Garden Apartment on Shenkin Street, Tel Aviv

A garden apartment that is really two garden apartments joined into one generous home. I blurred the join with an open bookcase that carries on across both sides of the walls that used to divide them, so the eye reads one continuous space.

The design concept sets out to strike a nostalgic note, for two reasons. In the years around the founding of the state this was the print works where the invitations to the Declaration of Independence ceremony were printed; and the building itself is listed, and has been carefully conserved. The historical weight of those walls worked its way into the thinking, so a modern language is seasoned with details that lean fondly on the past.

The courtyard does a great deal of the work here. The tall, light timber screens give privacy and separation while keeping partial eye contact with the surroundings through the filter of their horizontal lines. The long deck lends depth and divides the courtyard into several "places", so the owners can entertain a crowd. The outdoor kitchen is set higher than the other surfaces, which keeps whoever is cooking in eye contact with the deck. The brown brick cladding is there to contrast the modern white and take us to another time, when everything looked a little simpler and more natural.