Underneath It All

Jill Connors -- Interior Design, 3/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

To convert the basement of a Tel Aviv house into two apartments, SpaceCraft Architecture dug deep for a design solution. Principals Tamir Addadi and Raphael Cohen cut two holes in the rear foundation wall, then scooped out the earth beyond the footprint of the house—making room for a glazed extension and a small garden, all 9 feet below grade.

Given the house's hillside location, the only way to remove the dirt was through the basement and out the front, which is at street level. SpaceCraft started the big dig by creating a new doorway just wide enough for a compact excavator. "The Bobcat measured 55 inches wide, so we made the entry 59," Addadi says. That opening is now fitted with French doors, which open to a shared vestibule for the apartments.

The twin units—both under 500 square feet—are oriented around the rear light shaft, where SpaceCraft built a pebble garden complete with cooking herbs and dwarf citrus trees. Right inside the L-shape glazed extension, which runs along two sides of the garden, the apartments' kitchens soak up the sunshine all day. The architects placed the living areas in the middle of the floor plans and the sleeping quarters up front, out of reach of early morning rays.

Minimal construction—concrete columns and partial walls, pine sleeping platforms—defines the function areas. "Each apartment is essentially one continuous room," Addadi says. "Having it flow into the garden creates the illusion of a bigger space."

So does the architects' precision. Addadi and Cohen employed an 8-inch grid for the sandstone floor, and squares are a recurring motif. The tables dotted throughout the apartments are MDF cubes painted white.

Also boxy, the kitchen's floating cabinets are constructed of pine or frosted acrylic. SpaceCraft built a sink and a cooktop into the quartz-composite counter, but there's no refrigerator or oven. Addadi suggests that a microwave could sit on the counter and a small refrigerator be placed on the floor in the kitchen or the living area. "These apartments will be rented to young professionals," he explains.

Compact and minimal though the apartments may be, they are home to an inspiring play of light. The bamboo canopy above a part of the garden creates shadows that dance across the floors all day long. As Addadi describes it, "The patterns are ever changing, according to the sun's movement in different seasons. And the cats that walk across the glass roof." Dig it.

From top: Cutting through a reinforced-concrete wall was the first step toward bringing natural light into a Tel Aviv basement, now two apartments. The basement extends 4 feet beyond the original foundation; a concrete column stands where the old footprint ended.

Clockwise from top left: A rush mat defines one apartment's living area, furnished with a leather-covered sofa and bench and a painted MDF table, all custom. The adjacent kitchen's custom steel-framed casement windows open to the pebble garden. During construction, a compact excavator carted out 67 cubic yards of soil. Custom cabinets of pine and frosted acrylic float above flooring of local sandstone; the porthole is clear glass in a frosted-glass panel.

From top: The two apartments' kitchens are perpendicular to each other. Steel beams and mullions hold the shared glass enclosure in place. In an early oil-painted mock-up for the kitchens, the red area indicates a cabinet built into the window at eye level; the architects later abandoned that idea, keeping the view unobstructed. The other kitchen faces the short side of the pebble garden.

BOWLS (LIVING AREA): SHLEZINKA DESIGN COMPANY. METALWORK: EZRAH METAL FITTERS. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: YAAKOV ACHBART. MEP: YOSI ZAMIR. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: OREN LAVI.