Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building / Preston Scott Cohen

Nov 2010

Uploaded by Kelly Minner — Filed under: Museums and Libraries ,Selected , Israel, Preston Scott Cohen, Tel Aviv

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Located in the center of the city’s cultural complex, the program for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building posed an extraordinary architectural challenge: to resolve the tension between the tight, idiosyncratic triangular site and the museum’s need for a series of large, neutral rectangular galleries. The solution: subtly twisting geometric surfaces (hyperbolic parabolas) that connect the disparate angles between the galleries and the context while refracting natural light into the deepest recesses of the half buried building.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building was the First Prize Winner in the Herta and Paul Amir International Competition. The program includes Galleries of Israeli Art, Architecture and Design, Drawings and Prints, Temporary Exhibitions; Photography Study Center and Archives; Multidisciplinary Auditorium; Seminar and Conference Rooms; Art Library; Restaurant; Administrative Offices; Loading, Unpacking and Storage. Following the break are drawings and construction photographs of this recently completed building.

Architects: Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Design: Preston Scott Cohen
Project Architect: Amit Nemlich
Project Assistants: Tobias Nolte, Steven Christensen, Guy Nahum, Gjergj Bakallbashi, Bohsung Kong
Competition Project Team: Scott Cohen, Cameron Wu, Andrew Saunders, Janny Baek
Competition Consultants: Ove Arup and Partners, Caroline Fitzgerald, Tom Dawes, Mark Walsh-Cooke
Cost Estimator: Hanscomb Faithful and Gould
Project Management: CPM Construction Management Ltd.
Structural Engineers: YSS Consulting Engineers Ltd.
HVAC: M. Doron-I. Shahar and Co., Consulting Eng. Ltd.
Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates
Accessibility: Michael Roitman
Acoustics: M.G. Acoustical Consultants Ltd.
General Contractor: Hezkelevitch Engineering
Models: Jonathan Lott, Isamu Kanda
Renderings: Chris Hoxie, Agito Design Studios
Client: Motti Omer, Director and Chief Curator
Project Area: 18, 500 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

The building represents an unusual synthesis of two opposing paradigms for the contemporary museum: the museum of neutral white boxes and the museum of architectural spectacle. Individual, rectangular galleries are organized around the “Lightfall”, an eighty-seven foot tall spiraling atrium. The building is composed according to multiple axes that deviate significantly from floor to floor. In essence, it is a series of independent plans and steel structural systems stacked one atop the other, connected by geometric episodes of vertical circulation.

Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

The new building refers to the original building in such a way that the two can be seen as having a family resemblance. At the same time, it relates to a larger tradition of the new that exists within Israeli architectural culture. The multiple vocabularies of Mendelsohn and Bauhaus Modernism in Tel Aviv are resynthesized in an architectural language that is internationalist and progressive in its cultural orientation.

Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

: Courtesy of Preston Scott Cohen

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* Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

Cite:
Minner , Kelly . "Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building / Preston Scott Cohen" 09 Nov 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 26 May 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/87739>

Comments (11)
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æon says:

Some how I find its design inspirited on an spiral.

# November 9, 2010 at 19:45

mike says:

Absolutely stunning. I think it will look better than the renderings once done, the geometry is so intelligently and elegantly resolved.

# November 10, 2010 at 01:57

michael says:

New iconic project to Tel Aviv – great space inside.

# November 10, 2010 at 02:12

JuiceMajor says:

Somehow I feel the interior space is going to give a sense of exploration!

# November 10, 2010 at 07:28

K says:

Well done! Scott.

# November 10, 2010 at 08:43

Real says:

Fantastic geometry, un-freaking-believable spatial solutions. Real architecture of imaginative visionaries. (If it would be done by Zaha or Libeskind it would be posted on the cover of every arch. magazine…) tnx for posting AD

# November 10, 2010 at 13:55

Sean says:

Some would argue Zaha has already ‘done’ this building with the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg. The geometry bears more than a passing resemblance but in my opinion the way this building sits on the ground is dealt less elegantly than the way that Phaeno’s cones melt into the surrounding landscape. Phaeno was truly a pioneering project in terms of its insitu concrete construction and structural engineering and from what I can see from the pictures this building seems to borrow heavily.

# November 16, 2010 at 04:57

Dave says:

I disagree that Phaeno meets the ground more elegantly than the Amir building. The space left underneath Phaeno is rather dark and forbidding don’t you think?

http://archisketches.blogspot.com/2007/06/060207-phaeno-science-center.html

Amir has a much lighter feel, which I think owes to the way the precast panels are allowed to come to ground and also the treatment of the punched windows.

# November 17, 2010 at 12:47

James says:

Refreshing to see someone inventing

I’m thankful for this one

# November 11, 2010 at 00:01

Kersten says:

I really like how the internal, natural light is being distributed throughout the building by the twisted atrium.
The white surface enhances that. I n my point of view that is the general difference to other Museums with irregular shpaes. Great Architect. GSD Style

# November 17, 2010 at 04:40

Márcio says:

Very interesting space! Also very interesting form! however… total unnecessary waste of money… There are even more interesting architectural conceptions that waste way less human, material and financial resources… Also, if a fire breaks out in that building, it will probably fall apart like a deck of cards… Well, stararchitecture in its best i guess ;)

# January 16, 2012 at 19:41

12:26 AM Nov 10th

Yojhanny Arce Vindas

http://www.archdaily.com/87739/tel-aviv-museum-of-art-amir-building-preston-scott-cohen/ http://fb.me/xnA4iaFX

1:06 AM Nov 10th

Arthur Guimarães

RT @ArchDaily: Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building / Preston Scott Cohen http://archdai.ly/9KQ520 #architecture

1:11 AM Nov 10th

Guilherme Krakhecke

1:15 AM Nov 10th

Lucas M. Teixeira

1:22 AM Nov 10th