Location: 20 Yigal Alon St. Zichron Yaakov
completion date : 1990
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The approach underlying my design of this houses on the rocky hills of Zikhron Ya’akov was that a building must grow naturally from the site on which it is built, and not force itself upon it.

The process by which the planning decisions were taken on the site was preceded by a study of the needs specified by the family for whom the house was designed. These needs were translated into a list of “patterns”, which abstractly but specifically defined the spatial order of the house. The names of the patterns were taken from the book A Pattern Language (Alexander 1979) including:Entrance Gate; Site Repair; South Facing Outdoors; Main Entrance Door; The Location of the Different Activities Within the Built-Up Area; Wings of Light; Entrance Transition; Focused View; The Flow Through Rooms; Staircase As a Stage etc.

The plans of the building developed gradually from the deep interaction between the patterns and the living reality of the site.

One of the first decisions concerning the house involves the location of the entrance gate to the site. This location determines the relationship between the house and the street. While moving up and down the street, I searched intuitively for the most natural place to enter the site. Once this was done, the next step had to do with the location of the built and the outdoor areas within the given boundaries of the plot.
I stayed at the site for hours, trying to feel its various areas. The spot where I wanted to sit along while, was left as an open space for the Veranda.
Once the location of the entrance gate and the built- up areas on the site were marked on the ground, the next search, perhaps the most important one in the evolution of the plan, was for the proper location of the entrance door, giving it a bold, visible shape which stands out in front of the building.
The building breaks down into wings that correspond to the natural social groups (activity) within it. Each wing no more than 8 meters wide, so that natural daylight will cover all areas of the house.
Where there were particularly beautiful views, they were framed turned to be the different windows of the house.
Experience has shown me that placing the window in a deviation of even 10 cm can violate all what meant to be achieved, therefore the precise location of the window could be ascertained only by being on the site itself.

(Photographs: first row left, second row left, third row by Talia Hasid)