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Telavivian Architects: Ori Scialom/Stability Studio “Tel Aviv is known as planners-hell” says architect Ori Scialom, founder and owner of Stability Studio in Tel Aviv and a former architect at Jean Nouvel’s atelier in Paris. Perhaps that’s the reason why, aside from the variety of projects he designs, Ori has been teaching and coordinating the second year studies of architecture at The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and recently co-curated The Urburb – Israel’s pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale – praised as one of the top exhibitions in Rem Koolhaas’ Fundementals . GM: Stability Studio – when and why did you start your practice? OS: Stability Studio originated as a creative collaboration between Architects and civil engineers: The concept was to produce the envelope of a ‘one-stop-shop’ – maintain a better control of the design, a faster service, and reduce costs: paradise. it took about a year (back in 2009) to understand that it doesn’t work; the concept might be brilliant, but the reality is tough. I started a new office, but the name remained. Today, Stability focuses on architectural planning and is always looking for interesting collaborations, such as the recent Venice Biennale for Architecture. GM: Tell us about your office in Tel Aviv – what is the space like? what do you like about it most? OS: The space is wide and full of natural light, penetrating the studio by floor to ceiling windows and shaded from the outside by Brutalist asbestos Brise-Soleil from the 1960s. It was discovered by the architect Yehoshua Gutman, who somehow managed (following prolonged attempts) to persuade the owner to let him renovate the space in return for a cheap, long-term lease. The studio is divided into three parts, and is shared with two other architectural firms: Gutman-Assif and Alon Bin Nun ‘s studio. It is perfectly located between the center and the south of the city, on the rapidly-changing Yehuda Halevi street. I like the fact that I can easily use the bike to reach any direction of the city, lay on the couch in the evenings or even have a late drink at the bar in the basement; but, mostly, what I like about it, are the people whom I work with: I am lucky to work with an excellent and talented team. GM: What do you see as the biggest challenge about designing in Tel Aviv? OS: Tel Aviv is known as a “planners-hell”: it is over-regulated and extremely bureaucratic, so the first challenge is actually just receiving a permit. On the quality aspect, the biggest challenge would be to design simply and radically at the same time, while still fitting the diversified, local background. Beyond the veil of the ‘White City’, visual noise is everywhere. Every building is an independent design in full volume. The real challenge is to create a shift towards simplicity and performance. The local architecture will be exciting when it will seize the vibe of the city, and translate life to schemes and simple forms. Read the full interview with Ori, including photos of his Tel Aviv-based studio by Sarale Gur-Lavy READ MORE >> http://gilimerin.telavivian.com/2014/09/27/telavivian-architects-ori-scialom-stability-studio/

The Urburb. Israeli Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 The Urburb. Patterns of Contemporary Living. Israeli Pavilion at The 14th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The Urburb is a neologism referring to the mesh of the urban and suburban, which characterizes the great majority of residential areas in contemporary Israel. To explore the dynamics of conflicting aspects of contemporary living, the Israeli pavilion is transformed into a contemporary construction site furnished with four large sand-printers. They tell the story of 100 years of modernist planning in Israel, from the single building to national master plans. “In the endlessly expanding Urburban environment, new residential communities continue to pop-up, separated by large expanses of open land, locked-in and dislocated. The installation, like the Urburb itself, is uniform and consistent. It conveys the experience of life in a modernist machine, under the signs of automation and the promise of utopian redemption. As rapidly as the schemes are impressed into the sand, so are they wiped away, emphasizing how these generic pattern-oriented plans are “printed” from above in compliance with changing ideologies and master plans.” The exhibition is curated by Ori Scialom, Roy Brand, Keren Yeala-Golan and Edith Kofsky. The Urburb – Patterns of Contemporary Living. Israeli Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale 2014, Giardini, Venice (Italy). Press Preview, June 5, 2014. More info: http://vernissage.tv/2014/06/08/the-u… More videos on contemporary art, design, architecture: http://vernissage.tv Connect: http://www.facebook.com/vernissagetv http://twitter.com/vernissagetv Browse our Archive: http://vernissage.tv/archive/posts/ Find Artists, Designers, Architects: http://vernissage.tv/archive/artists/

Ibn Gabirol 177-181 Residence and commerce 2024 Tel Aviv 70 units Licensing A commercial and residential project located on the main road of Ibn Gabirol not far from the HaMedina square. Contains about 70 new apartments. And it has a patio that serves as an inner courtyard.

Frenkel 76 New Residential Building 2016 Tel Aviv 636 sqm Complete A new building in the Florentin neighbourhood. The design faced a limited and narrow lot, and the ability to maintain a residential structure that includes all the systems needed in such a space cell, while fitting the complex planning reality in Israel, which requires protected spaces and strict safety procedures. The project questions the possible limits in this framework, without losing qualities in the living spaces. photography: Tamir Rogowski

Biennale Architettura 2014 – Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014. Israel An interview with Keren Yeala Golan and Roy Brand at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition (National Participation of Israel: “The Urburb”).

Venice Biennale 2014: Israel Explores The Urburb, a Neither Urban nor Suburban Landscape Neither urban nor suburban, the Urburb is a fragmented mosaic of one hundred years of modernist planning in Israel : early twentieth century garden-cities, mid-century social housing and generic, high-rise residential typologies of the past two decades. These residential mutations dominate the contemporary Israeli landscape, expanding and replacing existing textures, in an endless, repetitive cycle. The driving force in the planning and building of the new country was essentially anti-urban. From the first Jewish settlements of the nineteenth century, the city was never an option. The initial Sharon Master Plan from 1951 aimed at dislocating the urban centers and spreading the population into numerous readymade towns, often built in rural areas. These sparsely populated New Towns often adopted arbitrary building plans lacking any form of street life. The Sharon Plan attempted to accelerate a long-term historical process in one heroic decade. Indeed, over four hundred towns were quickly erected according to the Plan’s guidelines. This top-down approach is emblematic not only of the Zionist ideal of centralized planning, but also of the modernist desire to constantly reshape and reinvent the present. Israel’s hybrid landscape manifests the conflicting demands of the modernist machine: to create small egalitarian communities while accommodating large and diverse populations, to spread-out while closing in, and to reconnect to the land but through a planning system that treats the surface as a blank sheet of paper. Urburb, a neologism referring to the contemporary mesh of urban and suburban sprawl, is more than an architectural phenomenon, it is a state of mind and a form of life. Today, in the wake of one hundred years of modernism, it is time to explore its dynamics and understand the life it has fostered. The installation explores these themes not only through the data displayed but also through its performative affect. The visitor enters a modernist construction site, filled with automatic machines that sketch on sand, erase, and sketch again. Each scenario takes about three to five minutes, and every printer presents a few scenarios grouped under one theme—overplanning, evolution of buildings, pattern language, and erase and print dynamics. READ MORE >> : http://www.archdaily.com/486059/the-israel-pavilion-at-the-2014-venice-biennale-urburb-neither-urban-nor-suburban

Rosh Pina 2-4 Residential Buildings 2016 Tel Aviv 2300 sqm Before execution Planning for two new residential buildings in the Central Station area

Mints 39-45 New residential building 2023 Petah Tikva 10,000 sqm Licensing Demolition and rebuilding of two buildings in Mints street, Petah Tikva.

Israelis 9 Addition to a Preservation Building 2014-2016 Tel Aviv 1040 sqm Complete A non aggravated preservation building in the UNESCO declaration”of the white city area, in central Tel Aviv. The building has nine housing units on three existing floors plus an attic and basement. Additional zinc cladding at consistent verticals intervals of 30 cm-in the upper walls, above the existing structure,, which is coated with traditional lime-based plaster, creates a clear distinction that transmits modernity of volume and material cleanliness, while maintaining modesty and appreciation for an existing memory.

Competition for a university campus Competition 2021 Tel Aviv 10,000 sqm Proposal University Campus Design Competition. The proposal brings planning using a repetitive module that allows for minimal damage to the existing trees and the urban fabric at the site, with maximum flexibility and the possibility of future expansion.