Jonathan Groswasser, Architect, Pioneer of Light

Jonathan Groswasser

Photo © Cedric Helsly

Jonathan Groswasser

Architect

Israel’s modernist

By Denise Close, Jean-Luc Wittersheim

Jonathan Groswasser, partner at Yashar Architects, takes his inspiration from the Modern and International style of Tel Aviv, as well as from 1960s New York. His practice is one of the largest in Israel and works as far afield as Israel and Romania.

INTERVIEW: PIONEERS OF LIGHT

What are your sources of inspiration?

To give you an example, when we did the BMW Mini Showroom in Tel Aviv, we were inspired by New York's modernist buildings from the sixties, which had open plans with visible big lit ceilings, the basic sixties modern buildings of New York. This is not the concept of the Barcelona Pavilion or a modernist villa but the idea of actually bringing the modernist intensity of New York to Israel. We were inspired by the light feel and the revolutionary idea of open-plan offices and their relationship with a modern-style building. The open plan was a totally new and revolutionary idea of how people work in offices and it was liberating, a large open space with tall ceilings. We wanted to recreate that atmosphere in a showroom, of a building that projects intensity and activity throughout the entire day.

“Light is an essential part of architecture and it bringsout its essence.”

Pioneer of Light Jonathan Groswasser