White metal panels imprinted with a geometric pattern line the walls of this penthouse apartment in Tel Aviv by Israeli studio Pitsou Kedem Architects (+ slideshow).

Pitsou Kedem Architects remodelled the interior of a top-floor apartment, named Layers of White because of its limited colour palette.

The wall-to-wall white decoration of the interior space was designed to create "a monastic and silent environment" for a client who asked for a minimalist apartment with wide open spaces for his family.

The Tel Aviv-based office applied the textured wall covering throughout the property to visually connect an open-plan living space and bedroom situated at either end of a narrow corridor.

A boxed-in island off the corridor containing a seating area and bathroom is also clad in the same material.

"The idea was to wrap the inner core walls of the building with one unique wall," Pitsou Kedem told Dezeen.

"We chose a special geometric pattern that repeats in the design and fits the clear sharp lines of the apartment."

The three-dimensional cladding made from large sheets of white painted aluminium is applied to portions of the walls throughout the apartment, which also has neutral ceilings, walls and fixtures to build up a space with "layers of pure, soft white".

"The apartment's spaces were designed to create a meditative atmosphere with monochromatic sheets all based on the colour white," added Kedem, who previously added an infinity pool to a rooftop apartment in Tel Aviv.

"Through a play on light and shadow and textures, multiple layers of white, almost 'colourful' in their richness are created, displaying many varied and deep hues of white," he said.

In the living space and bedrooms, the team inserted sections of ceiling-to-floor glass to give panoramic views over the city.

"The white flat is like a white canvas to the colours of the city," said Kedem.

A central white island separates the kitchen area from a sitting room with dark grey furnishings.

Utilities are set into the island counter and into a white storage wall to the rear of the kitchen.

Overhead lighting in the living area is shaded by sculptural folded pieces of metal that coordinate with the wall coverings, while slim strips of lighting over the hallway and the staircase highlight the dimensions of the space.

"Long, thin strips of light emphasise the linear axis along the length of the corridor and ceiling fixtures that appear as works of origami to complement the triangular, three dimensional walls," said the architect.

At the other end of the corridor there is a television room with pigeon-hole storage, a family bathroom with contrasting dark grey textured walls and three bedrooms.

The master bedroom has two glass walls with thin white curtains that can be pulled across to expose or block views of the city.

A white glass door slides open from the bedroom into an en-suite bathroom with large mirror, black counter and white sinks.

Three outdoor terraces positioned off the hallway and living area are floored in the same grey as the interior, giving a sense of continuity between the spaces.

On one balcony, the same geometric clusters used on the interior walls reappear as a motif in a "green" wall, where a triangular framework forms vertical planting beds.

"We believe that it makes it more 'alive' by using these vertical planting walls, which are like a work of art," said Kedem.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Project credits:

Architect: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design Team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Hila Weiss and Mano Amsalem
Styling for photographs: Eti Buskila

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A Tel Aviv flat that was once the home of Israel's first prime minster has been renovated and extended by local firm Pitsou Kedem Architects to create a new basement level with industrial-style fittings (+ slideshow).

A framework of chunky black I-beams supports the ceiling of a new basement floor, added by Pitsou Kedem Architects to the flat formerly owned by the late David Ben-Gurion, who was instrumental in the founding of the Israeli state and was prime minister between 1955 and 1963.

"The ground floor apartment we designed was previously the home of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, which lends historic significance and magic to the building and the apartment," said the architects.

The project, called Past Turned Into Space, involved reorganising the interior of the ground floor apartment, which is located within a two-storey block designed by Ukrainian architect Yosef Berlin in 1925.

The protected building features renaissance-style arches with segmental keystones, balconies and pale pink plasterwork, and is located within a UNESCO heritage site in Tel Aviv.

This meant the architects had to contend with severe building restrictions to add the subterranean level that would enable them to expand the residence into a 220-square-metre duplex apartment.

"Excavating in a preservation building is complicated," said the architects. "We had to change a central concrete pillar that supports vertically the whole building."

The new level is supported by timber-imprinted concrete and a six-metre-tall I-beam that spans the height of the two floors.

A palette of exposed concrete, glass and steel were continued throughout the interior, lending an industrial appearance to the interior spaces that contrasts with the building's ornamental facade.

"We chose to use concrete and steel because we treat them as timeless materials," said the architects. "This combination with a preservation building felt right."

"Since the construction elements we created were totally new, we took care not to hide them but left them exposed in order to tell the story of the renovation."

On the lower floor, glass panels pivot to reveal a study and bedroom adjacent to the double-height stairwell. Curtains can also be drawn across the glazing to give privacy from the stairwell.

Red door handles, patterned rugs and white fittings offer accents of colour to the grey-toned spaces, while furnishings, including moulded wooden chairs, aim to reflect the architectural period of the building.

"All the furniture was carefully chosen to complement the common culture that connects between two periods in time," said the team.

A steel staircase adjoins a metal-panelled wall at one side and breaks at a mid point to form a gap between the treads.

This upper section of staircase is enclosed by metal balustrades infilled with red mesh. A white light fitting with articulated arms and shades hangs over the fenced-in well.

Upstairs, a long light tube slices across the the timber-imprinted concrete ceiling – a feature also employed by the team in their renovation of a penthouse apartment in the city.

A length of dark metal extends from underneath one end of the polished stainless steel kitchen unit, before rejoining the floor to form an informal dining area.

By a soft seating area, an arched doorway leads to a street-facing terrace with a black and white chequered floor.

Photography is by Amit Goren, with styling by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Design team: Irene Goldberg, Tamar Berger, Pitsou Kedem
Architect in charge: Tamar Berger

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Two intersecting volumes create this house of two parts by Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem – one side is dedicated to family life while the other is an entertainment area featuring a six-metre-tall wine cooler (+ slideshow).

Located in Savyon, a neighbourhood near Tel Aviv, House of Parties was designed by Pitsou Kedem as a T-shaped building with a swimming pool located in its crook.

The brief was to combine a family home for a couple with three young children with a space for entertaining guests.

"When we want to go to a party, we usually have to leave the house," said the architect. "This couple wanted to combine two functions into the same space."

The two-storey family home is housed within a white-rendered block that borders one side of the pool, while the double-height party space stretches out to one side. It features glass walls flanked by a white lattice framework.

Spanning one wall of the space is a vast glass-fronted wine cooler. A bright yellow ladder leans against the fridge, providing access to bottles on the upper shelves, and adding an accent of colour.

The wine wall sits to the rear of a glossy black bar, featuring a wedge-shaped front that gives guests knee-room when seated at the counter. "The bar is built using unique angles that allow guests to sit together informally," said the team.

Glass walls can be pulled back from either side of the social area, connecting with a tree-lined courtyard at the rear of the house and a pool-side patio for outdoor eating.

"The central space was constructed as a unit that allows for the total nullification of the walls between the space and the outside," said Kedem.

The glass hood of the structure is covered in criss-crossing latticework. A pergola made up of thicker lines angles out to cover the outdoor dining area, designed to create "shadow projections that correspond with the play of shadows within the house".

From the centre of a wooden wall at the opposite side of the space, a wide door pivots into the separate living room and kitchen for the family. Bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the storey above.

Photographer Amit Geron sought to capture both the everyday nature of the house and its appearance during parties. A straggler from an ill-fated party is even pictured floating face-down in the pool in one shot.

Project credits:

Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Nurit Ben Yosef
In charge architect: Nurit Ben Yosef
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes
Styling for photos: Eti Buskila

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combines family life with entertaining appeared first on Dezeen.

Weathered steel screens cast chequerboard patterns of sunlight and shadow across the internal surfaces of this house near Tel Aviv by Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem (+ slideshow).

The property was designed by Pitsou Kedem Architects for a plot located in the district of Savyon, 20 kilometres east of central Tel Aviv.

The main volume of the building is a concrete shell that extends around a courtyard, but also frames the large glazed surfaces or openings containing the gridded metal screens.

These see-through surfaces perform several purposes – controlling the amount of daylight that enters the building, limiting views from outside and helping to demarcate boundaries between various internal and external spaces.

"The weathered steel layer is seen as being two dimensional from afar but does, in effect, have volume and can be experienced almost as a piece of sculpture or work of art, and not just in terms of its function as part of the building's structure," stated the studio.

A courtyard marks the entrance to the house and is sheltered on two sides by tall concrete walls. At first floor level, the concrete frames the metal screen, which extends along the front of the building and wraps around the corner to shield a bedroom.

Another courtyard at the other end of the house creates a transitional area between the living area and the pool. This also becomes carpeted in a pattern of dappled sunlight as it filters through the screens that flank it on two sides.

The project's title, In Praise of Shadows, references the importance the designers placed on the relationship between the house and the sun. The sun's orientation helped to determine several key factors, including the position of walls and the internal programme.

The choice of simple raw materials, including exposed concrete, was intended to enhance the "inanimate" and "monastic" properties of these surfaces.

"The shade and shadows moving across the building's surfaces create a dynamic drama that makes the entire mass seem to be alive and full of movement," the studio added.

The changing angle and brightness of the sun affects the tone of the concrete, weathered steel and wood used throughout external and internal spaces.

A partition comprising staggered open shelves and solid storage units separates the dining area from a glass-walled study on the ground floor, evoking the metal panels employed around the exterior.

A similar shelving system lines one side of a mezzanine above the main living area and allows light to filter through both from this side and the side facing the front terrace.

Glass walls enhance the open-air feel of the ground floor, where residents can look out onto the pool from the living room and kitchen.

Glazing also surrounds small courtyard gardens. One is positioned next to the main stairwell, containing a tree that reaches up from the basement level.

In first floor spaces such as the master bedroom, the pattern of light and shadow cast by the perforated metal screen outside the glass wall evokes the effect of dappled light filtering through the nearby trees.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Project credits:

Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Hila Sella
Styling for photography: Eti Buskila and Irene Goldberg

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Concrete forms influenced by 1950s architecture were combined with contemporary details for this house that architect Pitsou Kedem designed for himself and his family in Ramat HaSharon, near Tel Aviv (+ slideshow).

Pitsou Kedem's home is located in a neighbourhood developed in the 1950s to accommodate army veterans. The low profiles and Modernist styling of the buildings that remain from this era informed the forms and materials employed by the architect.

"I designed the house with the horizontal lines and clear tight grid that characterises the humble, timeless style of this period," Kedem told Dezeen.

"I also chose to use the same materials, aiming not for a fashionable home, but one I hope will be relevant for many years."

The building comprises two square floors stacked on top of one another, with the lower level partially submerged in the sloping site.

Exposed concrete walls form the main structural elements and create a sense of solidity. This is mediated by a roof that appears from certain angles to float, due to the band of glazing between it and the tops of the walls.

"I wanted to make my family's home cosy yet architectural," Kedem claimed. "My decision was to create not high spaces but rooms with a human scale."

The concrete roof is supported by internal walls flanking the staircase at the centre of the house, as well as by columns along the glazed facade that fronts the garden. It also cantilevers out slightly to shelter a terrace.

For the double-height elevation on one side, the solid concrete gives way to glazing that extends along both storeys.

Timber louvres shield the glazing and regulate how much sunlight reaches the interior, as well as ensuring privacy when required.

The louvres are electronically controlled and divided into groups so they can be adjusted in accordance with the needs of the different internal spaces, which results in patterns of light and shadow across the length of the facade.

Circular openings in the concrete walls frame views of the neighbourhood and surrounding eucalyptus trees, while similar openings in the internal surfaces create visual connections between the various rooms.

An entrance at the centre of the house on the upper level leads into an open kitchen, living and dining area with a frameless window at the far end.

The central staircase divides the living areas on one side of the plan from the master bedroom suite and study on the other.

The staircase was constructed from textured metal and is enclosed by walls of exposed silicate bricks. Natural light filtering through timber slats is distributed to the adjoining areas through round holes in the walls.

Throughout the building, the architect selected materials that would age well over time. ""The use of raw materials in their original state – exposed concrete, wood and unpainted iron – conveyed and magnified both the material and sensational experience of home," said Kedem.

"Designing my own home was an important experience for me as an architect," he added. "Beyond the pleasure of building a house for my family, I learned a lot about the client's experience. It was also an important opportunity to discuss the practical aspects of architecture and not only the design."

Photography is by Amit Geron, with styling by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Architect: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Noa Groman, Tamar Berger

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Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem and Irene Goldberg have created a series of nature-influenced products for the home, including a shelving system that references a rock formation and a sink based on an iceberg.

Kedem and Goldberg designed the shelves, sink and mirror as the first three objects from a collection that will eventually also include tables, chairs and other items for the home.

"As architects we design spaces for people – spaces that promote a sense of place, calling their visitors to linger," said Kedem, whose architecture projects in his native country include a concrete 1950s-inspired home built for his family. "We created Object to complete this experience."

The architect installed the Object items in another of his buildings: a house near Tel Aviv shaded by perforated weathered steel screens.

The range includes the modular Library shelving system, which comprises a blackened steel grid and oak boxes, providing closed-off and open storage.

The freestanding piece has no back – enabling it to be accessed from both sides and used as a room divider.

Its design is based on rock formations with holes in them, which are solid but also traversable. "We drew our inspiration for the collection from nature – natural phenomena and organic objects," Kedem told Dezeen.

"For the sink we drew upon the fascinating formations of icebergs – their mass, their colour and their material," he said of the combined sink and shelf they have named Iceberg.

Made from one solid slice of Italian white stone attached to the wall, a glass front contains the water.

"Like a floating iceberg, its white surfaces and elegant lines transform from plains to a mass as we move around it, changing our point of perception," he added.

The Last Leaf is a double-sided circular mirror suspended from a painted iron pole, representing a droplet of water on the furthest leaf on a branch.

The mirror revolves around its pole as well as its own axis, presenting a different reflection scale on each side. Its movement reveals the red colour of the inner frame.

"The design of our objects is a playful dance between masses and plains, a constant motion between volume and void," Kedem explained. "We realised we needed to create everyday objects that enrich the daily rituals of our lives. We believe that adding a smile to well-formed architecture every now and then is a necessary gesture."

Architects have long dabbled in product design, using it to experiment with their signature styles at a smaller scale.

Examples include Norm Architects, which collaborated with Note Design Studio on the Patchwork Marble Table for Menu; and Zaha Hadid, who has recently added a range of stools and a bowl designed to resemble ice formations to her collection of furniture for London's David Gill Gallery.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

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Israeli studio Pitsou Kedem Architects knocked four apartments into one to create this two-storey penthouse in Tel Aviv, which features a rooftop pool offering views out over the city (+ slideshow).

Named Square Compositions Penthouse, the 400-square-metre apartment was designed by Pitsou Kedem Architects as a family home. It occupies the top two levels of a residential tower in the city's new luxury high-rise district, Park Tzameret.

The lower level has the primary living spaces, with a kitchen, dining area and double-height living room arranged in an L-shape. These open onto a balcony around the perimeter of the building.

The upper level has a second balcony, which is enclosed by frameless glass balustrades and features a pool that sits level with the deck, offering uninterrupted views of the city while swimming.

In the living area, a composition of raised and recessed squares, from which the apartment derives its name, climbs up the walls and onto the ceiling. The studio describes it as "a patchwork of clearly defined lines, like a plant creeping up a clear trellis".

The detail also continues throughout the other rooms in the apartment, and was designed so that the owners would not need to add decoration to the walls.

"The panels are like a piece of sculpture," said the architects. "This nullifies the need for any additional design elements, other than those that light and accompany the space."

The textured surface, which the team likens to a topography spreading across the apartment, was also added to create a subtle, changing pattern of light and shade across the walls and ceiling throughout the day.

"The topographical white is enhanced by the large, orthogonal glass walls that cast myriad light, so they differ in their shade and brightness," said the architects.

In the kitchen, the squares and rectangles have been fashioned into lights that protrude down from the ceiling.

A folded metal staircase at the end of the living space leads up to a mezzanine study, which overlooks the dining area and the city beyond. It is enclosed by a glass balustrade to create an unimpeded flow of light and views.

"Movement and views in the space are emphasised by the work areas and sitting areas, which are placed by the stairways like terraces that both observe, and are also observed," said the architects.

Behind the mezzanine study, a more enclosed staircase, also made from folded metal, leads up to the apartment's penthouse level. A chandelier comprising multiple rods of light creates a feature in the centre of the stairwell.

The penthouse level contains bedrooms, bathrooms, and has its own living area and kitchen, so it can be used as a self-contained apartment if needed.

"The penthouse floor is designed as an upper living area with a large salon overlooking the balcony and a swimming pool, as well as a kitchen and bathrooms," said the architects. "The effect is of two different and separate living levels that make possible a range of social activities and interactions at the same time."

The upper-level living room has large sliding glass doors on two sides that open up to the surrounding balcony, and flooring that is level with the paving outside in order to make the two spaces feel more like one.

Related content: see more architecture and interiors by Pitsou Kedem

Interior-style sofas, chairs and tables have been placed on the balcony to make it feel more like an outdoor living room.

Dark flooring and furniture were used throughout the apartment to offer a contrast to the white walls.

"The careful selection of materials and hues is evident in the apartment's floors and furniture," said the architects. "Monochromatic, reserved and deep – they create surprise as you enter the light, bright space."

Square Compositions Penthouse is the latest in a series of apartments that Pitsou Kedem Architects has designed in Tel Aviv. Others include a penthouse with an infinity pool and an apartment lined with textured geometric wall panels.

Photography is by Amit Geron, with styling by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Architect: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Hila Sela
Architect in charge: Hila Sela

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Concrete slabs, translucent glass planks and frameless window walls offer varying degrees of privacy for this house in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan by Pitsou Kedem (+ slideshow).

Kedem's Tel Aviv-based studio – which also recently completed a monochrome penthouse apartment – sought to create seclusion at the street-facing front of the house, but to give a more open feel to the spaces facing a private garden at the rear.

A high wall separates the house, named Concrete Cut, from the street. Behind it, three distinct layers of material present a solid and impervious elevation towards the rest of the neighbourhood.

The bottom and top layers are made from translucent glass planks – the same material used by British architect Carl Turner for his Manser Medal-winning home.

They allow daylight to filter inside, and their tone and uniformity complement the robust surface of the concrete sandwiched in between.

"Viewed from the front, [the house] looks like a monolithic operation of materials with a deep, monochromatic range of colours," said the studio. "Three rectangular prisms, laid upon one another into a peaceful composition, stable and subdued, appearing as heavy masses."

"A second, discerning glance reveals a dramatic encounter of materials taken from two separate worlds –­ poured, massive concrete and glass panels, creating a semitransparent wall with a decisive line running through it."

The lower portion of the glazed wall shields an entrance tucked behind one corner. Bamboo stems that stretch upwards from the basement level are backlit by light coming through the translucent surface.

A large pivoting doorway opens directly onto the open-plan kitchen and dining area, with the rest of the space along the front elevation accommodating services including a bathroom, laundry, wardrobe and a lift.

At the far end of this space is a double-height lounge that looks onto the terrace and swimming pool through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Large steel pillars in the corners of the room provide evidence of the building's supporting framework, while the concrete cladding extends in a sinuous line from the roof, down one side of the windows and across the facade before descending to the ground.

"While the front facade is an abstract creation conceptually assuring the blending of identity and function, the rear facade graphically expresses three­-dimensionality, the probing of depth and the feeling of brightness and freedom," the architects said.

The large windows at ground floor level incorporate sliding doors that open onto the poolside terrace and extend along the west elevation to fill the lounge and dining space with natural light.

On the east elevation, a concrete wall provides a surface on which to hang the television.

A window above extends diagonally along the line of a staircase that features open treads to maintain the openness of this circulation area.

The stairs ascend to a first floor containing bedrooms, a study and a bathroom behind a mezzanine library that overlooks the lounge.

Another staircase leads down to a basement level providing a private area for the children and a personal gym. A glazed wall lining the east side of this submerged storey opens onto a narrow yard.

The children's bedrooms are located on the first floor, while the master bedroom suite is accommodated in a translucent glass box at the top of the building.

Full-height windows flanking the bedroom at the rear look out onto a roof terrace lined with a glass balustrade that extends along two sides of the building.

Architect Pitsou Kedem's own house also combines concrete and glass to evoke the aesthetics of Modernist architecture, while another house designed by the studio near Tel Aviv features a perforated steel screen that casts a chequerboard shadow on its concrete walls.

Photography is by Amit Geron. Styling is by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Architect: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Noa Groman
Architect in charge: Noa Groman
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes

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Israeli studio Pitsou Kedem has completed a family residence in Tel Aviv, using a cantilevered concrete box and glass walls to create a building that "corresponds with the Modernism of the 1950s" (+ slideshow).

Like the house Pitsou Kedem designed for himself and his family in Ramat HaSharon, SB House takes its cues from the forms and materials typically used in Modern architecture.

The 510-square-metre residence, which the studio designed for a family in Tel Aviv, features board-marked concrete walls and large expanses of glass, allowing natural light to flood the interior.

A concrete box containing upper floor bedrooms and bathrooms cantilevers over the ground level living room, which is wrapped on three sides by glass – similar in form to a Melbourne residence by Matt Gibson that references Brazilian Modernism.

"Technological advances of the industrial revolution, which allowed the use of iron and concrete building blocks, brought with them the gospel of Modernism," said Kedem.

"The use of a cement sheath around the house produces a fascinating balance between open and closed systems and fills the house with various intensities of light," he continued, "these streams pour into the concrete structure and emphasise its sensuality."

A row of wooden louvres fitted to the street-facing facade reinforces the linear markings left by the wooden formwork on the concrete walls and help to further ventilate and illuminate the inside of the building.

An adjacent full-height wall sits away from the elevated concrete box above the sitting room, creating a narrow gap between the two parts of the structure.

Steel beams and a strip of glass that run up the two end walls of the building and across the roof span the gap, helping to light the entrance hall below. A pivoting door that provides the primary entrance to the house is concealed within a white wall.

"The experience of standing up against the sealed entrance is like the architecture of Egypt's temples and fortress buildings," said Kedem.

Wooden floorboards, chosen to reference the board-marked concrete walls and ceiling, are used throughout the living space and on an elevated walkway that runs overhead.

While the master suite is located in the upper storey, children's rooms are located in a basement lit by a sunken courtyard.

Related content: see more projects by Pitsou Kedem

While concrete opacifies the upper floor, glazed walls slide open to connect the open-plan living space with the garden containing a swimming pool.

Directed by architect Pitsou Kedem, the Tel Aviv studio is renowned for its use of concrete, metal and frameless glazing to create dramatic plays of light and shadow. Earlier this year it completed a house titled In Praise of Shadows, which features a chequerboard screen of weather steel that casts patterns of sunlight and show across the internal surfaces.

SB House is located nearby several Tel Aviv projects by the firm including a penthouse apartment with an infinity pool overlooking the city, and the renovated home of Israel's former prime minster, David Ben-Gurion.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Project credits:

Architecture: Pitsou Kedem
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Tamar Berger, Irene Goldberg, Hagar Arad Tsvi
Styling for photography: Eti Buskila

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Horizontal slits create lines of shadow across the facades of this beachfront house in Israel by Pitsou Kedem Architects, which has a cantilevered upper storey that projects towards the Mediterranean Sea (+slideshow).

The property was designed by Pitsou Kedem's Tel-Aviv studio for a couple and their three children, and is located in the northern Israeli village of Shavei Tzion, close to the owners' factory in a nearby industrial area.

The house's plot is situated just 70 metres from the sea and looks directly onto an area of scrubland leading to the beach. The design aims to accentuate this connection with the sights and sounds of the sea.

"The client asked for the house to be open to the sea and have a minimalist design," Kedem told Dezeen. "We tried to create a minimal architecture and not produce visual noise."

Another key influence on the house's simple geometric forms and neutral material palette came from the architectural principles of the International Style, which was adopted by many Israeli architects in the 1930s and 1940s.

Kedem has previously applied a similar aesthetic to projects including a house in Tel-Aviv featuring a concrete box cantilevered over a glass-walled ground floor, and a home for his own family with concrete walls and a roof that seems to hover above them.

The side of the house facing the access road and the entrance courtyard features predominantly solid surfaces, with narrow horizontal openings allowing daylight to enter a porch area housing a small tree.

A white box jutting out from the first floor contains bathrooms for the bedrooms on this level. Another small bedroom is also afforded light and privacy by the horizontal white cladding.

The striped surface is formed from aluminium panels that extend along the sides of the upper storey's cantilevered section, drawing the eye towards the open vista to the west.

The cladding also offers a protective insulating layer to prevent the interior from overheating in the desert climate.

A more pronounced cantilever is located at the rear of the building, allowing the master bedroom suite to project out over above the garden.

"The main bedroom on the second floor is suspended in the air without pillars below, which emphasises the aspiration of the entire structure to flow like waves of the sea," Kedem added.

"The hovering section generates a sense of lightness and floating, like white foam floating on the edge of each wave."

Next to and below the cantilevered volume, large windows flood the double-height living area on the ground floor with natural light and frame views towards the horizon.

Windows set into the surfaces of the master bedroom and the other bedrooms lining the south-facing first floor are framed by thin protruding lintels that provide shade from the sun without disrupting the views.

The horizontal slits incorporated into the cladding recur in the balustrades of the first-floor gallery, creating a direct connection between the interior and the west-facing cantilever.

Photography is by Amit Geron, with styling by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Design team: Irene Goldberg, Tamar Berger, Pitsou Kedem
Lead architect: Tamar Berger
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes

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Pitsou Kedem has completed a sales office at the foot of the Arlozorov 17 apartment building in Tel Aviv, adding perforated aluminium screens, concrete panels and a glossy ceiling (+ slideshow).

The Israel studio was responsible for the interior architecture of the 127 apartments within the block, which has yet to be completed.

They aimed to echo the design for the apartment spaces within the sales office by using the same materials and colour palettes.

Aluminium screens that feature prominently throughout the design of the apartments are used to create partitions, while rectangular blocks of concrete are fixed against the wall.

"The sales office mirrors the tower's architectural language and materialism including a widespread use of aluminium screens that will be part of the tower's internal facade," said the architects. "The screens constitute a sort of membrane that will regulate light and views between the outside and the inside."

A desk constructed from polished stainless steel is located in the entrance lobby. A set of stairs leads to a waiting area, while consultation areas and meeting rooms upstairs are framed by panes of glass.

"The lobby's entrance desk communicates with the future design and is constructed as a small model with diagonal sheets on different planes," said the studio.

Although a simple monochrome colour palette was used throughout the space, materials with varying finishes are used to create depth and texture.

"Restrained characteristics that provide the opposite sensation as to what you would expect create strength and power," said the architects. "The quiet strength of a monochromatic structure with clean lines promises an experience that opens up and develops the further we walk in."

Strips of tube lighting hanging from the roof are reflected against the glossy black ceiling – making the space appear taller than it actually is.

The sales office is the studio's latest completed project in Tel Aviv. Others include a penthouse with an infinity pool and an apartment lined with textured geometric wall panels.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Project credits:

Design: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg and Daniella Shulman
Lighting design : Orly Avron Alkabes

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Architect Pitsou Kedem has completed an events hall in Rishon LeZion, Israel, featuring translucent glass-plank facades designed to "glow like a firefly" at night (+ slideshow).

The Lago complex is situated next an artificial lake on the outskirts of the city, and was designed by Tel Aviv-based Pitsou Kedem to accommodate the largest banqueting hall in Israel.

The architect – whose previous work includes a house with a similar palette of translucent, transparent and opaque materials, and a sales office featuring reflective surfaces and perforated metal screens – was asked to develop a simple yet eye-catching structure to house two modern events halls.

"Due to the fact that the structure is situated in a large open area and is seen from all the surroundings and surrounding roads, the client asked to design an iconic structure with a unique presence," Kedem told Dezeen.

The complex is divided into two separate halls arranged on either side of a central reception, which also contains service areas, offices and a bridal suite that overlooks the nearby lake.

In response to the client's request for an iconic building, the architect applied his signature Modernist-inspired aesthetic to create a structure characterised by its simple geometric form and expressive use of materials.

"We decided to design a building that will stand out in its material and elegance and we chose to add huge concrete slabs to contrast the clean clarity of the white glass," said the architect. "We hope that the contrast of materials creates more uniqueness and an outstanding look for the building."

The contrasting visual weight of the opaque concrete and translucent glass is accentuated by the minimal joints between the materials, resulting in an abstract patchwork that reduces the homogeneity of the building's shell.

Clean lines and flush surfaces contribute to the delicate feel of the facades, which appear even more ephemeral at night when the building is illuminated. The glowing sections of frosted glass signal the activities taking place within.

"At night, the building will glow like a firefly, or be like a lighthouse in the darkness, marking the fact that here and now a great event is occurring," Kedem added, describing how the complex is clearly visible from the currently undeveloped surrounding landscape.

Lighting also helps to define the external spaces, which incorporate landscaped gardens with seating areas providing views of the lake. A reflecting pool that lines one edge of the building gives this facade the illusion of added depth, as if the structure is floating above the ground plane.

The larger of the two halls can be divided in any way to suit the needs of different events and offers a multimedia system with video mapping technology, while the smaller hall is split over two levels to create more intimate spaces.

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Project credits:

Architecture: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Hila Sela

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Bands of shutters featuring a geometric perforated pattern appear to form seamless surfaces that extend across the facade of this house in Tel Aviv by Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem (+ slideshow).

The house is located in an area to the north of the city where a few streets lined with one- or two-storey homes were built during the city's expansion in the 1950s.

Pitsou Kedem designed the property to complement the aesthetic style of the neighbouring buildings and to make the most of the small site, which was previously occupied by another property that was demolished.

The building's additional storey sets it apart from its lower neighbours, while its clean lines and bright white-painted walls lend it a contemporary appearance.

From the side, a gabled profile references the shape of the original structure and the history of the neighbourhood.

"We tried to achieve an urban, minimalist and pure design which produces bright spaces that allow for a relatively small plot of space," Kedem told Dezeen.

The street-facing elevation incorporates windows that divide the surface into horizontal bands. The windows are covered with iron screens punctuated by a continuous pattern of rectangular apertures. These ensure privacy without blocking out daylight.

"The idea behind the pattern was to produce a shape that allows many blinds to be connected in a long rows without the joints being detected," Kedem explained.

"As this skin is all one unit, we've been looking for a skin that allows enough visibility and still allows privacy."

The screens also evoke similar patterned lattice work that is a feature of many Modernist homes built throughout the city.

Kedem is fan of this architectural movement and has referenced it in several previous projects, including a beachfront house with a cantilevered upper storey and a Modernist-inspired concrete and glass home.

A path extends from the street to the entrance and straight through the main living room, kitchen and dining area towards the garden and poolside patio beyond.

The interior is designed to emphasise its connection with this rear garden, which form part of the living space when the large sliding glass doors are opened.

"What makes this house unique is that, despite a location within the city and surrounded by tall buildings, the site allows for a private house with a courtyard that is the added value," Kedem claimed.

The open-plan living area incorporates a void that unites the building's two levels. A staircase at one end of the room ascends to a bridge lined with a glass balustrade, which traverses the room and connects the bedrooms on the first floor.

The vitrine-like quality of the glazed rear wall allows plenty of light to enter the interior. The sense of brightness is enhanced by the white walls and reflective surfaces, including polished stone tiles.

The shutters at the front of the house cast dappled light across the interior surfaces. When the windows behind are opened, the screens also allow breezes to naturally ventilate the house.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

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Project credits:

Architecture: Pitsou Kedem
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Noa Groman
Project architect: Noa Groman
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes
Styling: Eti Buskila

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A solid concrete volume sits above the predominantly glazed ground-floor living areas of this house in the Israeli city of Herzliya by architect Pitsou Kedem (+ slideshow).

The S House is located in the affluent beachfront district of Herzliya Pituach and was designed by Kedem's Tel Aviv studio, which has previously created residences in the region including a house with bands of shutters featuring a perforated geometric pattern, and a seafront property with a cantilevered upper storey and stripy facade.

The building comprises a ground floor surrounded by white rendered walls and glazed partitions, which contrast with the heavy-looking volume containing the first-floor bedrooms This effect is exaggerated when the glass walls are retracted or rotate, creating entirely open spaces connected to the poolside terrace.

The concrete upper storey is supported by an embedded steel framework and several carefully positioned columns that allow the facades to be opened up.

"The levitation of the prism, formed by clean lines, dictates the entirety of the grounds and entrance by way of transparent partitions of different types – dropping down toward and marking the ground," said the architects.

"As such, the public spaces of the home – the dining room, kitchen, living room, garden and decorative pool – have their inner and outer boundaries entirely blurred."

The contrast of opacity and transparency continues in the more private areas towards the front of the house, where a screen of vertical timber slats shields the interior from unwanted views.

The slatted surface extends around an outdoor lobby area, where a walkway formed of large slabs crosses a reflecting pool incorporating planted beds.

The walkway leads towards the entrance, set in a glazed wall that creates a sense of the living space extending outwards into the sheltered pool area.

A master bedroom suite situated next to the entrance is also flanked by the wooden slats. These help to shade the room from direct sunlight, while allowing views out towards a row of trees and the pond that stretches along the base of one wall.

In the open-plan living area, the wall opposite the entrance is formed of glass doors with steel frames that swivel to provide direct access onto the poolside patio.

The corner of the adjacent dining room is entirely glazed. The walls can be retracted to connect this space with an additional dining area sheltered beneath the projecting upper storey.

Staircases incorporated behind the kitchen's storage units lead up to the bedrooms, and down to a basement containing additional lounge areas, a gym and additional guest bedrooms.

The bedrooms on the upper floor are arranged along a landing that looks down over a circulation void flanked by an exposed concrete wall. Each room opens onto a balcony overlooking the pool on the opposite side.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Project credits:

Initial design and planning: Irene Goldberg, Pitsou Kedem
In-charge architect: Raz Melamed
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes
Styling for photography: Eti Buskila

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A bridge forms the entrance of this house near Tel Aviv by architect Pitsou Kedem, which also features a perforated facade referencing the traditional regional latticework (+ slideshow).

J House is an 800-square-metre family home located in Herzliya, an affluent northern area of the Tel Aviv District.

Local studio Pitsou Kedem Architects has already designed many houses in the area, including one with a concrete upper storey that rests on a largely glazed ground floor, and another with windows concealed behind geometric perforated surfaces shutters.

Similar to these other properties, the architect chose to partially hide J House from the street behind a tall wall. Its visible facades are separated into horizontal bands that provide privacy as required.

From certain angles, the building's roof appears to float above the solid walls due to the narrow window that extends around the entire structure.

The facade elements and roof largely follow the slope of the street, with a section at one end rising up in the opposite direction to introduce a sense of movement and enhance the impression that the roof is lifting upwards.

"The plot is very long, with a long front to the street, which we used to our advantage to create a unique and dynamic facade construed from two opposite diagonals that give it a dynamic sensation," Kedem told Dezeen.

A gate in the wall leads to the bridge, which traverses a gully with a stone path meandering along its floor. Plants and trees fill the chasm, creating a verdant garden that flanks the basement level.

"The idea of the sunken front garden is to allow natural light to penetrate the basement floor," Kedem added. "The sloped garden also allows access by foot through it to the basement yard from the entrance."

On the entrance level, large windows allow plenty of light to reach the main living areas.

They are shielded behind aluminium screens featuring a repeat pattern that references traditional mashrabiya latticework. This pattern echoes the angles of the building's roofline.

Light filtering through the screens is reflected in a pool to one side of the entrance, which multiplies the repetition of the elements.

On the opposite side of the bridge, a full-height atrium lined with black Costa granite contains a staircase of faceted white treads that extend out from the wall.

The staircase connects the main living areas on the central level, with bedrooms on the floors above and below.

The living rooms, dining spaces and kitchen extend towards and around a poolside terrace at the rear of the building.

Glazed walls surrounding the terrace incorporate sections that can be retracted to connect the interior with the garden areas.

In addition to the swimming pool, the outside spaces contain a fire pit, an open-air dining space and a covered lounge area.

On the upper storey, a master suite with a glazed corner projects out over the poolside terrace. A glass-lined corridor leads towards three more bedrooms at the opposite end of the house.

Spaces on the lower level include further bedrooms and an intimate lounge featuring a bar clad in black stone.

A wall lining a corridor at the base of the stairs is covered in blackened wood tiles, featuring indentations that lend the surface a three-dimensional texture.

Photography is by Amit Geron, with styling by Eti Buskila.

Project credits:

Design Team: Pitsou Kedem, Nurit Ben Yosef
Architect in charge: Nurit Ben Yosef
Lighting design: Orly Avron Alkabes

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Wall coverings have been peeled away to reveal a vaulted stone ceiling that's several hundred years old inside this refurbished apartment in Tel Aviv.

Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem removed walls between the sandstone brick columns to create an open plan living and dining room surrounded by arches.

An exterior wall was replaced by a thinly framed glass arch that now links the living room to a balcony overlooking the port of Old Jaffa.

The architects installed Corian shelving and surfaces to rooms, as well as a stainless steel kitchen.

A transparent glass cylinder surrounds a shower in the bedroom.

Framed glass doors provide access from this bedroom to a second outdoor terrace.

Other refurbished interiors featured on Dezeen include a Tokyo apartment with the appearance of an elegant building site and a former poet's house converted into a writer’s retreat.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here are some more details from Pitsou Kedem:

Jaffa Flat

The language of minimalism imbedded in a historic residence in Old Jaffa.

The 100 square meter residential home is located in Old Jaffa. Its location is unique in that it is set above the harbor, facing west with all of its openings facing the majestic splendor of the Mediterranean Sea.

Whilst it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old.

Over the years, it has undergone many changes and had many additions made that have damaged the original quality of the building and its spaces.

The central idea was to restore the structure's original, characteristics, the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches including the exposure of the original materials (a combination of pottery and beach sand).

The building has been cleaned of all of the extraneous elements, from newer wall coverings and has undergone a peeling process to expose its original state.

Surprisingly, modern, minimalistic construction styles remind us of and correspond with the ascetic style of the past, and this despite the vast time difference between them.

The central idea was to combine the old and the new whilst maintaining the qualities of each and to create new spaces that blend the styles together even intensify them because of the contrast and tension between the different periods.

The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the buildings outer shell and by respecting the building engineering accord.

The modern is expressed by the opening of spaces and by altering the internal flow to one more open and free and the creation of an urban loft environment along with the use of stainless steel, iron and Corian in the various partitions, in the openings and in the furniture.

The project succeeds in both honoring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure whilst creating a contemporary project, modern and suited to its period.

Despite the time differences, the tensions and the dichotomy between the periods exist in a surprisingly balanced and harmonic space.

Design team: Pitsou Kedem & Raz Melamed

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Dezeen in Israel: following our recent visit to Tel Aviv, here’s an entirely white house in nearby Ramat Gan by local architect Pitsou Kedem.

Glass walls are concealed behind the white curtain exterior of the three-storey residence, but can be glimpsed through horizontally slashed openings.

The entrance to the house is located on the first floor, where residents cross a bridge over the garden to enter an open-plan living and dining room that occupies the whole floor.

The building is set into the sloping ground, so while the garden is at the lowest level, an outdoor swimming pool is situated just outside glass doors at the rear of the first floor.

You can see more stories about Israeli architecture and interiors here, or if you’re interested in furniture and product design from Israel you can check out our special feature here.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here's some more text from Pitsou Kedem:

Box? Object? House!

A private family residence situated in an urban environment. In essence, the house is a closed, white box, devoid of any decorative or ornamental elements. Within the "box", long, horizontal lines have been opened which connected the house to its surroundings and which created, within the structure, a feeling as if an entire life had been frozen in time.

The openings make it possible to look out into the surrounding environment, or look into the house. They allow natural light to penetrate the structure or artificial lighting to seep out, into the surroundings, during the hours of darkness.

In fact, the house constitutes a pure and immaculate bubble which invites those using the spaces into a world of design values that are radically different from those of the surrounding, chaotic, urban world.

The grooved and perforated envelope constitutes a type of polished and minimalistic object which brings out the monastic and minimized language that the designer chose to use. The façade facing the street is remarkable in its restraint and the desire to create an exact and restrained show.
In the direction of the surrounding neighborhood, the other facades are built from large white walls with the random lines opened up in the walls through which the sunlight penetrates the walls, creating drama, motion and dynamism in a space that is otherwise so very meditative.

The polished form, the perfection shown in every detail and the fusion of the different materials, the monastic language, meticulously styled with great care, provides a feeling that we looking at a flat, almost two dimensional and picturesque bedding.

The various levels and the flow of the various shades of white, along with the geometric performance of the light against the horizontal and vertical surfaces, provide the restrained picture a sense of space and depth.

Bands of light and shade create in this oh so quiet space, a harmonious song and lyric that seems to play between the walls of the structure and which breathes life into the spirit of the silent walls.

The pattern of stripes and the seemingly random cadence chosen - almost seem to represent the rhythm of the light's movement. The designer used the same pattern that is sometimes seem in two dimensional angles, almost like a graphical logo, both in the details and other places in the home's spaces such as the fence at the entrance and the various items of woodwork.

The post Box? Object? House! by Pitsou Kedem appeared first on Dezeen.

Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem has completed a showroom for furniture brand B&B Italia inside an industrial warehouse by the harbour in Tel Aviv.

Silicate panels line the western wall of the 11-metre-high hall, while other interior walls are clad in concrete panels.

A deep-framed entrance leads visitors inside, where a rusted metal staircase climbs up to a narrow mezzanine that bridges the full width of the showroom.

A wall of metal-framed window panels divides the space into two and some of them pivot open as doors.

Furniture on show inside the warehouse currently includes a sofa by designer Patricia Urquiola - find out more about it here and see more stories about B&B Italia here.

The text below is from Pisou Kedem:

The Shell and its Contents – Italia B&B Showroom

The designer breathed new life into an abandoned and dilapidated building in the Tel Aviv harbor area, and created, around one of the finest furniture collections in the world of design, a space that is both powerful and yet restrained at one and the same time.

The 11 meter high structure with a unique façade consisting of a line of pillars that creates a clear and well defined construction grid, was used by the designer as the base for the entire outer shell.

The architect chose to leave in place only the pillars and beams and to remove everything else leaving just a hint of the structures history with the rectangular, silicate western wall, being specially treated to preserve its original look.

In the design for the interior of the building, the architect expresses his own, local interpretation for the display space where there is a continuous space, achieved through light, sight and movement along with the use of industrial materials that correspond with the industrial look of the outer shell.

The aim was to create a display space that was both impressive and powerful but without detracting from the importance of the furniture on display.

The central idea was to create a shell that would stand as an architectural element in its own right whilst still respecting the contents of the structure.

The use of unprocessed materials in their natural and original form (such as concrete panels and rusted iron) succeeded in empowering the industrialized look but also not to overpower of the furniture display.

The outside of the structure was sheathed in industrial, concrete looking panels and, despite the buildings great height; the architect designed a low, metal entrance that emphasizes to all those entering the structure the human relationship and the contrasts that strengthen the power of the space's height once inside the building itself.

From outside, the façade is almost anonymous and, for the most part, sealed.

Due to the decision not to adorn it with huge signs as is usually the case with other showrooms, but rather to preserve the minimalistic and restrained look from the outside, the company's logo was positioned on the walls of the entrance "tunnel" thus strengthening the effect of the contents – furniture display.

There is an awareness of the importance of the furniture collection on display and of its designers and of a sincere attempt to follow the so fragile and delicate dividing line, to design both a showroom that is impressive and eternal whilst not imposing the architecture on the contents.

Design: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design Team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Raz Melamed

The post B&B Italia Showroom by Pitsou Kedem appeared first on Dezeen.

Windows are hidden behind timber screens that fold back in all different directions at this family house in Israel by architect Pitsou Kedem (+ slideshow).

The louvred panels fold around two of the house's elevations and sit flush with the white-rendered walls to create a completely flat facade. They screen every window to moderate light and privacy levels inside the house.

Each screen is mounted to either a hinge or a pivot on the side or on the top, forming a mixture of doors and canopies. They can be opened in any combination to open or close different rooms out to the garden.

"We can achieve a composition that is balanced, dynamic, haphazard, closed or open within the same framework," explain the design team.

Pitsou Kedem designed the two-storey house for a family living in Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel.

Behind the timber screens, the house contains an open-plan living room, dining room and kitchen that wrap around a staircase at the rear. Four bedrooms occupy the floor above.

The rear elevation is fully glazed and recessed, creating a sheltered first-floor balcony and a ground-floor terrace below.

Pitsou Kedem's studio is based in Tel Aviv. Past projects include a furniture showroom for B&B Italia and a refurbished apartment with a vaulted stone ceiling. See more architecture by Pitsou Kedem.

See more architecture and interiors in Israel, including a house with two matching concrete blocks.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here's a project description from Pitsou Kedem:

The arrangement of objects in a given space or a defined format in order to give meaning to the placement and arrangement of the items, the result of the relationship between the object and the framework of the artistic creation.

A private, family residence in an urban environment. From without, the building does not reveal that it is a home. It resembles a mold or an artist's canvas or an almost two dimensional frame within whose area various openings have been placed and which are enveloped with a dynamic system of wooden, linear strips.

The planar distribution of the "picture" or, in this case the front façade, creates a non-symmetrical composition which pulls towards the flanking faces in an attempt to suggest that this is, in fact, a three dimensional mass. The arrangement of the objects (the openings) is always fixed and allows for one central and permanent composition.

The ability to reverse the balanced composition into a dynamic one is made possible thanks to the design of a system of smart blinds that allows the blinds to be lifted upwards whilst they are folded into what resembles a roof. All the rails and fixtures are hidden and so, when the façade is closed the dynamic and changing possibilities hidden in the residence's façade are not apparent.

All the openings open separately and so allow for different compositions. At any given moment and for whatever reason (privacy, protection from the sun) the relationship between the object and the plane can be changed. Thus we can achieve a composition that is balanced, dynamic, haphazard, closed or open within the same framework.

Movement through the house is accompanied (thanks to the flexible blind system) by different views of the outside, some exposed and bare, others undisguised and others framing a section of landscape especially designed for it. This selfsame changeability and flexibility also allows control of the amount of sunlight and natural light entering through the openings and into the homes spaces. These spaces are characterized by a restrained use of materials and form so that the light penetrating the space creates a sense of drama, movement and dynamism which seems to breathe life into the souls of the silent walls.

Thus, in effect, the system of relationships between the street and the structure composed of changing, but two dimensional compositions on a framed and flat plane develops, for the user of the house's spaces, an open area that incorporates abstract or tangible images with volume.

The relationship between these same volumes (the walls, the stairs, the various partitions and the different elements in the house) and the space, create, through the structures changing façade and the dynamism of the blinds, changing compositions, sometimes controlled and sometimes random with a new and different experience being created each time for the user and those living in the home.

Above: site plan - click for larger image

Design: Pitsou Kedem
Design team architects: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Raz Melmaed
Project: Private home
Plot size: 1500 square meters. Built-up area: 600 square meters

 Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: section

The post Kfar Shmaryahu House by Pitsou Kedem appeared first on Dezeen.

Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem has renovated a 1950s house in Tel Aviv with a roughly hewn sandstone mosaic wall inside it (+ slideshow).

An Urban Villa was designed by Dov Karmi, one of Israel's most celebrated modern architects, and Pitsou Kedem was asked to restructure the two-storey interior.

"The main idea was to preserve the spirit of the original design whilst implementing a contemporary, independent interpretation of the existing structure and its adaptation to contemporary technologies, materials and knowledge," said Kedem.

Walls were whitened both inside and outside the house, while black-painted wood was used to construct the new staircase and louvred balustrade.

"These monochromatic hues provide the background for the original materials that we decided to preserve," explained Kedem, referring to the limestone floor and sandstone wall left intact.

The architect selected furniture to complement the design, including an Eames chair, a marble kitchen counter and a vivid red sofa.

Other residential projects by Pitsou Kedem include a renovated apartment with a vaulted stone ceiling and a boxy white house. See more architecture by Pitsou Kedem »

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here's more text from the architect:

An Urban Villa

In the 1950s what was known as the "International Style" was highly developed in Tel Aviv. It developed thanks to architects who studied at the Bauhaus Institute in Germany and who then returned to Israel to continue their work. One of the architects who led the "International Style" was Dov Carmi. He designed many, usually large, projects. One of his more restrained projects was an urban villa in the centre of Tel Aviv which he designed in 1951.

In his design, Carmi expressed his local interpretation of "Free Design" in which there is a continuous series of spaces created by light and shadow, view and movement without creating one large, single and open space.

My office executed a massive reconstruction of the structure which included the changing of the exterior facade and the division of the interior. The main idea was to preserve the spirit of the original design whilst implementing a contemporary, independent interpretation of the existing structure and its adaptation to contemporary technologies, materials and knowledge.

During the project, we took great care to create an experience of defined, intimate and continuous spaces in a relatively restricted area; and this without detracting from the overall understanding of the entire structure.

The house is simple and minimalistic with the light and the materials creating drama and vitality. The unique range of materials was preserved throughout the project.

The building's external facades were painted white and the profiles chosen are decks painted black, similar to the Bauhaus style. The floor is of off-white concrete. These monochromatic hues provide the background for the original materials that we decided to preserve.

The central wall that divides the entry space was preserved in its original form, built from hewed, course sandstone constructed in a unique composition. The floor of the living room is wild, natural limestone of earth hues and changing sections. The wall and the floor symbolise the building in its original state. Around them is modern, minimalistic architecture which emphasis the space and the light. The project's furniture was carefully chosen to complete the overall experience of a living urban villa that conducts a dialogue between two worlds and two separate eras.

Plot: 370 sqm
House: 300 sqm
Original structure's architect: Dov Carmi, 1951
Renovation architect: Pitsou Kedem Architects 2010 - 2012
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Noa Groman

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