A Single storey family home in the Old North of Tel Aviv exemplifies modernity and function in the simplest of manners.
Designed by Israeli practice, Pitsou Kedem Architects, the Tel Aviv House is described as a classic low lying family home, possibly a relic of Israel’s early urbanism, adapted to reflect modern tastes and proportions. It features a compact open floor plan seamlessly connected to a generous garden, as well as a unique pristine white facade that makes use of creative and operable window screens which lend a peculiar aesthetic to the home.
Here’s their description,
At first glance the clean, bright facade of the house seems alien against the background of the neighborhood. 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.
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”.
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. 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.
