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New kids on the block: Axelrod Design
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Afeka House
From time to time, I’d like to introduce readers to younger, relatively unknown architects—new kids on the block, so to speak. My criteria are simple. Architects who aren’t well known and are doing great design work. If you’ve got ideas of your own, I’d love to hear them as well.
Irit Axelrod is a young Israeli architect that (like many of us) who was drawn to the Bay Area and, once here, decided to stay. The main body of her work is in Israel, but I’m expecting to see some serious American project work from her in the next few years.
Axelrod is an avowed modernist and had she been an artist, she likely would have been Mondrian. Her architecture explores the interplay of walls and forms within spaces; often wall partitions in her work appear to float above the floor. A refined use of slots and notches in large walls serve to break down those surfaces; coupled with cove lighting within the slots, she further emphasizes the floating illusion. Axelrod’s command of the floor plan is impressive—it is here that her work demonstrates the logic the controls her buildings.
Coming of age in the Mediterranean climate of Israel, Axelrod’s architecture makes extravagant use of natural lighting; in that sense, she continues a centuries old tradition. In nearly every other way, though, she breaks with tradition. Notice the judicious use of text figures on walls and glass surfaces; the effect of the digital age is obvious in her use of graphics.
Practicing as Axelrod Design, she has an impressive portfolio of residences. Her most recent residential project is the Afeka House, located outside of Tel Aviv. This home exhibits Axelrod’s clearest expression of minimalist modernism. Crisp detailing, particularly wall details, gives an impression of lightness, almost weightlessness, even though much of the construction is concrete. This effect is heightened by the apparent levitation of the master bedroom above the main floor of the house; a deft structural floor slab creates this illusion. In a rare turn, Axelrod was also commissioned to completely furnish the Afeka House, an architect’s dream come true.
Axelrod’s work includes several academic buildings at the Ben Gurion Institute and Oranim College which incorporate her typical use of glass and concrete. In an exciting development for Axelrod, she recently won a competition for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. While competitions for new buildings are fairly rare in the United States, they are a common method for younger, lesser known architects overseas to secure major design commissions.
While Axelrod is new to the Bay Area architectural community, I’m expecting great things as she makes her way here and adapts her aesthetic to California.
Afeka House with master bedroom "floating" above floor
proposed Porter School, Tel Aviv University
For more info: Axelrod Design
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