The question that arises from HSL 18 project is how to find a language for apartment buildings, while grappling with a simple and low-cost new box. How should we deal with the banality of repetition, with the same window that illuminates the same bedroom and the same glass doors that open up to the same balcony repeatedly almost as a mirror on each and every floor?

Everything takes place between the edges of the sketchbook, drafts multiply in the pursuit of these questions, becoming two topics that demand investigation: the return of ornamentation as a motif of language in housing projects, as well as a generous contribution to public space and, an almost intuitive decision to use color as a source of identity. Texture, colors and details are juxtaposed back and forth at each stage, generating the final image.

Finally, subtle color climbs and seizes the rooftop apartment as a natural tribute to the blue sky. Inside the apartments, master bedrooms are rewarded with splashes of light and color. The bricks enwrap the balcony wall as an "applique" surface ornamentation, creating a "sense of home”.

Planning the apartments was a challenge because we were asked to design 2 bedroom apartments (In Israel this is called a 3 room apt…) - 64 sqm - and 3 bedroom apartments (called 4 room apartments in Israel) - 82 sqm – with rooms whose dimensions would enable furnishing with ease. Additionally, we had to comply with keeping  "in between" spaces” as buffers between public and private space, between the entrance floor lobby and the apartments’ public space, and between the public space and the parents’ and children's rooms.

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Daniel Azerrad Architects

Team: Daniel Azerrad, Keren Gabso (Arch. In charge), Yulia Lipkin.

Constructor: N.B.A Levi Investment & Construction Ltd.

Photographer: Tal Nisim