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    KOT Architects creates “cosy and inviting” showroom for Dior

    Architecture studio KOT Architects has designed a creamy showroom-cum-office inside a new building in Tel Aviv for French fashion house Dior.

    Situated on the 17th floor of a newly built office block, the showroom, which features a large birch plywood bookcase and neutral colours, was designed to simulate the comforting feeling of a home.
    KOT Architects has designed the interiors of Dior’s showroom”The raw and rugged urban surroundings amplify the contrast between the various materials used and accentuate the cosy and inviting ambience within the space,” KOT Architects founder Kfir Galatia-Azulay said.
    “The approach was to conceptualize the space as a home with distinct zones to create a welcoming and secluded environment, distinct from that of a conventional office or store,” Galatia-Azulay told Dezeen.
    The studio used light woods and a muted colour paletteKOT Architects employed a colour scheme consisting of off-whites and beiges with brass accents to create a warm and cosy atmosphere.

    These work together with white travertine stone, polished white marble, raw concrete and natural birch wood materials to create a clean and sophisticated look, which the studio said embodies the “elegance” associated with the Dior brand.
    Beauty products are displayed on shelves around the spaceThe studio arranged the showroom and the employee rooms – which include a kitchenette and a private office – as a series of multi-functional “versatile spaces” across the L-shaped space.
    A wooden bookcase was used to create a partition in the middle of the floor plan, with one side providing employees with room for events and networking and the other for clients to try on clothes.

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    “The challenge was to optimize an L-shaped area with two wings – one for the company’s offices and another added wing for the showroom space,” Galatia-Azulay said.
    “The objective was to establish a versatile space that accommodates various commercial activities while upholding the brand’s values.”
    An open-plan kitchen has been merged with the show spaceElsewhere, KOT Architects added a spherical light fixture into the ceiling above a travertine table, which was custom-made in its Tel Aviv studio.
    Meanwhile, perfume bottles, candles and mannequins sporting Dior garments are displayed on in-built shelving units and on chunky, beige plinths.
    Seating is provided by bleaker-style benches which employees can sit on during presentations, armchairs clad in creamy fabrics and matching plump ottomans.
    The Tel Aviv showroom has plenty of wooden detailsDior is one of the most well-known fashion brands in the world. According to the curator of the V&A museum’s exhibition Dior: Designer of Dreams Oriole Cullen, Dior’s founder “helped to define an era”.
    The fashion house’s most recent runway show at Paris Fashion Week took place beneath a hanging kaleidoscopic installation by artist Joana Vasconcelos, which was decorated with fabrics from the collection.
    The photography is by Amit Geron.

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    Laila Architecture centres Tel Aviv apartment with birch plywood “iceberg”

    A birch plywood storage volume that resembles an iceberg helps to divide the living spaces inside this Tel Aviv apartment revamped by Laila Architecture.

    Decked out in natural materials and pale hues, the Iceberg apartment is designed to be a serene haven in the city for its retired owners.
    The Iceberg apartment is arranged around a birch ply storage unitLocal practice Laila Architecture kick-started the home’s renovation by removing all the existing partition walls to form a brighter, more open floor plan.
    At its heart now sits an eight-metre-long birch plywood volume, which the practice likens to an iceberg due to its large, angular form.
    The unit includes a couple of display niches and a tiny drinks barThe volume effectively forms a partition to separate the open-plan living area from the private quarters, creating a narrow corridor that leads to the bedroom on one side.

    Here, the unit is fitted with slender storage cupboards while on the lounge-facing side it houses a niche for displaying art, a trio of bookshelves and a hatch door that can be flipped down to reveal a tiny drinks bar.
    A sideboard with an integrated sofa runs along one side of the living areaThe apartment’s sizeable open-plan living area integrates a kitchen finished with birch ply cabinetry and an eight-metre-long sideboard that runs along the length of the room.
    A sofa is built into one end of the sideboard, while the remainder can provide extra storage, seating or a low table where the owners’ grandchildren can enjoy their dinner.
    Birch plywood was also used to form the kitchen cabinetryThe apartment’s private quarters are slightly gloomier and contain two beige-coloured bathrooms alongside the principal bedroom which, in keeping with the rest of the scheme, was rendered in natural lime plaster.
    As this side of the apartment has less access to natural light, the practice installed brightening white terrazzo floors.
    The same tiles also feature on the public side of the apartment but in a warmer sandy hue.
    Natural lime plaster was washed over the bedroom wallsAs part of the renovation, Laila Architecture opened up the apartment’s two balconies to give the owners space to indulge in their love of gardening while creating a small buffer between the home and the hot Israeli sun.
    Iceberg has been shortlisted in the apartment interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
    The bathrooms were painted a complementary shade of beigeOther projects in the running include a home in Gdańsk that “gently cocoons” its inhabitants in timber joinery and a live-work space in London belonging to the founders of environmental communication agency Earthrise Studio.
    The photography is by Mikaela Burstow.

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    Pitsou Kedem covers Hiba restaurant in Tel Aviv with geometric timber latticework

    Gridded oakwood panels sit alongside rough slabs of granite inside Hiba, a restaurant in Tel Aviv designed by local architecture practice Pitsou Kedem.

    Located in the city’s midtown area, Hiba serves a menu of Arab-Israeli fusion food.
    The restaurant’s use of fresh local ingredients influenced Pitsou Kedem to curate an equally raw, natural material palette for its interior.
    A gridded oak partition runs along Hiba’s entrance corridorGuests are guided into the venue via a narrow corridor with a gridded oak divider on one side.
    Some of the partition’s rectangular slots are blocked off while others are left open, allowing visitors to get brief glimpses of the hubbub happening in the restaurant proper.

    Hiba’s facade and ceiling feature the same latticework, loosely informed by the mashrabiya window screens that are traditional to Islamic architecture.
    The restaurant can seat up to 40 guestsThe corridor opens up into an intimate dining room, which accommodates just 40 guests.
    Dotted throughout are a series of circular oak tables, each accompanied by curved-back oak chairs with woven seats.
    The dining room features oak tables and chairs alongside granite countersSome of the tables back onto a powdered concrete bench that runs along one side of the room.
    Concrete was also applied to the restaurant’s floor, where it was polished to reveal the aggregate within.

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    At the back of the room, the practice created what it describes as an “inverted bar”, where liquor bottles are displayed inside a backlit niche in the wall rather than a typical bar counter that projects out into the room.
    Drinks can be prepared here or on the chunky slab of granite that forms a counter at the centre of the room.
    Diners can also sit on a curved concrete benchAnother craggy block of granite forms the base of an oak-topped dining counter that extends directly into Hiba’s kitchen in the corner of the restaurant.
    The kitchen was intentionally left open so that diners can watch the chefs at work and get an insight into the culinary process.
    A niche in the restaurant’s rear wall doubles up as a drinks barPitsou Kedem was founded by Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem in 2000.
    Hiba joins a number of trendy eateries across Tel Aviv including the minimalist vegan restaurant Opa and Bana – a cafe where fresh fruit and produce are arranged into colourful eye-catching displays.

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  • Plaster walls of Jaffa Roofhouse imbue apartment with history and warmth

    Gitai Architects has renovated an apartment in Jaffa, Israel with curved walls, plasterwork and pale floors to resemble the ancient port city’s limestone buildings.The studio overhauled the 270-square-metre apartment for a couple. It includes a combination of curved and linear elements to fuse traditional craftsmanship with more contemporary details.

    Called Jaffa Roofhouse, the project is a rooftop apartment that is in the shape of a cross with outdoor patios framing three sides of the unit. The unit has expansive views of the Mediterranea Sea, as well as Jaffa’s iconic Al Bahr Mosque minaret.

    “The Jaffa Roofhouse is situated at the ancient port of the city of Jaffa, reputed to be one of the oldest ports in the world, out of which modern-day Tel Aviv has grown,” said Ben Gitai, who founded the studio in 2014.
    “This Roofhouse is designed to feel suspended in the air of Jaffa-Tel Aviv and grounded by its materiality.”

    Gitai Architects sought to renovate the apartment with curved walls to soften its existing boxy shell. Covered in plaster, the walls change in hue from golden to lavender shades as the sun rises and sets across the city.
    The curved walls feature in the living room. One conceals a galley-style kitchen with dark cabinets, the second accommodates a built-in dining nook and the third houses a bedroom.

    These curved structures, which are made of compressed soil and straw and covered with lime plaster from Israeli company ArcoLime, were constructed at an offset from the concrete existing shell.

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    A gap between the apartment’s original concrete walls and the natural covering applied over them allows for air to flow inside and promote a natural circulation to help regulate humidity and temperature.

    “Materiality was of premier importance in the spatial atmosphere and expression of this project, with most of its elements being earth-made from soil sourced from the local area,” the studio said.
    “Throughout the design development of the project, a profound dialogue was in-stored between the Roofhouse and the surrounding landscape.”

    The master suite has more curved walls forming rounded nooks for a walk-in closet and shelving.
    Curved elements extend outside the apartment as well for a rounded built-in seating nook on the terrace with cushions and a U-shaped seating arrangement. An outdoor dining area has an oval-shaped table to seat 20 people and is covered by a pergola for shade. Completing the roof terrace is a wall-like garden that was custom made for the project with 450 different ceramic pots created by hand.

    In addition to this project, Gitai Architects has also built a rammed-earth observatory in Israel’s Negev desert. The studio has offices in Haifa, Israel and Paris, France.
    Israel’s historic centre of Jaffa is about a 10-minute drive south of the heart of Tel Aviv. Another apartment in Jaffa to similarly feature a mixture of old-world and contemporary styles is a penthouse by Pitsou Kedem and Baranowitz & Goldberg.
    Photography is by Dan Bronfeld.
    Project credits:
    Design team: Ben Gitai, Charly Crochu, Cloe Constantini, Dani Guinness, Meitar Tewel, Itay aviram, Sara Arneberg GitaiCuration: Isabelle WolfClients: Isabelle Wolff, Yves TirmanEngineering: Kobi BenishuLandscape: Sachar Tzur of Studio TzuraConsultants: Yonathan SteinbergerCollaborators: Stella Projects, Tal Banker

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  • Rust Architects softens modernist Tel Aviv apartment with oak details

    Tel Aviv studio Rust Architects has renovated an apartment in the Israeli city for a couple who both work from home.The apartment is in a residential building in the city centre built in the modernist-era international style.
    Rust Architects renovated the one-bedroom unit with a pared-down material palette and colour scheme.

    “It is in a modernist building, so we designed the interior as simple and modern,” Rust Architects founder Ranaan Stern told Dezeen.

    “Similar to Bauhaus buildings principles, the apartment has a large span that brings in natural light but maintains comfortable proportions for the space and the hot temperatures of the Tel Aviv summer months.”

    The apartment is for a young couple who are both professional photographers and designers.
    “Both homeowners work from home, so proximity and visual angles between different spaces such as the workroom and living room were essential,” the studio added.

    The apartment comprises an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area with sliding glass doors that access a terrace.
    An L-shaped hallway accommodates the entry and accesses a home office, which was custom-made by Rust Architects and enclosed by a metal frame with glass doors. The partition allows natural light to pass into the corridor.

    Various wood details also feature in the design, particularly a kitchen cabinet made of oak that houses the refrigerator and oven. Its rounded corner meets the hallway and has a series of shelves and doors.

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    A built-in media console in the living room nearby is also made of wood, and a wall in the office is clad in the same natural material.

    The touches of wood are contrasted with industrial details, such as an exposed concrete block wall in the living room and electrical systems on the ceiling.
    There were left exposed by the studio in order to keep the apartment’s original height.

    A variety of floor coverings provide visual depth across the unit, which otherwise features white surfaces and black window frames.
    Small, black tiles cover the bathroom floors and walls, the home office has wood floors and large concrete tiles cover the kitchen and living room.

    “The concrete tiles on the floor produce a cool and pleasant feeling, especially during the summer months, and the natural oak in the carpentry creates a relaxed and warm feeling,” Rust Architects said.
    The studio, which was founded by Stern in 2016, has also redesigned a 1960s apartment and created a home with cubby holes, shelves and cabinets – both are in Tel Aviv.
    Photography is by Yoav Peled.

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    Sarit Shani Hay designs Tel Aviv elementary school to encourage “joyful experiential learning”

    Israeli designer Sarit Shani Hay has designed wooden built-in furniture to promote collaboration, play and rest in an elementary school in Tel Aviv. The local designer created the interiors for a public school near the city’s Sarona neighbourhood that caters to children with disabilities and learning difficulties. Hay said her aim was to celebrate the diversity of […] More

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    Studio Amit designs elderly housing with “sense of vitality” in Israel

    Tel Aviv’s Studio Amit has opted for colourful details to add flair to this retirement housing development in Israel. Studio Amit designed the project for Maccabi Healthcare Services’ chain of private, upscale retirement complexes around the country, called Bayit Balev. Israel has national health insurance but requires membership to one of four organisations, either Maccabi, […] More