A house to live and entertain at.
An oasis of tranquility in bustling city life.
This project included full architectural planning by Michal Shalgi Hirsch for this new urban villa.
The house was planned and designed for a family living in New York, US. The entire planning process was done through long-distance communication. Emails, zoom meetings, phone conversations, and a handful of in-person meetings in Israel and NY.
After the planning was done and agreed upon by the related authorities (2018), the homeowners decided to pause and not begin with the building process itself.
It was more than a year later, when the Covid-19 pandemic had shaken the world, they decided to go ahead and build the house.
By then, Michal has relocated with her family to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Homeowners were still living in NY, in the US, and the house was to be built in Tel Aviv, Israel.
A team of a contractor, a building supervisor, and a local architect was brought on board. And the building process started in the summer of 2020.
The world was in a non-flight mode, so Michal was handling the entire process from far away. Choosing finishing materials and coordinating with various professionals via zoom, WhatsApp, and mail.
Fifteen months later, the house was ready and rented out to a family that had returned from living several years in Thailand.
The house was planned minimalistic and modest in size. Using simple and honest materials, such as a cast concrete floor. Steel, natural stone, and wood.
It is designed for a warm climate. Taking into consideration the flow of air and the sun’s directions.
There is a featured steel staircase going up two floors. An homage to the fire escape stairs of NY.
The front of the house keeps the privacy of the inhabitants. While the back is mostly open to the back yard with a shaded veranda and an urban swimming pool.
This is a family house designed for the best communication, alongside the needed privacy of each family member.