Israeli-Franco studio Gottesman-Szmelcman Architecture have unveiled a new physical space for the Gordon Gallery, one of Israel's leading art institutions, in the ruins of an old warehouse.
The firm have transformed an industrial site on the fringes of Tel Aviv into a temporary “stage for the unexpected”, which enhances visitors’ senses through use of light and shade.
The neighbourhood has been recently re-zoned as a high density, mixed-use area, opening the possibility to future residential tower construction and the destruction of the 165sq m (1,776sq ft) gallery. However, due to the often protracted process of replacing temporary structures in the city, the architects have fulfilled the project “in the spirit of permanence.”
Their minimalist design evokes the industrial heritage of the area – which is populated by carpentry workshops and textile factories – while meeting the requirements of a contemporary gallery.
The interior spaces are left purposefully simple, to ensure attention is focused on the art work and there is a “measured discourse between objects and the spaces that they occupy.”
Studio founder Asaf Gottesman said: "The designing of any art gallery is as much about its boundaries as the volumes that defy definition. As architects who are commissioned to design art spaces, we have learnt that works of art are perceived in their fuller richness in spaces that have character, where spaces are akin to the silence or counterpoint that exist between musical notes."
The gallery is the third branch of the Gordon Gallery, which has provided a showcase for the finest Israeli art since opening in the centre of the city in 1966.
