Minimalist House in Bat Hadar

The approach rests on airy spaces open to the outside, blurring the line between inside and out while keeping the house private. The clients are a young couple with two children, minimalists by nature. They do not hoard, they do not keep things for later, they have exactly what they need here and now. The design answers that with a particular attention to minimalist clarity, to materials and finishes that are easy to maintain and energy efficient, and to a thorough weighing of cost against benefit.

The olive tree stands at the end of the perspective from the entrance, on the central axis that leads to the living room. It is there to say something rooted: the connection to the ground, and the family's connection to each other and to this place. The language of horizontal timber battens repeats throughout the house. Inside it becomes a screen that is a headboard on one side and a dressing table on the other; outside it is the cladding wrapping the architectural cube. Again, it ties inside to out.

The public space is precise, modern-classical, thought through for the way the family hosts now and will host later. The lighting design lights zones to create intimacy rather than washing the rooms in an even glare. The minimalist kitchen is planned for serious cooking, and every need has a comfortable, immediate answer.

On the upper living floor the circulation between rooms is wide and full of light, allowing long views from side to side and giving over informal areas to play and to sitting. The family room is planned so it can be closed off later, when the family grows. The children's bedrooms are free of the clutter these rooms usually collect, and the calm is visual and emotional at once: a few bedtime books and a few beloved toys, and everything else lives in the playroom.