Pitsou Kedem Architects

Tel Aviv House

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

TEL AVIV HOUSE 

Pitsou Kedem Architects

LOCATION
Tel Aviv-yafo, Israel

CATEGORY
Houses

PROJECT YEAR
2016

ARCHITECT IN CHARGE
Noa Groman

DESIGN TEAM
Pitsou Kedem, Noa Groman

PHOTOGRAPHS
Amit Geron

LIGHTING DESIGN
Orly Avron Alkabes

STYLING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Eti Buskila

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

Text description provided by architect.

Visitors to the Old North of Tel Aviv would be surprised should they stumble upon a small neighborhood of low-lying family homes possessing just one or two storeys each.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

These are the remaining relics of Israel’s early urbanism when the English garden city motif populated many of her towns.

It incorporated a rural aesthetic of red-tiled roofs, low construction and spacious, generous gardens - some buildings were constructed by the Ministry of Housing and others were enthusiastically encouraged by it.

Their first inhabitants were often new immigrants and many were soon purchased by elites who saw in them the promise of comfortable lives and peaceful surroundings within an ever-growing city.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

In the march of time, some were abandoned, neglected, and then rediscovered and renewed.

Dense cities developed rapidly and intensively around them causing a sharp desire for these oases of comfortable family homes.

Some remained unaltered - modest homes through which waft the romantic scents of their history. Others have been adapted to reflect the modern tastes and desired proportions of their current owners.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

Unique is the advent of contiguously built homes - built from the start as linked units with a continuous appearance. 

Siamese twins bound together by visual and constructive obligations.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

Their development requires consideration and adjustment.Their environment seeks to preserve their values - their culture and history.

At first glance the clean, bright facade of the house seems alien against the background of the neighborhood.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

Emphasizing its difference is the additional height of the home and its long, horizontal windows, hidden behind white iron lattice-work.

These are in conversation, as it were, with the early international-style homes built in Tel Aviv, some of which displayed similar lattice-work that emulated freedom of form - rendered by indecipherable spatial division.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

Viewing the home from the side reveals the preservation of the original slanted roof with its distinct romantic character.

Now, however, the roof appears to be resting on the surrounding walls rendering its appearance so subtle it may even be missed. The end result of the side facade is an homage to the image of the “village home”.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

A passage runs from the street straight through the entrance into the inner areas - exterior and interior - past and future - a home of modern proportions. The rear facade reveals a large, vitrine window unifying the home to the yard and pool.

The passage through the storeys of inner rooms is formed by a floating bridge crossed by a staircase leading up to the roof.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron

There the bleached wood eaves stand out against the wall thinly coated with black cement, as if acquainting the architectural motifs of new and old, identity and exactitude that permeate the structure.

Hence - inside and outside - two worlds - two cultural tales are intertwined within the existence of the structure, permitting its existence, breathing into it completely new life.

Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron


Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron
Tel Aviv House
© Amit Geron


Tel Aviv House
Section
Tel Aviv House
Section


Tel Aviv House
Ground Floor

Pitsou Kedem Architects
T +972 3 6204493 F +972 3 6292835
Pitsou Kedem Architects
Maze St 39, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel