The Medium is the Message: New home planned for the David Azrieli School of Architecture
Tel Aviv University’s David Azrieli School of Architecture will be moving to a dedicated home on campus within the next two to three years, following a national design competition for the new building. More than 50 Israeli architectural firms entered the competition, and after a thorough selection process, six finalists remained. The firm of Tsionov Vitkon Architects, headed by TAU alumni Lior Tsionov and Lior Vitkon, was announced as the winner.
“We were very happy that two of our graduates reached the level that they could return home and design the future building of our school,” says Prof. Eran Neuman, Dean of TAU’s Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts and former head of the School of Architecture.
The School of Architecture is named after David J. Azrieli, renowned Canadian real estate developer and philanthropist, and is supported through the generous assistance of the Azrieli Foundation.
TAU’s School of Architecture was established in 1993 and provides its students with a broad cultural view of architecture, seeing the physical environment as a mirror of the culture in which it is produced. Since its inception, the program has grown and enrollment has increased. Today, more than 500 students study in undergraduate and graduate programs. “By 2050, Israel’s population is expected to double, and we will need more housing and public buildings,” says Prof. Neuman.
Prof. Neuman says that the winning design combines functionality, innovation, and a timeless sense of style. “The architects came up with an ingenious scheme of distributing clusters of teaching, study and lab spaces on different levels of the building, each cluster corresponding to a particular year of study. The design and use of material and the style of the building is very contemporary, but it will not fall out of fashion. When you design a building, it must last for many years.”
The new 8,000 square meter building will be comprised of three sec
tions. One section of the building will be devoted to the David Azrieli School of Architecture, a second section will house the Azrieli Architectural Archives – which preserves original architectural material, advances architectural research, and promotes and exhibits the heritage of Israeli architecture – and the third section of the building will be used for commercial space.