Z361 - A house design for a family of 6 | Eitan Cohen

We were called to design a house in Tzahala neighborhood in Tel Aviv that required a massive and thorough renovation, when we went to design the house, we encountered some visible and invisible challenges when we started the demolition process: ceiling height in central spaces, concrete walls we did not know about, outdoor and steel concrete beams You can disassemble and more surprises like sealing, slopes, and varying floor heights.

The beautiful story of this project begins in the 1950s in Tzahala, a small house was built on a plot of about 300 square meters. When it was purchased by our customers about a decade ago, it was expanded and enlarged according to their family needs. The family later moved to Europe for a mission, after a few years, when the mission ended and they asked to come back, the connection was made with us, the designers, and we were asked to come and redesign the house to suit the current needs.

One of the main challenges - as mentioned before, was the low height of the ceiling in the central space, due to concrete beams which these connect the original house to its various extensions. We insisted on raising the ceiling and thus exposing the construction. We exposed the central steel beam, painted it black as a kind of statue and a respect for the structure, and wrapped the concrete beam in white plaster, in between the areas created due to the ceiling plots and the beams, a falls ceiling ‘islands’ were created, which we highlighted with hidden lighting.

As part of the brief, we received from the client, we were asked to create a large and highly active kitchen, but as clean and as invisible as possible, we created a partition using a wooden library with diagonal steps that creates glimpses into the kitchen structure and hides but reveals interesting parts at the same time. We turned the shelter into a spacious pantry and hid the heavy steel door with the help of doors in the kitchen line and later directly to the overall design.

We have demarcated and fenced the seating area in the living space with different flooring and separations with brass bars, so that there is the general house flooring, a black border made of basalt stone and a particularly luxurious oak floor. Another flooring detail we would like to mention is the panel that rises 30 cm above the floor towards the wall. This panel made of the same material as the floor and is recessed in the wall within the same surface and separated with an aluminum profile painted black, so the walls can be protected from damages and get a nice, aesthetic, and unconventional addition to the overall design.

As a family that hosts a lot, we were asked to create a large and dignified dining area, we created a power wall made of porcelain cladding with brass bar divisions and combined hidden lighting as part of the complete composition. Both material and conceptual, to complete a space as an intimate family dining space, we lowered the ceiling in this area and installed wooden bars in the ceiling to add warmth, thanks to this lowering, we were able to hide the air conditioning system into the central space. So, this individual design enjoys both the central space and the dining area.

We completely renovated the backyard, with special flooring that corresponds with the interior style in geometry, materials, and shades. We added a louvered steel pergola in a white color as the house color and a prominent central pillar at the entrance to the house was painted black to emphasize the construction again, but this time from the exterior.

The children's rooms were designed according to their age and personal interests, the master bedroom with the in-suite shower and the adjoining office which is a half interior half exterior annex to the bedroom and of course also has an entrance from the garden near the main entrance of the house. We covered the master shower with a special bamboo-like tile, we added a window in the roof, a skylight that adds air light and ventilation to the bedroom, shower and in general. The floating toilet hangs on top of a floating built element around which we have created hidden lighting that adds to the overall atmosphere of pleasant mysterious intimacy.