Israeli studio Pitsou Kedem has completed a family residence in Tel Aviv, using a cantilevered concrete box and glass walls to create a building that "corresponds with the Modernism of the 1950s" (+ slideshow).
Like the house Pitsou Kedem designed for himself and his family in Ramat HaSharon, SB House takes its cues from the forms and materials typically used in Modern architecture.
The 510-square-metre residence, which the studio designed for a family in Tel Aviv, features board-marked concrete walls and large expanses of glass, allowing natural light to flood the interior.
A concrete box containing upper floor bedrooms and bathrooms cantilevers over the ground level living room, which is wrapped on three sides by glass – similar in form to a Melbourne residence by Matt Gibson that references Brazilian Modernism.
"Technological advances of the industrial revolution, which allowed the use of iron and concrete building blocks, brought with them the gospel of Modernism," said Kedem.
"The use of a cement sheath around the house produces a fascinating balance between open and closed systems and fills the house with various intensities of light," he continued, "these streams pour into the concrete structure and emphasise its sensuality."
A row of wooden louvres fitted to the street-facing facade reinforces the linear markings left by the wooden formwork on the concrete walls and help to further ventilate and illuminate the inside of the building.
An adjacent full-height wall sits away from the elevated concrete box above the sitting room, creating a narrow gap between the two parts of the structure.
Steel beams and a strip of glass that run up the two end walls of the building and across the roof span the gap, helping to light the entrance hall below. A pivoting door that provides the primary entrance to the house is concealed within a white wall.
"The experience of standing up against the sealed entrance is like the architecture of Egypt's temples and fortress buildings," said Kedem.
Wooden floorboards, chosen to reference the board-marked concrete walls and ceiling, are used throughout the living space and on an elevated walkway that runs overhead.
While the master suite is located in the upper storey, children's rooms are located in a basement lit by a sunken courtyard.
Related content: see more projects by Pitsou Kedem
While concrete opacifies the upper floor, glazed walls slide open to connect the open-plan living space with the garden containing a swimming pool.
Directed by architect Pitsou Kedem, the Tel Aviv studio is renowned for its use of concrete, metal and frameless glazing to create dramatic plays of light and shadow. Earlier this year it completed a house titled In Praise of Shadows, which features a chequerboard screen of weather steel that casts patterns of sunlight and show across the internal surfaces.
SB House is located nearby several Tel Aviv projects by the firm including a penthouse apartment with an infinity pool overlooking the city, and the renovated home of Israel's former prime minster, David Ben-Gurion.
Photography is by Amit Geron.
Project credits:
Architecture: Pitsou Kedem
Design team: Pitsou Kedem, Tamar Berger, Irene Goldberg, Hagar Arad Tsvi
Styling for photography: Eti Buskila
