Profile of the Season - Team Architects אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #133 August 2023 | | 64 interiors Zvika Tamari - coming home Eli Leffler A Bezalel and University of Florida in Gainesville graduate, Zvika Tamari believes that the role of architecture is to challenge conventions, beliefs, perceptions, and especially prejudices. Accordingly, the starting point at Studio TeaM Architects 2023 is focused on two key perceptions: One - we do not allow objective limitations to dictate the subjective nature of the project. Two - we relate to every project as if it were our first one. This somewhat naïve attitude played a major role in the accomplishment of some important projects, in which the architectural experience is at the core. Among them, educational and heritage structures, museums, family experience centers and renovation of old "skeletons" scattered in urban space. In 2008, Studio TeaM Architects 2023 won an international award for "Comfy Experience" planning - a global children’s education complex that can be dismantled and reconnected, presented at the global IAAPA show in Orlando, Florida, and in 2019, the local Architects’ Association award in the Public Building category for planning the "Habaita" Campus for Lone Soldiers at Emek Hama’ayanot. What do you mean by “not letting objective limitations dictate the nature of a project”... Do you have "protection" (favoritism) in the bureaucracy corridors that ruin everything good in the profession? After all, the architectural profession is now throttled down to zero by planning restrictions dictated in anachronistic Master Plans, countless regulations and standards, and ending with unnecessary Spatial Guidelines that do not allow any freedom of expression? The idea is expressed by the fact that before we learn the restrictions we first plan what we think is right for the project, and only then do we try to contend with the restrictions through a fruitful dialogue between the two poles of the creation. As for the regulations, I believe that the The Planning and Building Code is so old, problematic and destructive, that there is no point in "repairing it", rather, it must be rewritten from start to finish. " You mentioned 'old skeletons in the urban space'. How do you treat them, taking into account that this is what gives public space its ‘local identity’! Certainly, those structures are particularly important in the context of repetitive boxes that characterize the urban space, causing it to lose its local unique identity. We try to breathe new life into them by giving them a new meaning that may extend their lives while giving the urban space added value. Take, for example (if I may), a project in Ramat Gan, originally built around an International Style conservation building. Due to having no contextual references - the original structure can hardly be recognized - the purpose of our program was to restore it to life by creating an interesting tension between the old structure and the new addition. In another case we planned a hub for young people within the abandoned home of a Polish writer in Tel Aviv. Both projects have historical value, though when they are empty and neglected they do not contribute positively to the public space. But when granting them new content, creating a renewed discourse with the environment, this, to me personally, is exciting. Apropos excitement, why do many of your projects express a dramatic, almost exhibition-like design? The reason is that I do not only see myself as an architect, but also as a 'Story Teller'. Our projects always begin with a story. I write the narrative to myself, and only then create the first sketch. I suppose that part of this lies in the fact that I practiced, at the beginning of my career, planning museums and content centers at the Ori Abramson studio - one of the biggest in the field. How would you define yourself with typical simplicity...in Facebook for example? " I'm don’t talk about myself in social media. I can't allow myself the time to invest in it. But if I must define myself in one sentence, I would say I am in love with the profession and hate the licensing process; I invent my best ideas while running in the evening; my hands shake with excitement when I enter a good bookstore, and I believe that a good concert in a Gothic Church is proof that a good project can be born without consultants. How do you settle conflicts between the desired and the achievable? After all, not everything you dream can be done. As I said before, in my view, every architectural work rests on a continuum of settlement of conflicts: clashes with the environmental data, the roof requirements, fixed budget, regulations and countless consultants. The modern architect is actually an arbitrator, a mediator, a psychologist and a mentor - for property owners, contractors, supervisors, and authorities. It's a more complex role than ever before.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=