtesy the artist and Tel Aviv Museum of Art

ADDRESS

Tel Aviv Museum of Art
27 Shaul Hamelech Boulevard
61332012, Tel Aviv

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At a major new exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the impact of European modernism on the architecture of British Mandate Palestine reveals the remarkably coherent connections between the new social order and the construction that was happening in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem in the early 20th century.

Focussing on the period between 1930 and 1940, 'Social Construction: Modern Architecture in British Mandate Palestine' spotlights some of Israel’s most iconic buildings, representative of a distinctive regional interpretation of international modernism that emerged. The exhibition draws on architects Ada Karmi-Melamede and Dan Price’s book Architecture in Palestine during the British Mandate, 1917–1948, incorporating 40 beautiful interpretative drawings and 60 archival photographs collected as part of their unprecedented research over 25 years. 'They produced a remarkable body of knowledge that is [as] intelligent as it is beautiful,' says exhibition curator, Oren Sagiv.

With limited resources and technology, and with only local materials available, 'the Zionist modern architects in Palestine were free to experiment and search for their own version of the modern language, which was neither inspired by European technological innovations of the time, nor enamoured with the picturesque local architecture and handicraft', Sagiv explains.

Characterised by functional, geometric forms, as well as other prevalent features such as balconies, stairwells, double walls, pergolas and communal rooftop spaces, the buildings merge public and private spaces, optimising liminal spaces – in direct symbiosis with the social ideology, at a time of transition and turmoil, but also of great hope for a new nation. Sagiv’s approach is not nostalgic, however, but an attempt to redefine the way the public look at the buildings from this period, many of which are starting to vanish, with the proliferation of new construction projects in Israel’s cities.

The exhibition also illuminates the way in which cities developed. While European apartment blocks of the time were typically in contact, most of those in British Mandate Palestine were freestanding – a result of 'garden city' inspired town planning. 'Yet they still came together as homogeneous urban façades,' Sagiv continues. Typically three or four stories high, the cumulative designs produced a sense of 'horizontal continuity'. 'This contributes to an important aspect of the local modernist language: the urban modern space. [...] Unlike many places in the world, the modernist typology in Palestine actually developed into an architecture of streets and public spaces, creating an urban fabric that went beyond the singularity of individual buildings.'

INFORMATION
’Social Construction: Modern Architecture in British Mandate Palestine’ is on view until 31 December. For more information, visit the the Israel Museum’s website

ADDRESS

Palevsky Design Pavilion
Israel Museum
Derech Ruppin
Jerusalem

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The most exciting dining destination in the Middle East (and, arguably, in the Mediterranean) is Tel Aviv, where young chefs explore a wide spectrum of culinary traditions and add a unique slant. Nowhere is this more evident than at OCD, helmed by a rising star in Israel’s culinary world.

The restaurant’s name comes from the young chef, Raz Rahav, and his obsession with complex, precise cooking, and elaborate plating. OCD offers two sittings per night and reservations are required in advance. There is no menu from which to choose. Instead, guests inform the restaurant of any dietary restrictions at the time of booking, and Rahav creates a nine-course culinary adventure, which changes monthly, using local ingredients sourced from farms and handpicked vendors. 

Local architecture firm, AKD Studio, took on the challenge to transform a former steel engraving plant in Noga Complex, a rising design area on the edge of Jaffa, into a inviting space of raw concrete, glass, wood, white walls, and brick. The choice of materials and the ceiling’s exposed oak beams lend the space a barnlike vibe—albeit a very restrained and modern barn. 

At the centre of the room is an open-concept kitchen flanked by an Ivanka concrete bar and 18 Penthaus chairs upholstered in chartreuse hued velvet. Bespoke light pendants that hang over the bar keep the mood subdued and warm. A solitary piece of art, which changes often, hangs on an exposed brick wall. 

Throughout the meal, diners are invited to get out of their seats and walk right into the action – just like they might at a friend’s dinner party – to ask questions, take a closer look at how the chef plates each dish, and even take pictures. 

ADDRESS

17 Tirtsa St

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The new building for the faculties of psychology and economics at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya is nestled on a long and narrow site, flanked by eucalyptus trees along its southern and eastern edge.

Designed by Israel- and France-based firm Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture, the project followed an ambitious remit; the fairly tricky site had to accommodate classrooms, computer labs and brain study labs. The result? An elongated building responding to both its brief and the limitations of its site.

'For this project there were various key considerations for us: a commitment to green architecture; a desire to create clear and dynamic relationships between architecture and its surrounding; and a commitment to effectively and harmoniously incorporate carefully defined functions within each building,' explains Ami Szmelcman, one of the partners at the firm.

'We introduced a transparent northern façade that would be able to exploit the benefits of the northern light while establishing a visual relationship with the campus,' he continues. 'Thus, whether students enter or leave their classes, whether they choose to form discussion groups or study on their own within the common parts of the faculty or beyond, they are simultaneously a part of the building and its surroundings.'

The ground floor of the building was slightly raised in order to enhance what Gottesman calls 'lightness'. This gesture emphasises its delicate relationship to the ground and the surrounding mature trees.

'In complete contrast to the building’s northern aspect, the southern façade is typified by its solidity and the incorporation of long narrow windows that introduce sunlight into the building with minimal thermal consequences,' says Szmelcman. 'The pattern of long horizontal openings is extended both to the roof and to the sidewalk; creating a sensation as if the transparent northern façade has been wrapped in a protective skin.'

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture website

Photography: Amit Geron 

In a Tel Aviv neighbourhood filled with high-rises, a new residential property from Israeli architectural firm Pitsou Kedem lies low, but a striking, gleaming white exterior makes sure it’s anything but low profile.

Located in the Old North neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, the property was inspired by the 'English Garden' motif that dominated the area’s mid-century, often contiguous, homes as a way of maximising space in otherwise close quarters. But it also pays homage to a signature Tel Aviv style with its unique latticework facade, mixing concepts to create an intimate home with modern proportions.

Pitsou Kedem says that the two long bands of ironwork windows 'are in conversation, as it were, with the early International Style homes built in Tel Aviv, some of which displayed similar latticework that emulated freedom of form – rendered by indecipherable spatial division.' Key to the design’s functionality is the allowance for plenty of natural, patterned light, while still maintaining privacy.

The exterior of the structure can trick the eye – from the side, the low-pitched roof recalls the 'village home' style that was historically found in the area, but from the front this nearly disappears, maintaining the clean lines of a flat, modern roof.

Inside the home’s 300 sq m, the ground floor living area anchors the open-plan design. The rear of the house is encased in large glazed windows and sliding glass doors, and when opened, it’s as though the landscaped back garden (complete with pool) is a seamless part of the living area as well.

A floating staircase zigzags up one side of the ground floor, leading to the upper-level balcony and the bedrooms. Using glass alongside the stairs, as well as along the balcony that floats over the central living area, the transparency throughout truly adds to the feeling of indoor-outdoor living.

The project was led by Pitsou Kedem’s Noa Groman and features lighting design by Orly Avron Alkabes and interiors by Eti Buskila.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Pitsou Kedem’s website

Photography: Amit Geron

Sushi and a bonsai plant. These are the metaphorical comparisons Nendo's founder Oki Sato makes of his studio's style of design. Design that can produce 100 pieces a year, and simultaneously work on 400 at the same time. Design that astonishes the rest of the industry, with its ability to maintain an impeccable level of purity and hurl out product after product. 'I place a lot of importance on the freshness of the ideas.' He reveals, in his comparison to sushi, 'I try to work quickly, shaping the fish before the heat of my own body is transferred over to it.'

It comes as no surprise that someone was soon going to suggest the idea of a retrospective for the Japanese inventor, but for such a young brand that formed just over ten years ago, it is still quite a feat. The show follows on from the year survey of the studio's work at Salone del Mobile in 2015, and the mesmerising triumph of this year’s the 'Light and Shadow' marble exhibition with Marsotto Edizioni in Milan. It is quite fitting that what comes next is a question of what is between these opposites, in-between the conveyer belt of products, in-between the personal and professional life of Oki Sato and Nendo design.

Housed in the Ron Arad-designed Design Museum Holon in Tel Aviv that just celebrated its fifth anniversary, ‘The Space in Between’ is pulled together by curator Maria Cristina Didero as an almost scientific investigation of the designer’s processes, imagination, shapes and materials, and how they all intrinsically connect. The exhibition opens with a new site-specific piece that brings together the wares of Glas Italia and Caesarstone, titled 'In the shade'. Located within the rusted steel ribs of the Holon's atrium, the contrasting sheets of material cajole with shade and lighting. This tactically introduces us to a running theme with the show's subtleties. ‘Japanese designers really try to look into light and shadow, rather than colours,’ Sato explains.

Following this is the mighty plethora of designs across two floors of the impressive edifice, kindly categorised by Didero into six divisions of 'Between': 'Textures', 'Objects', 'Relationships', 'Boundaries', 'Senses' and 'Processes.'

The research starts on the lower ground floor with an array of 12 unique Nendo chairs, each piece from a different category. Every seat shows his abstract, slightly fairy-tale like versions of an everyday product, from the ‘Fadeout’ chair that blends wood and glass to the ‘Diamond’ chair that looks more like an atomic structure than a chair.

The upper floor is host to the rest of the 74 designs, each arranged in bright white boxes, allowing the different forms to stand out. Here the show travels from the ‘Processes’ section, which highlights the studio's delicate side in the intricacy of the patchwork glass for Lasvit all the way to the ‘Objects’ section that contains the compact emergency aid kit for natural disasters 'MINIM+AID'.

This epic leap from one panache to another continues, whether its is a USB stick paper clip for Elecom that they created with Italian designer Luca Nichetto, or geometric chocolates for Maison&Objet Paris, their elegance is maintained. 'It is possible to find a balance between industry and poetry,' Sato explains, 'I call it the balance between the right brain and the left brain.'

Witnessing such masterpieces bound together, we are also invited into Sato's personal self, which is imbued in every piece. 'Design is part of my everyday life, like breathing or sleeping,' he tells Didero, 'I think that the day I begin to consider design as work will be my final day as a designer.’ We certainly hope that day never comes.

INFORMATION

'Nendo: The Space in Between' is on view until 29 October at Design Museum Holon, for more information, visit the museums's website.

Photography: Takumi Ota

ADDRESS

Pinhas Eilon St. 8 Holon
5845400
Israel

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With the weight of history firmly on its shoulders, Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron is in the midst of constructing one of Israel’s most valuable cultural institutions – its National Library.

The cornerstone for the library’s new permanent home was laid in Jerusalem this April, signalling the start of a four-year construction process in which Herzog & de Meuron aims to unite a number of distinct elements central to the ancient city and the changing state of the modern library.

The new structure will cover 34,000 sq m in West Jerusalem’s National District, amid the nation’s most important civic and cultural institutions, including the Israel Museum and the Knesset. While the city’s architectural heritage conjures images of the narrow, stone-walled streets and souks of the Old City, its crosstown location is defined by contrasting modernity, with plenty of room for the library’s central structural element: a sweeping, singular curve of Jerusalem limestone that forms its upper volume.

Unsurprisingly, books will take centre stage here – a central skylight continues downward through the stone upper levels of the library, creating an illuminated, central void where each curve is lined with books.

Collaborating with Israeli architectural and planning firm Mann Shinar, Herzog & de Meuron has also considered the Library’s mission to evolve in the digital age, marrying the physical collection with the need for creative, interdisciplinary, and often virtual approaches. Five glass vitrines make up the bottom two floors, anchoring the library with its physical collection, rendering the inner-workings of the space visible to passers-by. The stone mass, which sits at the entry level, will also host an exhibition programme, café, bookstore, auditorium and youth centre, with free-flowing access to the central reading room.

'The diversity of functions and the connection to the city ensure that the library will remain a strong and vibrant institution in the future,' Herzog & de Meuron says. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Herzog & de Meuron's website

Imagery courtesy Herzog & de Meuron

Avraham Yasky was his generation’s most prolific architect. Early in his career he worked in the office of pioneering Israeli architect Arieh Sharon; later, he planned Rabin Square with Shimon Povsner, aged just 25. He went on to found the school of architecture at the Tel Aviv University and, in 1965, established Israel’s largest architectural firm with partners Joseph Sivan and Yitzhak Moore. MYS (Moore Yasky Sivan Architects) are responsible for many of Tel Aviv’s defining skyscrapers, including the envelope of the Azrieli Centre and the iconic beachfront Opera Tower, as well as numerous commercial buildings in the city centre, such as the Platinum, Alrov and AFI Towers.

Yasky made his name with his 1960s ’quarter-kilometre apartments’, working primarily with concrete – they were functional, monochromatic, modernist buildings. Later, his style would shift away from brutalism towards the possibilities of glass – a feature of many of the commercial projects he built – as well as more ornamental elements, seen in the shopping malls and pink-tiled towers that typify his later work.

Known for the flexibility and indifference with which he often faced stylistic and ethical issues, Yasky – who passed away in 2014, aged 87 – argued his success was simply down to good intuition and common sense. Now, the ideas behind his successes are to be explored through plans, photographs and other documentary materials relating to hundreds of Yasky projects, at a dynamic exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Commemorating and celebrating Yasky and his far-reaching legacy, the retrospective also contemplates the often troubled relationship between architecture and society – a relationship that is particularly complicated in a place that has seen such dramatic economic, social and political shifts as Israel in the course of the five decades of Yasky’s career.

If architecture is a mirror to society – as curator Dan Handel suggests—the exhibition poses another significant question to its audience: ’Is the story of the recent decades to be told as a sequence of intellectual, technological and material achievements – or perhaps as a tale about the gradual loss of an elusive, unquantifiable quality identified with Israel’s most influential architect?’ Time, as always, will tell.

INFORMATION

’Yasky and Co: Israeli Architecture According to Avraham Yasky’ is on view from 16 April – 27 August. For more information, visit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s website

ADDRESS

Tel Aviv Museum of Art
27 Shaul Hamelech Blvd
Tel Aviv

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Last week saw the launch of the very first Israel Design Week, a five-day-long series of events attended by local architects, designers and design enthusiasts in Tel Aviv and spearheaded by the Israeli Building Center, an organisation with ample experience in producing similar shows over the past decade. 

By focusing on various aspects of local design and celebrating its progress and achievement, the organisers aimed at bringing distinguished designers and architects closer to the public, making design accessible to all. 

'Israeli designers and architects are involved with more than 350 projects in 58 countries,' said Eran Rolls, founder of Israel Design Week and chairman of the Building Centre, in the opening ceremony, honoured by Tel-Aviv mayor Ron Huldai. 'They design apartment buildings, malls, hotels, restaurants and offices in prime locations. Israel Design Week honours the local design scene.'

'Due to the political climate Israel is a high-tech and military technology nation. Nevertheless, it made a tremendous progress in intellectual property. We have no design tradition to lean on, but rather have complete freedom and intellectual flexibility that give us an advantage,' says Pitsou Kedem, a prominent Israeli architect and a participant in the Israel Design Week. 'This event reflects the improvement of Israeli design and narrows the distance between us, architects and designers, and the public.'

Kedem and the work of 30 more major architects and designers formed the core element of Israel Design Week. Their public lectures – taking place at various Tel Aviv bars – were considered by many the highlight of the design week and drew lots of attention. 

Other events were spread across various venues, in a concept similar to Salone del Mobile's Trunk Show in Milan – artists presented work in fashion and design stores, there was an architecture conference, a design show comprising 180 design and construction companies of various scales, cocktails, parties and a show fusing fashion and design. 

All were offered free of charge, attracting some 30,000 people – an impressive 30 per cent more than what the organisers initially expected. 'We intend to turn Israel Design Week into tradition,' summarise Rolls. 'Next year it will take place in Jerusalem and other major cities and will practically include the whole country.'

London-based master of minimalism John Pawson has designed the penthouse for W Hotel's Tel Aviv outpost, drawing on Jaffa's rich historical heritage in the process; and if you were tempted to move to the city's sunny shores, then you'll be pleased to hear that the property has just been released for sale. The catch? This is 'the most expensive penthouse currently on sale in Israel', says developer RFR Holding, proudly.

Offering stunning views of the city's ancient port and the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the spacious, 1,503 sq m penthouse is just one of the residences on site designed by Pawson and his team.

Located within the walls of the 19th century complex that once housed Jaffa's French Hospital, this project is in excellent company; set, as it is, within a historically protected and upmarket neighbourhood of Tel Aviv that combines art and lifestyle offerings of appeal to tourists and locals alike.

The complex may be getting the contemporary treatment inside, but the project also carefully preserves its more historical elements, making sure the new design bridges old and new. Working with these, as well as the area's ample natural light, Pawson made use of a variety of materials, including a specially designed perforated screen for the property's large openings, created to cleverly filter sunlight and views.

The penthouse is slated for completion later in 2016; the buyer will work with Pawson's office to add the finishing, bespoke touches to their new home.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit John Pawson's website

Tel Aviv’s Hotel Montefiore – the city’s prized boutique hotel, housed in an iconic 1922 eclectic style building – has, as part of a one off collaboration with Institut Francais of Israel, invited acclaimed chef Michel Sarran to host a three-day culinary experience called 'So French, So Good'. Running from February 8–10, the fare will refelect the restaurant’s commitment to seasonal, local ingredients – plus some extra curated elements that need to be specially imported, and utilised with an Israeli sensibility.

Known for his two Michelin star restaurant in Toulouse – as well as hosting France’s edition of MasterChef – Sarran has partnered with Moran Yanai, the chef of the hotel’s Vietnamese-French restaurant, to create a menu of transposed French cuisine. 'The idea of sharing ideas and customs, blending them to create the most unique culinary offering, is a time honoured tradition among chefs around the world,' says Yanai. 

The duo will concoct one-off dishes and a prix fix menu with wine pairings, featuring spin-offs of signature Hotel Montefiore dishes, including duck with classic plum sauce and ginger; pork chop with bacon and manchego; and much more asides.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit Hotel Montefiore’s website

ADDRESS

Hotel Montefiore
36 Montefiore Street
Tel Aviv 66 88 3

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Carefully positioned in the midst of a desert landscape in Israel's Timna Valley, the country's second major airport – Ramon International – is currently in construction. This major infrastructure hub, planned from scratch and built on virgin land, sits just 18 km north of Eilat, the resort city at the northern tip of the Red Sea.

Over 30 months, two of the country's leading firms – Mann Shinar and Moshe Zur Architects – partnered to deliver the Israeli Airport Authority commissioned project, which is planned to serve 2.25 million passengers for its first phase and opening, and 4.25 million in phase two (c. 2030). The airport harbours a 3600m single runway, a 40,000 sq m passenger terminal building, a 50m high air control tower, plus supporting structures and a terminal for private aviation.

The terminal itself echoes a desert boulder – described by the architects as a 'self-shading mass' – that is sculpted by the movements of wind and rain, also determined by the passenger flow at arrivals and departures. It is laid out in a simple, yet elegant box – all infrastructures on the bottom level and all passenger traffic at the top level.

The exterior of the building is striking, featuring cladding of white triangular aluminium plates. 'From the window of an airplane the view is seemingly alien-like – a modern mirage within the desert surrounding,' say the architects. The generous, open-plan interior has a completely different feel as it radiates warmth with its cladded wooden bamboo strips. 

The architects see this project as a 'one-off opportunity to fully control the plan and design of all built elements', creating what they call a 'continuous language and approach', spanning from furniture elements and details, to the overall vision. Opening is currently scheduled for 2017. 

Leon Avigad and Nitzan Perry of Tel Aviv-based hospitality group Leopard, have launched a sister property to the city’s much-loved cultural landmark, the Brown TLV Hotel. This time located along the re-developed coastline, among some of Tel Aviv’s most anticipated architectural projects, the Brown Beach House is a welcome boutique offering, challenging the area’s somewhat staid hotel chains. Dressed by local outfit, vstudio and designer Aline Langlieb, the interiors are a distinct blend of retro resort and hip urbanism, with swathes of plush Carrera marble and slick brass details in the 40 guestrooms and cane and vintage furniture in the public spaces downstairs. After a day spent in the on-site spa or soaking up the sun on your room’s private terrace, head down to the restaurant for some fresh fish from the Med and homegrown wine or while the night away in the Flamingo Bar- already a neighbourhood hotspot for live music, pop-up events and visual art parties. 

ADDRESS

64 Hayarkon Street

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As a city considered holy by three religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – and that is claimed by both Palestinians and Jews as their capital, the various identities that make up the fabric of Jerusalem can be filled with magic and intrigue, but they're also divided, complex and conflicted. It is the aim of the Jerusalem Season of Culture to 'tell the different stories of Jerusalem', says its executive director, Naomi Bloch Fortis. 'It’s a very, very unique story.'

Until August 28 the Jerusalem Season of Culture will present Under the Mountain, a festival that engages the community by displaying works of visual art. Taking place at Temple Mount – an ancient site in the Old City, on which stands the golden Dome of the Rock, a site deeply significant to Christianity, Judaism and Islam – the festival, canceled last year because of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, is hosting a number of discussions and presentations.

A few highlights of the week include Israeli artist Yael Bartana unveiling a new sound work that examines the life of Simone the Hermetic on the 1,600th anniversary Simone’s birth. Israeli fashion designer Hed Mayner will partner with religious clothing merchant Bilal Abu-Khalaf for Le Dernier Cri, inviting audiences to try on the new collection, made specifically for the festival and rooted in Jerusalem’s religious history. Spanish artist Santiago Sierra will use the human body as a material, featuring veterans of Israel’s wars as living monuments of the violent battles they experienced.

According to artistic director Itay Mautner, the festival is receiving more attention than ever. 'Many things changed because of that war and what happened in Jerusalem before that war,' he says. 'It’s really harsh times, but addressing Temple Mount, even if you don’t want to look at it – it’s always shining and giving light into your life.'

Jerusalem's Tower of David Museum is hosting 'Objectives', a new contemporary design and art exhibition curated by Smadar Keren that chronicles the work of two internationally-renowned local designers, Ezri Tarazi and Haim Parnas, who were both born and raised in the city.

The museum's breathtaking location – in a restored citadel that has guarded the entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem for hundreds of years – is particularly fitting for the show, which explores the designers' relationship with the city and how it has informed their work. Archival pieces are displayed alongside detailed texts, photographs and films that illustrate the story behind each design, placing as much emphasis on the making processes as the finished objects.

As well as existing works, each designer has created a unique piece especially for the occasion; in a vibrant set up that is evocative of his own studio space, Parnas has created four poignant assemblages of sculptures, wall ornaments and stools, displayed alongside archaeological finds, mementos and murals. Each one tells a story about the designer and his home city, layering together the physical, political and spiritual. 

Meanwhile, Tarazi has created nine limited edition tables based upon the map of the Old City. One of the tables, called Dirt from Your Earth, has a laser cut steel surface, which features precisely-cut holes that each accommodate a conical porcelain bowl. The deep, wheel-turned bowls are made using porcelain clay mixed with soil from the Temple Mount excavations – a subtle comment on the city's political-religious issues.

Israeli improvisation is the innovation that this place produces, Tarazi explains. 'The link between things that do not connect – secularism and practising Judaism, beauty and violence, spirituality and militarism – all coexist here, and this is what I am trying to touch on in my works. […] In many respects, design deals not only with the reflectiveness of art, but with utopian futurology.'

ADDRESS

Tower of David Museum
Jaffa Gate
Jerusalem, 9114001

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Located in Zichron Ya’akov - a small town just north of Tel Aviv - at the rim of Mount Carmel’s ridge, Israel’s newest hotel is set over 28 acres of open space, offering breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Housed in a building originally designed as a sanitarium in 1968 by the late Israeli architect Jacob Rechter, Elma (an acronym for Elstein Music & Art) embodies the vision of Lily Elstein, an art collector and patron of young artists. Despite living in Tel Aviv for many years, Elstein still maintains strong links to her hometown of Zichron Ya’akov and when she heard the deserted structure faced demolition, she decided to save it. ‘I could not allow them to pull down such an iconic building,’ she says. After acquiring the site, Elstein restored it to its former Brutalist glory and turned it into an international arts complex and luxury hotel. Original rooms were restructured to create 38 new guest rooms and a group of 22 cottages were also added as a separate ‘neighbourhood’. Culinary options are all kosher, while the spa offers eight treatment rooms, a pool, a gym and a hammam. The culture centre, however, is the heart of the hotel: acoustic engineering specialists Arup and Artec designed the 450-seat Alon concert hall, which boasts a unique pipe organ, built by Orgelbau Klais in Germany, and two Steinway Concert Grand Model D pianos.

ADDRESS

1 Yair Street
Zichron Ya’akov
3094260
Israel

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This new house in Israel, by local practice Pitsou Kedem Architects, is a clever interplay of light and shadows, concrete and weathered steel surfaces, and open and closed spaces. Located in Savion, a smart residential area a short drive from central Tel Aviv, the house was designed by architects Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg and Hila Sela for a single person as a space to live in and receive guests and family.

Shadow is the building's most important element, explains Kedem, a fact clearly hinted at in the residence's name: In Praise of Shadows. Sunlight - available abundantly within the local climate - was a key influence in the design process. The structure elegantly takes advantage of changing light patterns throughout the day, harnessing natural light to create a 'dynamic drama' through the house's Cor-Ten chequerboard screen on the upper-level façade. This both floods the spaces and helps shape the character of the rooms inside.

Indeed, the internal spaces are rich in textures and views; the strong concrete walls simultaneously frame and protect residents, while opening up the home to the surroundings beyond. Warm brown woods inside offset the concrete structure's rougher external feel. The internal arrangement is clear and straightforward, spanning two distinct levels.

The ground floor contains the common areas, while the first floor is home to two generous bedrooms, bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe. The generous double-height living space is overlooked by a long internal balcony upstairs, featuring the library. Courtyards shaded by the Cor-Ten screen open up towards the garden, which includes a swimming pool. The courtyards are dotted with carefully placed plants.

A design masterfully balancing contrasts, In Praise of Shadows is a residence that creates an inviting visual dialogue between inside and outside, making the most out of the site's climatic conditions.

Refusing to recognise the borders between architecture and interior design or industrial design, Alex Meitlis specialises in total environment design. Notable work includes the Ottolenghi chain in London, the Savion house just outside Tel Aviv, and the behavioural science laboratories at Ben Gurion University.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I am a modernist that grew up in Tel Aviv surrounded by the Bauhaus buildings They had an impact on my designs and also the local Palestinian architecture with its amazing respect for the weather and local landscape.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
In Zichron Ya’akov there is a sanitarium built by Yaakov Rechter in the 1960s. It is one of the few modernist masterpieces built in Israel.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
We are a country built by refugees who arrived with a forward-looking attitude. All rules are encouraged to be broken.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Shimon Shapiro is our local secret. He is Israel’s Frank Lloyd Wright and, having taught at Bezalel for over 30 years, has educated all our best creators. He taught us all to respect both our site and our client, and also to listen to what clients are really saying when they talk, the subconscious as a part of the creative process.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
I have a passion for shade. It is essential for life in a place of intense heat. So my architecture is all about where the sun is and when.

Do you like to work with materials and craftspeople indigenous to Israel?
My studio is in Florentin, a working class suburb of Tel Aviv where the furniture workshops are all centred. All the furniture, lighting, flooring and other fixtures I use for my spaces are manufactured within 150m of my office.

www.alexmeitlis.com

Orly Shrem is one of Israel’s most prolific and respected architects. She established her practice in 1985, and key projects include the interior design of the Rothschild 1 residential tower in downtown Tel Aviv.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I am especially influenced by the Arab buildings and they way they use light, as well as the Templer houses with the tiled roofs.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Habima Square auditorium, completed in 1957. It's timeless, elegant and up to date.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The advantage is the people, coming from all over the world, the outdoor living and the amazing sky. Tel Aviv is noisy and crowded but it’s beautiful. My office is located opposite the sea and it’s a great inspiration.  

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I admire the 1950s generation who brought international architecture but remained local with a tight budget.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
The light has a major impact on interior design, but these days we are able to offer bigger windows and better air-conditioning. Outdoor living is as important as the indoors, so for me, designing a house should always mean integrating outdoor and indoor life.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
I love all local natural stone such as limestone, and especially a sandstone called kurkar.

Founded in 1999 by Alon Baranowitz and Irene Kronenberg, the studio works internationally providing architectural and interior design services for the private and public sector. Notable projects include the Sir Albert Hotel, Amsterdam, Israel Museum Shop, and the Pastel brasserie at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Mivtachim sanitarium in Zichron Ya'akov by Yaakov Rechter.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel? 
Lack of discipline leads to experimental design!

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Al Mansfeld for his poetics, conviction, vision, sketches and for giving us the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
We sweat a lot! But really, it is as much a part of our context as culture, politics, time and place. Our designs strive for the shadows and the gusts of the Mediterranean. 

www.bkarc.com

Moshe Tzur founded his practice in 1978, specialising in grand scale, urban projects. A development featuring seven high-rise towers, making up some 1,000-odd residential units in the Bavli-Dekel area of north Tel Aviv, was recently given the green light.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
In the sense of cultural and spatial heritage, and in the ecology of place, climate and culture of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, we view ourselves as contextual architects and urbanists. That is, we do not consider visual eclecticism as a medium of design within the dense, complex and culturally charged situations in which we are called upon to design. In a most profound sense, we are motivated by the creation of the experience of urban place in the inter-relationship of architecture, landscape and urban structure. That is why we frequently employ the term ‘landscape urbanism’ as a distinctively Mediterranean sensibility. Landscape urbanism is also one medium for facing the contradictions of the paradox of vertical urbanism. The reconciliation of these contradictions continues to engage our design thinking.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
My favourites would be the Israel Museum of 1965 designed by my teacher and early employer Al Mansfeld, and the Azrieli Center towers, designed by the late David Azrieli (along with Eli Attia and Avraham Yaski).

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Where else can you find such inspiring situations? My parents were survivors of the worst period of the Holocaust in Europe. They came here to participate in the project of building the land. The cultural complexities are truly unique. Architecture here is the challenge to enlarge the perspective of the client to accept this public responsibility. This may mean making a commitment to upgrading the material investment in the public realm (as at Gav Yam in Herzliya) or in creating dual spaces – both public and private - as at the courtyard entrance to the Be’eri Nahardea tower in Tel Aviv.

Founded in 2002 and aiming to creating excellent architecture that benefits people and the environment as well as enriching Israel’s cultural experience, Pitsou Kedem consists of 11 architects and specialises in residential and commercial projects, including Tel Aviv’s B&B Italia and Bulthaup showrooms and Taizu and Bindella restaurants.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
For me, architecture must work in its context. Therefore, before the influences of the various types of traditional building styles in Israel comes the influence of Israel’s location. In general, my architecture is influenced by the modernist period of the 1950s when many wonderful buildings that reflected the spirit of the time were constructed across Israel. I often visit these buildings in order to learn and gain inspiration from them.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The one I love the most is the small art museum, designed by Samuel Bickels at Kibbutz Ein Harod. The entire museum is based on the use of natural light and the way in which it penetrates the building while exploiting to the full the climate and preserving the architectural values that are important to me. Values that include maintaining human proportions.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The big advantage is that, as we are in a small and developing country, there is no well-defined historic, cultural language. This allows for greater flexibility in design and inspires freshness and innovation. Israel is a country where flexible thinking is the rule rather than the exception.

www.pitsou.com

One of Israel’s most influential architects, Ilan Pivko’s key projects include Tel Aviv’s Vox nightclub, the 4 Florentine complex, and the Jaffa Sea Shell residential complex, where he also keeps a home.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
There's a sense of living where "everything happened" which is almost sensual and gives you a very rooted feeling. Also the 20th century architecture and Bauhaus style has influenced me a lot.

Among the Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I love the work of Erich Mendelsohn.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The feeling of being a part of a creation of a new state and the huge birth rate -  2.9 children per couple - which creates a very big demand for architecture and buildings, so we have a lot of work!

www.pivko.com

www.m-y-s.com MYS architects is one of the largest and most influential architecture firms in Israel, and a result of the fusion of the firms of Yaski Sivan, conducted by Yossi Sivan and Avraham Yaski, and Moore, conducted by Moore Yitschak and Moore Amihud. MYS Architects' portfolio is highly diversified, comprising residential and office skyscrapers, malls, medical centres, hotels and urban design.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I grew up surrounded by modern architecture, therefore the historical buildings had a negligible effect on me. I was more affected by villages and traditional Arab buildings, with their scale, flat roofs, the white colour, play of light and shadow, and their inner courtyards.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The modern architecture of the 21st century made Tel Aviv what it is today. Some of my favourite buildings are Ben-Gurion University, the Azrieli Center, Yoo Towers, Akirov Towers and the Electra Tower.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The scope of construction is huge in general and in particular if comparing to the population size, there is a good variety of types of projects that we are designing, and the entrepreneurs are mostly open-minded.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I am impressed by the work of Bracha Chyutin, who works with her husband Michael. Most of their work is focused on public buildings and shows great architectural quality.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
Usually I design my buildings so they take advantage of the view, as well as using energy-saving smart glass and reintroducing balconies to residential buildings.

www.m-y-s.com

Axelrod Architects is a design-oriented, comprehensive architectural firm that creates distinctive residences, institutional and commercial buildings and interiors, in the modernist style. Known for its attentiveness to fine detailing, honest expression of materials, and clean, simple forms, the timeless, serene and minimalist designs of Axelrod Architects evoke a sense of quiet power without being overpowering. Key projects include the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute building and the minimalist C House in Tel Aviv.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
My primary influence has come from the plethora of Bauhaus and International Style buildings which make up the White City architecture in Tel Aviv. 

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. There is such a strong contrast between the existing structure, which was a very respectful brutalist concrete structure built in the 1970s, and the hi-tech environment of the new building.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
There seems to be less hesitation to new concepts, which has led to ‘out of the box’ thinking and a very creative dialogue between architect, client, and contractor. I’m steadily bringing these same ideas to the US with positive results.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I respect the work of Pitsou Kedem, a fellow modernist with whom I share a similar design philosophy. Pitsou’s projects are all-encompassing and reflect a ‘total-design’ approach, since he considers each detail and material in the process and how it will inform the design.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
The weather has always been an important factor to consider in the design of our buildings. In order to maintain a comfortable living environment throughout the entire day, we focus on optimal building orientation, a building layout that maximises daylight without sacrificing comfort, and a very functional use of indoor/outdoor space.

www.axelrodarchitects.com

Established in 1989, Yonatan Monjack is an architectural firm specialising mainly in private houses, luxury apartments and boutique hotels, such as the Artchuk guest suites in Kfar Vradim, and also acts as an advisor to large construction companies, working in Israel, US and Africa. 

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I grew up in the US and France, and later lived for a long time in Jerusalem, so I am influenced by a wide range of history and cultures. Therefore, my architecture lacks the desire for definition. I like to use recycled and old materials in combination with contemporary and modern materials. The use of these materials and details is part of the story of the country, the place, the climate, the client and the craftsmen involved.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, but only the old wing! It is designed by Dan Eytan and Yitzhak Yashar and it is a modest building, a museum in every sense of the word, creating a space for art in the name of art.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
A wonderful openness of the Israeli client to global cultures. The understanding and willingness of the Israeli client to work as a team; what I want, what I need and what is the right story for the project. The huge diversity of amazing craftsmen, carpenters, stone masons, blacksmiths, locksmiths and so on.

www.monjack.co.il

Plesner Architects was established in Israel in 1972 by Ulrik Plesner, who was later joined in 1995 by his daughters Daniela and Maya. The studio’s portfolio includes educational projects, public buildings, hotels, private residences, parks and small and large town plans. Best known works are the Daniel Amichai Centre for Rowing and Nautical Studies on the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, the Bet Gabriel community centre on the Sea of Galilee, the new campus of the Walworth Barbour American International School near Tel Aviv, and various private residences. The firm is now working on a boutique desert hotel in the Aravah valley, and on a few educational campuses.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
The architecture of the traditional historical buildings is dominated by the abundance of good stone, the hot climate and the lack of timber – meaning very thick walls and cross-arched ceilings with consequent heavy stone and earth-filled roofs and walls, which, together with small windows, are wonderful heat and coolness moderators. It is only marginally applicable in today's circumstances. What we have learned and apply in our own way from the fine traditional architecture, is the importance of shade – it is both beautiful and cheap, and you can sit happily in it for the greater part of the day and evening, and it keeps the sun off the windows and reduces the indoor build-up of heat (or need for air conditioning). We also have realised the importance of smallish courtyards with plants, like in old Jerusalem houses.  Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture.

Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Without doubt, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel? Israeli people are adventurous, full of initiative and creative, and therefore fun to work with. The process of work is never boring as every day brings new ideas and solutions.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Kimmel Eshkolot because they are serious professionals, great people, and consistently produce good and beautiful buildings without trying to make icons.

www.plesnerarchitects.com

Established in Tel Aviv in 1988 by Hanan Peri and Shalom Davidovich, Peri Davidovich is today one of the leading architecture and design firms in Israel. The practice, comprising 15 architects and designers, takes on a wide range of public, private and commercial projects throughout Israel, Europe and Africa. Key projects include a 12,000 sq m palazzo in the Nigerian savannah, the largest private home ever designed by Israelis, and the Ferrari Maserati showroom in Tel Aviv.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
These days the effect of historic buildings is very low. Israeli architecture and Israel as a young modern country trying to position itself in the global modern world is the most influential thing here.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Yaakov Rechter’s sanatorium in Zichron Ya’akov, Ron Arad’s Design Museum in Holon and Al Mansfeld’s Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which combines modern architecture with traditional Arabic influences and topographic background.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Israel is a young country with many options and opportunities for building and design.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
Hot climate and very strong light affect the design. We try to plan large openings and use a lot of external areas so we can create free flowing structures.

www.peridavidovich.co.il

Founded in 2003 by Asaf Gottesman and Ami Szmelcman, Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture is an international practice with branches in both Paris and Rishpon, Israel. It focuses on projects requiring innovative, multidisciplinary solutions, and key projects include the Litvak Gallery at Museum Tower, Tel Aviv, as well as mixed-use development OVO Wroclaw, currently under construction.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Most of our work in Israel is mainly in the Tel Aviv area or in the north where the context has been mostly related to the modern Bauhaus movement or to universal modern architecture rather than traditional local architecture.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Probably the Mivtachim sanitarium in Zichron Ya’akov designed by Yaakov Rechter.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The ideal and privilege of contributing to the building of this very special and controversial country, and contributing to the culture of its people and society.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Probably the work of Bracha Hayutin.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
We must take into account the very strong light, the heat and the dust when considering the orientation of the buildings, the sizes of windows, the angle of shading elements, the thickness of walls and materials used.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel, and if so, which particular materials?
When it’s possible and if we have the choice, we will choose Israeli products. The most basic is concrete, and then there are local stones and other cladding materials, such as the kind that Caesarstone produces.

www.gsarch.org

Co-founded by Paola Liani and Itai Paritzki in 2001, Paritzki & Liani Architects creates spatial work conducted in the layered and complex relations between architecture and its context. Key projects include cutting-edge Tel Aviv boutique FabLab, and Barud House, a modernist private residence outside Jerusalem.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Typologies, artefacts, traces of the region and its cultures are fundamental aspects in our observations. We are dealing here in Israel with multi-implanted codes of architecture from three secular religions (Catholic, Jewish and Muslim). We are interested in the interweaving typologies of certain monuments. The recursive history here that is evident in many other sites of the country, the prominent composition of paths, archeology and civil history, becomes a rich source of inspiration when developing an architectural language of our own.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Weizmann House, designed by Erich Mendelsohn, is one of the most intriguing buildings here in Israel. 

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
One word can describe the main advantage of working in Israel as an architect and it is ‘change’. Our office is located in Tel Aviv, a city that was chosen in 2012 and in 2013 by the Wall Street Journal and the Urban Land Institute as the second most innovative city in the world. Our clients have an average age of 28 to 45. They have means and vision – therefore, it is an interesting process thinking together.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
David Yannay, for his vision and his research regarding the genetic development of structures. A great mind.

Dana Oberson Architects is a multidisciplinary design studio. The studio was established in 2002 and has been involved in a wide range of projects in Israel and around the world. The studio specialises in the planning and design of private houses, luxury apartments and boutique hotels.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I believe the artistic turf of the Israeli designer is directly influenced by the rather complicated historical environment which we live in. My work is mainly influenced by the architectural details and materials used in Muslim and Templer architecture in Israel, details that benefit from the unique climate in Israel. I like to give a contemporary interpretation for historical architectural elements and integrate them in my projects. For example, I have used modern interpretations of the mashrabiya, a pierced screen that gives shade and protection from the hot summer sun while allowing the cool air from the street to flow through.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Museum of Art, Ein Harod, by Samuel Bickels. This unique building is considered to be one of the world’s earliest examples iof modernist museum architecture based on natural lighting. The architecture is misleading at first glance with its rather sealed facades, ignoring the splendid valley of Jezreel, which it overlooks. However, the real issue lies in the way the building ‘controls’ the light that enters it. This architectural approach makes it, in my opinion, a significantly sensitive building to its function as an exhibition museum and especially to local climatic conditions. The architectural filters block devastating solar radiation and allow constant light penetration.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Israel is a rather young country which inhabits an evolving society. The rapid growth of population produces an ongoing necessity for development and change in the field of construction and architecture. The Israeli weather and climate is a challenging aspect to be considered design-wise and could be considered a benefit. As an architect I naturally aspire to design pleasant indoor and outdoor spaces, despite the long summer and the hot sun.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design? 
It is impossible to design any space in Israel without dealing with the hot weather and solar radiation. In my work I deal with the filtering aspect a lot. Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and f so, which particular materials? Gravel, concrete, natural iron and silicate bricks. 

www.danaoberson.com

J P Friedman & Associates is an architectural and interior design firm previously based in New York and Miami Beach, but based in Tel Aviv since 1996. The firm specialises in grand-maximalist, luxury homes for private clients. Key projects include the reptile house at Haifa Zoo and the Versace store in Tel Aviv.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Technological wealth, sophisticated and open-minded clients. and a perfect climate. For me, the weather is never warm enough. The closeness to the beach and the magnificent views of the Mediterranean are a constant inspiration!

www.josephpfriedman.co.il

Specialising in commercial interior design and architecture, Studio Mu also makes site-specific pieces, such as furniture, light fixtures, retail display structures and lighting design for commercial spaces, aiming to refine all the elements that create the experience through consideration of factors such as location, environment, budget, purpose and target clientele.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
The influences on our work are more subtle and indirect. We are influenced by the proportions of space, local light and materials, and the traditional and historical design attitudes to these aspects. As a Tel Aviv-based studio, we are influenced by the Bauhaus architecture and design that are prominent in the city.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The original Tel Aviv Museum of Art building.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Being a young and very dynamic country, Israel challenges its architects into finding architectural and design solutions. Furthermore, having but a short history of local design allows us to be part of the trends influencing the creation of the local culture.

And what are the disadvantages?
The market is relatively small and, at times, low on budget. Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most? Ada Karmi-Melamede for her ability to weave local history into a modern, contemporary Interpretation. Weinstein Vaadia Architects for their ability to combine a modern and contemporary design with subtlety and becoming proportions. Bar Orian Architects for the scope of work of urban living buildings that rely on modern design while taking into consideration the aura of traditions and the White City.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design? 
We give great emphasis to the control and filtration of light in our projects.
Blinds, mashrabiya, consideration of sun directions – all become an essential design detail.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
We like to use local cast decorated floor tiling, iron door and window frames, wooden shutters and screens, silicate block walls, local stone and more. When possible technically, we like to maintain the original structure and expose the layers and history of the building and use it in our design.

www.studiomu.co.il

The studio specialises in a diverse body of projects for private homeowners and property developers both in Israel and overseas. Key projects include an American Colony house in Tel Aviv, a Greek island villa and a Jetsons-esque desert inn at Arava. 

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Israel’s diverse and multi-faceted history produces rich and challenging planning context. A good example would be the Keren Complex, a preservation and new housing project in Tel Aviv. The building facades were covered with a durable stucco cladding that was used in Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus buildings of the 1930s. On top, openings were arranged in an orthogonal grid, displaying a two-dimensional texture and serving as a background to the local historic building fabric.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Ein Harod Museum of Art, designed by Samuel Bickels. I admire the modesty and restraint of the structure, the beautiful way in which natural light filters in through the space, and the spatial harmony between the galleries and the inner courtyards.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Good architecture must stand the test of time, it cannot be implemented instantaneously. Any process requires patience, observation and rigour in order to gradually produce a local design tradition, surely the process of formulating design and environmental culture for a society as young as ours.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
The Mediterranean weather allows us to explore the outdoors most of the year. In my projects, I try to arrange the different functions as independent components that together form a single habitat. Transparent corridors and inner courtyards provide connection and transition among the spaces and allow a flowing movement between them. The garden is woven through the house, making it an indoor and outdoor experience at the same time, allowing each space to have its own outdoor area.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
As an architect who lives and works in a Mediterranean landscape and climate, and is greatly influenced by modernism, I prefer using basic natural materials such as stucco, stone, steel and wood, that are not affected by changing trends, that connect the house with its surroundings, and bring a sense of comfort to the environment.

Oded Halaf specialises in designing private estates, residential complexes, apartments, commercial interiors and customised projects. Recent projects include the interiors for the Amot Atrium Tower, currently under construction in Ramat Gan. 

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
The diverse past of the place I live in is of great significance to many nations throughout history, and the architectural expressions of Israel’s different cultures offers a wide base for my work, and the way I express things based on the reformulation of these architectural expressions. The use of regional architecture through the ages is marked in me by being a Jew and an Israeli. Once you understand the strong connection I have with the place, you can interpret or expand the meaning of my work.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Habima Square auditorium in Tel Aviv, originally designed by Zeev Rechter, who was influenced by Swedish modernist architecture. Maybe part of my love for this building is affected by a strong connection I have with classical music, which is manifested by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra concerts held in this building.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I feel my relationship with Israel’s architecture is part of my relationship with the culture that has been created in the last 100 years here, and I think that in order to emphasise the country’s wider cultural side I would choose a creator that represents this cultural side, the sculptor Yitzhak Danziger.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
Architecture has always dealt with weather. The climate is built into all my planning and design considerations, mainly due to the strengthening trend of sustainability 

Founded in 2000 by engineer Daphna Auerbach-Biran and architect Ori Halevy, the studio focuses on both architecture and interior design projects. Two recent awards reflect their extra-wide spectrum: an award for the main garage of the Ta’avura Group and an award for the offices of Boeing in Tel Aviv (crowned as one of the 20 coolest offices of the world by Architizer). Other notable commissions are the Sodastream innovation lab and the HQ of Delta Galil.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I experience modern cites as part of one global giant. I’m influenced by works in Korea, the Netherlands, the UK and everywhere. I apply regionalistic tools only when we work in strict historical contexts in places like Jerusalem and Jaffa. Israel and its cities are very young and modernism is our DNA.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Weizmann House by Erich Mendelsohn and the Koffler Accelerator by Moshe Harel. I also love the International Style buildings in the heart of Tel Aviv. It is a one-of-a-kind collection that’s found nowhere else.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Never a dull moment.

And what are the disadvantages?
Never a dull moment.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I admire the work of Ada Karmi-Melamede, who creates multi-layered, sophisticated buildings, echoing old ghosts of modernism. And I admire the villas of Pitsou Kedem which are simply immaculate. Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials? I like local materials such as stone, concrete and glass.

www.ah-arch.com

SaaB design private residences, planning mostly single household villas in semi-rural environments, concentrating on making the best use of natural site conditions in order to gain climatic comfort and solve the client's programmatic needs, while never compromising on design in the process.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
It is true that Israel has a wide range of fascinating historical structures, but our inspiration is mostly derived from later periods in architecture, namely the early modernist repertoire and its International Style buildings. Yet we always try to express our respect to the local historical architecture by relating to the context of the project, and applying a modern contemporary view on past materials, techniques and planning principles.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Gottesman Etching Center at Kibbutz Cabri. The current building was planned by Szmelcman-Gottesman and is located in north Israel, far from the well known cultural centres of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. In our opinion, this building achieves high aesthetic values regardless of a ‘down to earth’ budget, due to accurate minimalism and fine design.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Being a planner in a young growing country, practically building itself on the move, gives us a rare chance to take part in major historical processes, as well as many minor acts of building, which always take place in this ever evolving country.  Another advantage of a totally different kind has to do with the typically warm and open character of Israeli clients, which makes working on private homes a very intimate experience, and literally allows us to design 'ways of living' sewn to suit people's needs.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, Mayslits Kassif Architects, and Pitsou Kedem.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
On the one hand, the relatively hot weather demands solutions in order to sustain climatic comfort. On the other hand, it allows exciting relations between interior and exterior spaces, and a wide range of options in this respect. We believe that the correct placement of the house on the site is extremely important because it determines its exposure to the sun and allows openings that enhance natural ventilation. Living in a warm climate also allows us to plan an outdoor alternative for many everyday activities, such as dining, reading, entertaining and playing.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
We once planned a flat wood roof in a house in Galilee, applying a traditional local building method from Arab villages to an otherwise modern house. We used corrugated tin while planning in a countryside town that featured farming sheds and silos covered with this material. 

www.saab-arc.com

Ecker Michael Architects, established in 1999, is concerned with providing innovative and refined architectural outcomes that resonate a simplicity, conceptual rigour and material invention. Multidisciplinary with a boutique vibe, it specialises mostly in private houses, and takes a 360 degree approach, from the detailed design of the building to the smallest details of the interior design.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I think that the multicultural buildings and monuments have a huge impact on the designing atmosphere. We have such a vast merging of styles in such a small country, I don't think such a unique combination exists in any other place in the world. On the one hand, it creates a kind of visual "chaos" and on the other hand, it makes your surroundings so much more interesting and diverse. But for me, the historical/traditional architectural style had an inverse impact since my architectural style and creations are very clean and modern. Our designs are very neutral, free of any constrains to a certain style, time period or trends. We have a strong belief in sustainability and building something that can stay relevant in the perspective of time.   

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
I absolutely love the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (the new and the old one), the Habima Square auditorium and Gan Yaakov.  

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Since we are a very young country, there is constant development of the architectural view. That makes us, the architects, busy with a lot of work on our hands. Furthermore, there is a lot of room to grow, experience and practice architecture from the beginning of our professional path.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I hold a lot of respect for the "founders generation" who still do wonderful work - Ram  Karmi, Yaakov Rechter, Yizhak Yashar and Avraham Yaski to name a few.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
The Mediterranean hot weather calls for a lot of thought and consideration. I usually integrate lots of doorways to enable natural circulation of air, as well as conservation of warm air for the colder nights. The directions and angles of the house are also something I always consider when planning the design - the direction of the sun helps to deliver more light and warmth. Finally, using lots of shades, pergolas and growing flora helps in creating pleasant spaces for the very hot summer.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials? I like to use local plaster without cladding of other materials

www.em-arch.net

Located in Rishpon and Caesarea, Sharon Neuman deals in planning and designing private residences, public buildings, offices, commercial spaces, exhibitions, event venues and product design. Neuman has presented varied architecture, product design, installation and photographic works in numerous exhibitions, including two solo exhibitions.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
I think architecture cannot imitate the past, it has to learn from it but be a sign of the times. I derive most of my inspiration from modern architecture.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
A small new project called Shneur House, designed by Yoav Messer Architects for the activities of Etgarim, a not-for-profit organisation that provides sports activities for the disabled.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
A young, innovative nation with a lot of awareness to design – I find it to be a fertile ground.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Iftah Hayner, a young architect with whom I am lucky enough to work. I find his thinking to be fresh and original, his design bright and inspiring, and his way of leading the clients towards their goals admirable.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
I'm very much aware of the sun's directions throughout the hours and the year, and try to plan accordingly. I'm also aware of the wind direction. I use passive shading and try to keep the use of air-conditioning to a minimum.

www.sharon-neuman.co.il

Shlomo Frenkel Architects specialises in the interior design of private houses and luxury apartments.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Israel is a new and modern country with great examples of the Bauhaus style.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel? 
The Supreme Court, and Mamilla and David Citadel hotels in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Design Museum Holon.  

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Since our country is new, we are free from planning traditions and we are more open to modernity.

And the disadvantages?
There are none! All the new buildings in Israel for housing, offices and shopping centres have great modern design.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Moore Yaski Sivan.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
We use many techniques for shading; non-transparent or tinted glass. Every store, office or house is very carefully air-conditioned.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
I like to work with local marble and local carpenters.

SO Architecture addresses contemporary design and planning, through a social and ecological approach, and has gained recognition and publicity for winning numerous competitions in Israel and abroad. In 2012 the office won the international open competition for its planning of the Natural History Museum in Jerusalem.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
We are mainly influenced by the International Style in Israel and overseas, and also by the Israeli brutalism of the 1950s and 1960s. The urban concept of the kibbutz is also important for us as we both grew up on one.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Habima Square auditorium in Tel Aviv, the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art, National Library of Israel, Weizmann House, Tel Aviv Port Promenade, and the First International Bank Tower on Rothschild Boulevard.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
We appreciate the work of Gaby Schwartz, Bracha and Michael Chyutin, and Pitsou Kedem.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?  
The hot weather creates harsh conditions in the Israeli summer, especially in situations of direct sunlight. In the shade, however, it is very pleasant, particularly on the coastal plain that takes in winds from the sea. We plan many openings for air circulation to the west and north-west to east. In addition, we plan effective shading solutions to openings to the south in order to prevent direct radiation.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
As part of the accelerated establishment of the State of Israel, Israeli architecture has grown under harshly limiting conditions, both in materials and time. We often work with local materials and we see them as part of the local culture. Light plaster, exposed concrete in its many forms, both in walls and flooring, natural local stone in yellow and grey, as well as Caesarstone products for surfaces.

www.soarch.co.il

Kerner’s work is particularly influenced by the International Style. The purposeful style that characterises this style, as well as the compatibility of the building to the local climate, is part of Kerner’s perception as a designer and affects the perception of space, which she tries to implement in her work.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem which was designed by Al Mansfeld in 1965. The organic mechanism determined by Mansfeld, from which the plan derived, led to the creation of a buildings complex organically growing on top of the mountain. The skyline created by the museum is similar to that of an Arab village. The entire building corresponded with the spirit of the place. The great achievement of this architectural creation is the combination of modern perception of matter and space with a reference to place and history.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The ability to combine in my design historic architectural references that can be found in any site and period in the country with modern contemporary personal commentary.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
During the planning process I like to create flowing spaces opening one into the other to create a feeling of space and size, as well as the need to achieve flow and circulation of air. The hot weather and strong sun in Israel bring me, as an architect, to search for shaded spaces which cool the air and soften the strong light. The use of shading pergolas is an integral part of planning. The outer space of the building is an inseparable part of life in Israel. The social life of entertaining, playing and more are conducted in gardens and outdoor spaces. Shading of public and private space allows for all of that, as well as cooling the air before it enters the building.

Founded by Arnon Nir and business partner Yishai Breslauer in 2002, Arstudio focuses on residential projects, art galleries, boutique hotels and unique interior projects. 

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
As an architect who focuses mainly on modern and contemporary design, I aim to give my own interpretation to the use of natural stone, one of the main materials used in ancient building projects. The vertical windows in the stairwells of Bauhaus buildings are another recurring motif in my projects.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Mivtachim sanitarium designed by Yaakov Rechter in Zichron Ya'akov in 1968. This former convalescent home is currently being converted into a boutique art hotel.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
I find the Israelis I have worked with to be very open to new and innovative architectural ideas. This might be due to the fact that Israel is a young state that does not have strong conservative architectural leanings or preferences.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Dan Eytan for his ability to find simple and coherent solutions for complex situations, combined with a strong sense of space and materials. 

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
Shade elements that control the level of direct sunlight are part of my architecture. I like to incorporate a modern interpretation of the 'mashrabiya' into my designs. It’s an ancient mesh element that blocks the sun but allows the wind to get through.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel, and if so, which particular materials?
In some of my works I integrate wild natural stone, but I try to use it in a less traditional way, and to give it my own interpretation.  

www.arstudio.co.il

Gal Marom deals with a wide spectrum of projects from residential towers and luxury villas to public buildings, offices and commercial interiors. The firm's team utilises the "building as a whole" design approach, enabling them to address different aspects of the project in different scales, while always meeting client needs.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Israel is a very young society, both culturally and physically. Most of the country was built on "context-less" land in a very fast development process. Along with the diverse cultural mix which is inherent in a society like ours, this allows us to work in a very constrain-free environment. I see this "lack of history" as a great opportunity. When I say lack of history, I refer to the fact that our building heritage is only about 100 years.There is a big gap to overcome when it comes to the architecture and design, and I see it as a privilege for us as architects to be part of the search for a local architectural language. Another aspect is Israel's location on the globe as the connecting point between Asia, Africa and Europe left us with no real relation to architecture and design traditions. We can, and we ought to search for this as part of the emergence of Israel's physical culture.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
This country is blessed with talents in every field of the design. Kolker Kolker Epstein is a leading firm with many excellent buildings in its record, and an intense cultural depth and vast knowledge of local and world architecture. Another is Ilan Pivko, who creates residential buildings and high-end villas. I think he is one of the most creative architects working here today. Avner Yashar has also succeeded in creating his own architectural language, as well as achieving an outstanding proficiency in all the technical aspects of high-rise buildings.

Jacobs-Yaniv Architects is a practice with considerable project-running experience, both in England and Israel. Their portfolio includes civic, residential and commercial projects, including new stores for Israeli homeware brand Golf & Co and children’s clothing brand Golf Kids.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
There are many types of buildings in Israel from different periods and of different cultural character, that influence us. Ancient settlements and fortifications such as Masada, Gamla and Nimrod are integrated wonderfully into the landscape. The relationship between public and private spaces is fascinating in old urban quarters such as Jerusalem and Acre. There are wonderful one-off buildings mixing International Style with Byzantine and Islamic influences that were built in the 1930s. Several English architects working for the British mandate were real masters of light and used local materials beautifully. 

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is a fantastic local adaptation of Mies' ideas combined with the local vernacular Arab village. The Mivtachim sanitarium in Zichron Ya’akov is a brutalist sculptural masterpiece.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
The advantage of working in Israel, on one level, is that, in comparison to more "established" countries such as the UK, it is easier for young architects to break through. Relatively speaking, Israeli clients are open minded, enthusiastic and happy to take a chance. On another level, the advantage of working in Israel has to do with the wonderful climate and ideal light conditions. Having the rich cultural background spanning from old Muslim buildings to modernist concrete blocks, there is a lot to learn from.

www.jacobs-yaniv.com

Combining an innate sense of aesthetics with previous careers in the worlds of advertising and graphic design, Yaron Tal has a unique vision which he implements into every one of his projects. Studio Yaron Tal designed the interactive zones in Tel Aviv’s Google offices, and specialises in commercial and retail spaces, as well as restaurants, hotels and recreational zones.  

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Every culture has its own unique impact and sometimes I take something of this heritage, but I always try to give my personal point of view and interpretation.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
I spend a lot of time abroad and go via Ben Gurion Airport. I particularly like the new terminal, which makes good use of the natural light and of local designers. It is the portal to our country, and is the first impression of incoming visitors and the last chance to leave an impression when departing.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
We have a special culture and many influences from all the world. We are very dynamic and have some of the most creative minds, especially in the younger generation. Our challenges make us push ourselves harder and no goal is impossible.  

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Ron Arad is an amazing designer.

Do you like to work with materials indigenous to Israel and if so, which particular materials?
I like to use different Israeli motifs. For example, at the Google offices, we used imagery of the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, orange orchards and many more.

www.yarontal.com

Established in 1999, Daniel Hasson specialises in hotels and high end residential projects, both in Israel and abroad. Notable works include Orchid Reef Hotel Eilat, Hilton Eilat Queen of Shiba, a private house in Hampstead, London, and a private house in Coronado, Panama.

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
Though I was born and raised in Israel, I’m influenced by the international eclectic style. If a project I'm working on has a special location or architecture, it will affect the design and will be considered at the concept stage. In a project I worked on recently, which was located in front of the Russian Orthodox onion-shaped domes in Ein Karem valley, near Jerusalem, the gold onion shape had a powerful impact on the interior design of the house.

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Pagoda House, an Eclectic Style building in Tel Aviv designed in 1924 by architect Alexander Levy, and the Weizmann House, built in 1936 by Erich Mendelsohn.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
Because Israel is a young state and doesn’t have an old tradition of architecture, it feels easier to combine styles and create your own signature.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
Ada Karmi-Melamede and Zeev Rechter both succeed in combining modern design with an Israeli feel to create their own specific language.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
Light is blessed, but in Israel you have to work with it very delicately. Architects usually want to have the largest windows they can, but interior architects have to work wisely with shade to control the amount of light that will enter the space and give the right atmosphere needed.

www.danielhasson.com

Started in the niche of private high level housing. During the last six years business expanded our also to dwelling projects, commercial interior design, hotels and public buildings. Created the prize winning competition – community center for disabled people at Be'er Sheva. 

How has the architecture of Israel influenced your work?
The question of historical influence on Israeli architecture is a tricky one. It looks like our history line is one of the longest in the world, and we have plenty of heritage, but at the beginning of the 20th century the amount of built-up area was almost zero. Active demography and wars gave us almost a blank page as a beginning.  The International Style (1930-1950) influenced Israel much more, in our opinion, then Arab or Crusaders architecture. When Israel started to be built in massive volumes, that style was at the peak of its hype, and this was the corner stone of Israeli architecture as we know it today. Since that movement was part of modernism, it is natural for us to connect to that surrounding. 

Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is spoilt for modernist architecture. Which is your favourite modern building in Israel?
Instead of dropping one of the "big names" I’d prefer to choose one of the anonymous three-storey residential buildings of the White City. There are thousands of those, some better some worse, but most of them treat the city, the inhabitant, the human scale and the climate with great respect.

What are the advantages of working as an architect in Israel?
If you like pressure, you'll bloom. The Israeli atmosphere welcomes innovations - if you can deliver it, stay on budget and on schedule.

Among contemporary Israeli architects, whose work do you admire most?
I appreciate the work and values of Bracha and Michael Hayutin. Their projects have a good ratio between contemporary architecture and the basic, timeless, simple acts of architecture.

How does the climate impact on your work and how does it affect what you design?
This is one of the basic challenges of Israeli architecture. It is very easy to integrate systems to solve the problem, but the real challenge is to solve them with the basic tools of architecture. In some of our projects, objects like mashrabiya and shading elements are not only problems solvers, but the conceptual framework. In addition to their role (keeping the heat and sun beams out of the building), they also create very interesting natural light twists.

Encompassing two restored historic buildings in the heart of Tel Aviv, The Norman is a lesson in restrained 1920s elegance. With one building dedicated entirely to suites, the hotel’s accommodation offerings are expansive, totalling 50 individually designed rooms, with the Penthouse Duplex shining as the pièce de résistance. With one floor that elegantly showcases the best of the building’s original 20th century architecture, and another — built to purpose, — featuring a terrace and hot tub, the suite aptly sums up the sumptuousness of the hotel, which also includes a rooftop pool, spa and its own secluded citrus garden. Drinking and dining options span the grand Norman Restaurant, a brasserie-inspired venue serving Niçoise cuisine amongst plush upholstered banquettes, to the relaxed 1940s colonial-styled Library, where potent cocktails are served to the city’s who’s who.

ADDRESS

23-25 Nachmani Street
Tel Aviv 6579441
Israel

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