Planning and design: Nitzan Horowitz
Photography: Oded Smadar
After years of living in a private house in one of the pastoral settlements near Jerusalem, the couple, both in their 50s and with their children already grown, decided to move to a spacious apartment located in a new tower in the central area overlooking the urban landscape. "Despite the geographical change and the change in the concept of living, the two agreed that their new apartment would also convey a sense of home and indeed we made sure to produce elements for them that support the homely being", according to the interior designer Nitzan Horowitz who is responsible for the planning and design of the apartment.
"At the very beginning of the process, I visited them at their home and very quickly realized that this is a deep-rooted couple who know how to appreciate material and texture and give a place of respect to art and unique items - this is how a high-quality discourse was created between us that put the materials at the center and revolved around a great appreciation and respect for the material. We followed this rationale to the end, also in the choice of materials and also in the way they are applied in the space." In general, it is evident that the apartment contains quite a few complex details: "We worked with special techniques and had the help of craftsmen who created complex systems for us. For example, the harmonica door system with which we enclosed the bedroom suite of the son who comes from time to time to visit and is located near the entrance hall, and the kitchen which is in the heart of the public space and knows to disconnect from it when necessary. In the meantime, we designed elements that make the space feel as homey as possible, and the peepholes are among them: something in the rhythm of the columns and slits, as well as the materials, most of which have a deep and special texture, manages to create a polished look on the one hand and on the other hand, all together and each separate from them make this living environment perceived as authentic and temporary, in fact the feeling is that this is a house that has been operating and has existed for years, time certainly does not play a role here."
The landscape and the art, all of which are the work of the owner of the apartment, were from the beginning a central layer in the planning and they are the ones that produce the story of the frame: "For me as the designer of the pictures, the sculptures and the iron works were a tremendous advantage," Horowitz explains. "These two elements led us to produce a calm and monochromatic platform, and in practice the treatment of the interior aims to enrich the architecture of the building. We emphasized the columns and preserved the height dimension of the display cases and partitions. In general, there are almost no built-up walls throughout the apartment and most of the partitions were made by carpentry details, for example the separation between The kitchen to the living room and the dining area and between the bedroom in the parents' master and the bathroom."
According to Horowitz, the apartment does not have many highlights, but the many layers give it warmth: "The apartment is saturated with textures, but the atmosphere created is very minimalist - we made sure to create the right balance that enhances the dimension of warmth and still maintains a sophisticated look," he explains. "We worked with a limited color palette, but as mentioned, most of the materials have texture, whether these are the walls that are partially covered with oak veneer with a scraped texture and conceptually connect to the parquet in the rooms, or whether in the public space where concrete has approached and the floor is covered with large-sized porcelain that looks like concrete. Also the visible air conditioning duct, the lighting duct The cover, the spots and the lighting fixtures were all painted in a concrete shade and thus an organic look was created, devoid of contemporary trends."
"Meanwhile, the masses and balances between the materials change in each of the wings: in the public space the floor and ceiling took on the appearance of concrete, but as soon as you move to the private wing there is a change - the walls are grayish and the parquet floor corresponds with the scraped oak veneer we used to cover the columns and carpentry details - the same color scale that went Role reversal". Upon opening the front door, the foyer was revealed next to it, a bedroom suite designed for the couple's young son who comes to visit from time to time. "The unit is completely autonomous and can be closed by a harmonica door system that consists of wooden frames and a gray glass core. We installed the overhead rail on which it moves in the ceiling ahead of time already during the construction process. There is something about the fine carpentry, which is a craft of thought in itself, that produces in this apartment vibes of 70s but with a more modern and polished cover," explains Horowitz.
Immediately after it are the guest services where you can see the play between the colors - the variety of the stone, through the reddish copper shade to the gray shade of the tiles and concrete, a colored scale that is woven throughout the apartment but in different doses. From the entrance area, we move towards the public space where the living room, dining area and kitchen were designed: "The transition from a private house to an apartment strengthened the desire and need to create a kitchen that could be closed, so that when you cook, you can leave the preparation space hidden from view in relation to the public space. For this purpose, I created a double-sided unit that separates The public space for the kitchen, between them is a sliding door system that knows how to open and close as needed. The kitchen may be hidden but it is the one that defined the locations of the dining area and the living room. The kind of decisions that, once you make them, simply take care of themselves in terms of design. Correct dynamics and flow between the functions in the space and we maintained an optimal view of the landscape."
In spite of being enclosed, the kitchen is large enough and includes a low unit that extends out towards the dining area and connects to it when the doors are open: "The work is being done on a strip of about 5.5 meters, we planned a tall cabinet in the corner of the kitchen and in addition there is the double-sided unit so that overall there is a lot Storage spaces. However, despite being large, it is almost imperceptible, certainly when it is closed." explains the designer. "We chose a stainless steel surface for it and the fronts were painted with metallic paint by a professional who created the exact shade for us using a sample of the stainless steel he received ahead of time - so the match between the upper surface and the fronts is perfect."
Kartell's dining area is also faithful to the design rationale and the play of colors that dominates the spaces. "It is clean and polished and includes an elegant and dark porcelain granite surface that is about 3 meters long and the surrounding chairs are covered with wood veneer in a shade close to that of the facades in the space envelope."
The parents' master also functions as a unit in itself: "At the entrance to the private wing there is a door that can be closed at any given moment and allows the suite to become an independent unit," Horowitz explains. "In the hallway that leads to the bedroom, a particularly long carpentry unit was designed that continues to the end of the bedroom and on the other side is the entrance door to the study. The front of the unit is covered with gray scraped oak veneer. In the hallway area, a door was designed as part of it at the level of the furniture that leads to a storage area and in the center of the unit that invades the bedroom there is a door Glass through which you enter the bathroom." The carpentry unit where it is a piece in itself. Its height is about 45 cm and it folds up and penetrates the shower area where it becomes a built-in bench: "The floor, walls and drawers in the carpentry unit are all covered with porcelain and the meeting between the edges was planned and executed with extreme care. The sink is particularly deep and made of Caesar stone."
"The conversation with the customers was fruitful all the way and thanks to him we were able to handle every detail with the highest resolutions. As such, he also allowed us to achieve an optimal and exceptional result, and I am proud of that," concludes Horowitz.