Glassworks was fortunate enough to be involved in the restoration and reinvention of one of the ‘White City’ period buildings in the heart of Tel Aviv on the bustling Nahalat Binyamin street.
“The architecture is primarily of international style tailored to the middle eastern climate.”
The neighborhood is a combination of both Art Deco and Modernist architecture which has provided us with a plethora of inspiration for form, scale and color and ambiance. The architecture is primarily of international style tailored to the Middle Eastern climate. White is inextricably linked to both modernism being a symbol of new, and the Mediterranean context, originating from the tradition of lime washing plaster. In Tel Aviv, white contrasts richly against the blue sky, the sea and the arid landscape. The Masterplan by Patrick Geddes(1854-1932) is pedestrian and human. The buildings 4-5 stories at most have large balconies and rooftops and are not joined, but rather separated to allow light, ventilation and gardens in-between.
The area is designed for mixed use, with administrative buildings and residential linked by pedestrian tree-lined boulevards and small plazas where one can find shade and gather as a community. These well planned outdoor spaces, along with the climate enable the Tel Avivian to be always outside. Famous restaurants and bars spill out into these spaces, people exercise here, they are used for transport, passing time, haphazard trade and protest. We are located at the nucleus of these boulevards - Allenby, Sheinkin and the adjacent Shuk (Marketplace).
The original urban area is designed for mixed use, with administrative buildings and residential zones linked by pedestrian tree-lined boulevards and small plazas where one can find shade and gather as a community. These well planned outdoor spaces, along with the climate enable the Tel Avivian to be always outside. Famous restaurants and bars spill out into these spaces, people exercise here, they are used for transport, passing time, haphazard trade and protest. Glassworks is located at the nucleus of these boulevards - Allenby, Sheinkin and the adjacent Shuk (Marketplace). We tried to imagine our space as a continuation of this outdoor public and community realm. We also generally used external materials and created an open public forum at the centre of the space - a kind of interior plaza, where people could gather and relax. Between the beach and boulevards the plazas and pedestrian streets, Tel Aviv has an abundance of public space - this is something we definitely want to add to and be a part of.
Interestingly the White City is Inland. It does not face the sea, actually it creates a distinct urban landscape, an interior oasis, that shades itself from the harsh sun and protects itself from the winds off the open Med. Tel Aviv’s geographic location on the Western fringe of the Mediterranean receives the greatest reach of short range swell, hence the decent surf in the region. Historically this was a long and featureless stretch of sand and swamp. Aside from the historical stone port of Jaffa there were no significant features man made or natural along the seafront and without the sun seeking tourist trade, setting the city back, where there would have been better foundations and climatic conditions were favorable made sense. Today this has allowed for a rare duality in a city, both a rich urban environment as well as a completely public expansive beach-side.
Now a busy cosmopolitan centre, Tel Aviv can be demanding and chaotic and whilst the White City sought respite from natural elements, the waves, the heat and the wind, the Glassworks space is designed to provide respite from the same as well as the noise of the bustling city. This gives customers a place to cool down, relax, chat and refresh.