Hasta La Ideas

Rows of interchangeable tiles spell out what’s on the menu at this fast-food pasta outlet in Tel Aviv, designed by Studio OPA as a “tribute to Scrabble”.

The tiled menu board above the kitchen and counter is made from oak and bent tin.

With only 35 square metres of space to be utilised, Studio OPA solved the problem of storage by placing items from the kitchen on display shelves in the dining area.

Green, grey and black patterned tiles decorate the wall near the window.

The glazed facade provides continuity with the green and white seating outdoors.

We previously featured another Tel Aviv restaurant by Studio OPA – a pop-art pizzeria with soup cans covering the walls.

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Photographs are by Yoav Gurin.

Here’s some more information from Studio OPA:

Avanti – fast food pasta

Located in the centre of Tel Aviv, Avanti is an extra-small space of only 35 sq. m. including the kitchen, the counter and the dining area.

The lack of storage space resulted in us having to display the kitchen products to all. The display was made of a bent 4 mm tin.

Made of oak tree and bent tin, the menu board is a tribute to Scrabble and was built with the idea of having the flexibility to change every day according to the chef’s wishes.

A square wall made of coloured tiles is a homage to a classic Italian restaurant.

The post Avanti restaurant
by Studio OPA appeared first on Dezeen.

Hessian sacks, timber planks and wire mesh hint at the former life of this cafe in Tel Aviv, which Studio Ronen Levin and Eran Chehanowitz converted from an orange-packing plant in the historic port of Jaffa that gives the oranges their name.

The Loveat Jaffa cafe fits into the corner of a former hangar, with three louvred glass facades providing a view of the port.

Inspired by the building’s history, the designers divided the cafe into small boxes of different sizes, stacked like crates.

The kitchen has been placed inside a steel cargo container while the toilet is hidden inside a box of timber planks.

A staircase made from diamond-plate steel decking leads to the upper level of seating, which has a timber-clad wall and a wire mesh balcony.

Heavy twill work shirts in navy blue have been used to upholster the sofa upstairs.

The tables and chairs are made from chipboard or grey steel, while the yellow aluminium bar stools have all been cast from a 1930s tractor seat.

See all our stories about cafes »

Photographs are by Yoav Gurin.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Studio Ronen Levin in collaboration with Eran Chehanowitz, who have already designed together three coffee shops for Loveat in Tel-Aviv, have recently designed a fourth spot in Tel-Aviv’s old Jaffa port, in the preserved and restored hangar that used to be the packing and shipping plant of the legendary Jaffa oranges in early 20th century.

While strict preservation rules did not allow tampering with any of the existing walls/facades, health regulations and business licensing issues demanded that nearly two thirds of the 70 sq m space was assigned to “back-stage” facilities (such as kitchen, dish-washing zone, storage, employees changing room, toilet, etc.).

Since the space is on the corner of the hangar, and enjoys three glass-louver facades overlooking the old port, the challenge addressed was of allocating such a big portion of the space to areas that by nature need to be hidden, while relying only on one back wall, so as not to hide the special view, nor to block the space with a gigantic disproportionate monolith, estranged to the light materials and fragmented nature of the envelope.

The solution proposed derived from the history of the site as a packing and shipping plant, located in a port – breaking the mass to smaller fragments, by “boxing” each function in a different shape, size and material and “stacking” the various boxes, horizontally and vertically along the back wall, like crates in a shipping yard.

Accordingly, the materials assigned, echo the imagery of packing plants and shipping yards – exposed steel beams, diamond steel decking plate stairs, crimped wire mesh railings, exposed in-situ cast concrete, wire mesh reinforced glass. The kitchen was fitted into a discarded steel cargo container and the toilet was boxed in the timber planks used as casting-form for the concrete.

The furniture design too, was inspired by warehouse and fork-lifts imagery – spruce timber, grey steel, exposed threaded rods and bolts. The bar stools were cast in aluminum from a 1930s tractor iron seat and painted yellow, the dining chairs made of OSB, and a sofa was created with white painted wire mesh upholstered with 25 XL navy colored heavy twill work shirts sewn together, the pocket flaps, white stitching and white buttons of which providing a graphic pattern that breaks the 360cm long surface.

The design, choice of materials and colour scheme were manipulated carefully to echo the site’s narrative while maintaining Loveat’s branding strategy as a young and trendy, frivolous and playful company, in spite of the inherent “heaviness” associated with the visual language of packing plants and shipping yards.

Project: Loveat Jaffa
Client: Loveat Ltd
Design: Studio Ronen Levin
Project designers: Ronen Levin, Eran Chehanowitz, Revital Yariv

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and Eran Chehanowitz appeared first on Dezeen.

A panoramic view of the harbour is mirrored onto a PVC ceiling at this apartment in Tel Aviv by Paritzki & Liani Architects (+ slideshow).

The family apartment is located on the twenty-first floor of a tower block in the south of the city.

Glazed walls surround the open-plan living room and spotlights stretch out like spiders’ legs from its shiny white ceiling.

Each room in the apartment features wooden floors and walls in the bathroom are clad with roughly cut layers of stone.

Another interesting project by Paritzki & Liani Architects is a house beside a cliff in Jerusalem.

See more projects in Israel »

Photography is by Amit Geron.

Here’s a description from Paola Liani and Itai Paritzki:

R1T Apartment | Paritzki & Liani Architects

An angle. An “L” shaped volume positioned slightly higher than ground level about 80 meters above in a tower facing south-west of Tel Aviv, visually reaching like a proof of joint the sinuous coastline of the Jaffa port, only a few km away.

The design idea was to create a natural appendix to this visual correspondence in a territorial scale, and to obtain an ornamental integration of the city in the interior.

There are three routes traced on the inner perimeter of the “L” shaped volume: first is an entrance route that is internally duplicated by a second parallel passage covered with wood, leading to the night area, terminating and replicating itself along with the sea through the presence of a mirror / glass wall.

A third route, hidden and shorter, leads from the kitchen and dining area to the dark service zone shifting towards obscurity.

In this scheme for the sky, the main attraction is a place that “flies away from the world” in order to belong to the illusory of the blue that surrounds it.

Through the ceiling, a thin reflecting membrane, the city enters again the habitat, it appears, it gets lost; the streets, the buildings, find new boundaries between the atmospheric layers and miniatures signs of the carpets.

In this constant projection, the objects, everyday furniture pieces assume different layouts according to the mood, atmosphere and events of the house.

The night area transfers the projective references of the reflective ceiling but this time in a vertical way, along with partitions of mirror and transparent glass that allow a glimpse to the rough wall of stone of the bathroom.

A plan for the sky.

The nocturnal passage, the urban sky filled with artificial lights, stars, and paths form on the reflective ceiling and glass walls, weaved polygons, arches of circle, speedy rays of light, a dense arabesque that leaves the rest for the imagination.

The inhabitants observe.

The post R1T Flat by Paritzki
& Liani Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

We check out the NYC of Israel with local fashion blogger and cultural maven Eyal de Leeuw

Head of External Relations at the Design Museum Holon just outside Tel Aviv, Eyal de Leeuw is not only a natural tour guide, but as co-founder of Israel’s leading men’s fashion blog Ha-Garconniere, he is clued into some of the most interesting city sights and the latest in urban night life. I met de Leeuw last month during Holon Design Week, and the former cultural attaché kindly took me around during what little down time we had. Here are his top seven must-sees for the city often dubbed the NYC of Israel.

Rothschild 12

Located on the well-known Rothschild Boulevard, the multifunctional Rothschild 12 is anything and everything you want it to be. For the morning it’s an excellent cafe to see and be seen and then later on a nice bar for an early afternoon drink. At night it’s a lounge-like music venue hosting a weekly lineup of young Tel Avivian bands and DJs. The best thing is you can always return to fight the hangover with a lovely weekend brunch.

Har Sinai

After Uri Lahav opened this nonchalant bar last year, Har Sinai became the ultimate hangout for both the hipsters and those who reject them. Before going out for a night of clubbing or at the end of a long working day, Har Sinai is a place to listen to great music and to find refuge in a small bar behind the largest Tel Aviv synagogue.

Cheesecake

Cheesecake is a party line led by talented musician (and local star) Assaf Amdursky and wiz-kid Oren Marzam, hosted every Thursday at the Breakfast Club (as well as Milk, its sister club next door). A small and intimate party line, Cheesecake throws together international DJs, amazing energies and a great photographer who captures the hippest of Tel Aviv’s gay-friendly crowd.

Joz & Loz

Laid back yet delicious, shabby-chic yet sexy, tranquil yet hectic—Joz & Loz has become one of the city’s best hangouts, attracting clients from the creative industries. The restaurant is the perfect place to enjoy a fresh and even poetic menu with secret performances by local musicians and long nights under the Mediterranean skies. Don’t forget to order a Noga, the special house drink.

Hotel Montefiore

Every city needs a boutique hotel to host elegant guests from abroad for a lovely weekend. Enjoy a fine French-Vietnamese dinner and have a drink at the bar, where they serve the finest dirty martini in town.

Sommer Gallery

With the absence of a serious center for contemporary art in Tel Aviv, many young and exciting art galleries have began opening up around town. Sommer Gallery has made an international name for itself by creating a new voice for the emerging Israeli art generation. While the main gallery shows an array of established local and international artists—such as Yael Bartana, Adi Nes, Darren Almond, Thomas Zipp and Wilhelm Sasnal—a smaller space in the gallery is dedicated for budding curators and artists.

Verner Boutique

Situated in the south of the city, Verner Boutique is a good stop on the way to the Jaffa flea market. The shop carries labels such as Maison Martin Margiela’s MM6 line, Acne and Alexander Wang, as well as Israeli jewelry designers.

Design Museum Holon

Eyal was too modest to include Design Museum Holon, but I can personally attest to the fact that it deserves an extended visit. Designed by Ron Arad, the exterior alone is worth the trip. After the “Designers Plus Ten” exhibition closes later this month, Yohji Yamomoto will take over the main gallery until 20 October 2012.

Israeli architects Pitsou Kedem have completed a showroom for furniture brand B&B Italia inside an industrial warehouse by the harbour in Tel Aviv.

Silicate panels line the western wall of the 11-metre-high hall, while other interior walls are clad in concrete panels.

A deep-framed entrance leads visitors inside, where a rusted metal staircase climbs up to a narrow mezzanine that bridges the full width of the showroom.

A wall of metal-framed window panels divides the space into two and some of them pivot open as doors.

Furniture on show inside the warehouse currently includes a sofa by designer Patricia Urquiola – find out more about it here and see more stories about B&B Italia here.

The text below is from Pisou Kedem:

The Shell and its Contents – Italia B&B Showroom

The designer breathed new life into an abandoned and dilapidated building in the Tel Aviv harbor area, and created, around one of the finest furniture collections in the world of design, a space that is both powerful and yet restrained at one and the same time.

The 11 meter high structure with a unique façade consisting of a line of pillars that creates a clear and well defined construction grid, was used by the designer as the base for the entire outer shell.

The architect chose to leave in place only the pillars and beams and to remove everything else leaving just a hint of the structures history with the rectangular, silicate western wall, being specially treated to preserve its original look.

In the design for the interior of the building, the architect expresses his own, local interpretation for the display space where there is a continuous space, achieved through light, sight and movement along with the use of industrial materials that correspond with the industrial look of the outer shell.

The aim was to create a display space that was both impressive and powerful but without detracting from the importance of the furniture on display.

The central idea was to create a shell that would stand as an architectural element in its own right whilst still respecting the contents of the structure.

The use of unprocessed materials in their natural and original form (such as concrete panels and rusted iron) succeeded in empowering the industrialized look but also not to overpower of the furniture display.

The outside of the structure was sheathed in industrial, concrete looking panels and, despite the buildings great height; the architect designed a low, metal entrance that emphasizes to all those entering the structure the human relationship and the contrasts that strengthen the power of the space’s height once inside the building itself.

From outside, the façade is almost anonymous and, for the most part, sealed.

Due to the decision not to adorn it with huge signs as is usually the case with other showrooms, but rather to preserve the minimalistic and restrained look from the outside, the company’s logo was positioned on the walls of the entrance “tunnel” thus strengthening the effect of the contents – furniture display.

There is an awareness of the importance of the furniture collection on display and of its designers and of a sincere attempt to follow the so fragile and delicate dividing line, to design both a showroom that is impressive and eternal whilst not imposing the architecture on the contents.

Design: Pitsou Kedem Architects
Design Team: Pitsou Kedem, Irene Goldberg, Raz Melamed