Rising elegance
Tel-Aviv, Israel
Photos by Amit Geron
Styling by Eti Buskila
A sophisticated combination of materials within a simple form structure captures our eye when looking at this small-scale project – 300 square metres – of a residential home in Tel-Aviv, designed by the Israeli firm Pitsou Kedem Architects. Stone facades are punctured with a series of narrow windows that filter light inside while glass-lined voids around the building’s perimeter, as well as in the atrium and in the centre, allow light to access the basement spaces.
The house is in fact half built underground and rises above the ground thanks to eight frames of steel poles and beams, set in two-metre intervals, holding the concrete ceiling and framing the central space. Steel beams are masterly used to create large glass openings while cement slabs are made light by a window strip situated above the beams allowing the ceiling to float above the platform, while light elegantly enters from every side of the house. The house communicates a sense of comfort and tranquillity both within the interior design of the spaces and the exterior green carpet cut by an outdoor swimming pool that runs along one full length of the structure. A slight change in elevation between the courtyard and the entrance to the house have given space to the swimming pool container creating an amusing view in transparency of who inhabits it – the swimmer. When entering the home a dark corridor opens up to the centre of the living theatre, the dining and living room, enlightened by a rectangular internal courtyard at the heart of the house, completely open to the sky.
The kitchen and the bedroom, with walk-in closet, are also on the top floor where oak floors soften the atmosphere creating an harmonic contrast with the structural, predominantly grey, materials of the surrounding. The basement is a flexible space and is reached by going down a staircase of floating steps. This residential project, as other structures recently developed by Pitsou Kedem Architects, combines different architectural and design languages, working with contrasting materials such as weathered steel and exposed concrete. Pitsou Kedem Architects also collaborated with local designer Orly Avron Alkabes to conceive a coherent lighting project in line with the aesthetics and functionality of the residence.
'The house communicates a sense of comfort and tranquillity both within the interior design of the spaces and the exterior green carpet', Pitsou Kedem Architects describes.
Two clear views of the structure of the house, the eight frames of steel poles and beams, set in two-metre intervals, holding the concrete ceiling and framing the central space.
