Afeka

On a half-dunam plot in Afeka, we were asked to plan a house for a family (parents and two children).

The density of the plots together with the building lines require high-rise construction (basement, ground floor, first floor and a roof space). Especially in small lots, the relationship between the interior and exterior spaces, along with the attention to the privacy experience, is a main issue that we've dealt with.

The garden plays an active role most of the year, especially in the Israeli climate. The interior of the house should not end with walls but continue to the outside. Eye contact with the outside is a connection to the actions that are done inside and outside the home at the same time.

In the Lego game of residential design, there is the more closed cube, usually associated with the bedrooms (sometimes it splits into two, one for the children and another for the parents)

The additional cube – the "open" one belongs to the living space. To it is attached, in one relationship or another, the cube of eating and cooking. The relationship between the closed cube and the open cube, along with the rest of the field, forms the story of the place. Similarly, this house was built.

In one building we concentrated the kitchen and family space on the ground floor. Above it, on the first floor, are the children's bedrooms. The master bedroom is in the roof space that floats from the "closed cube" and creates a high space below it (about 5 meters) that is the "open cube". In which the interplay between internal and external space takes place.

In the garden, on the side and next to the house, is the pool. The water and a background wall with a waterfall paint the space with a soothing look and bring the water into the space.

The total construction area is 450 square meters. The floor of the house on the ground floor is a stone floor from dismantles brought especially from the east. The floor inside the house and the floor in the yard are the same floor and thus create the continuity of the space between the outside and the interior. The floor of the pool is covered with pebbles that give a natural look to the pool.

A glass and iron wall were built for the entire height of the space creates the connection from the house to water, sky and the changing nature.

The experience as an architect engaged in the design of residential homes is the changing encounter between types of people, tastes, needs, plots, topographies and details of the environment. The story of the lot and the house on it is a mirror of its owners and the environment in which they lived.