MEITAR TEWEL
BIO
The privilege to wander between architectural theory and design, although often perceived as mutually exclusive inclinations, is the driving force of my work. My abilities to observe human habitats through both historical and formal lenses, to read spaces by means of philosophy and material, and to formulate new places via words and drawings - developed and expanded along with my academic and professional experience, and have consistently become more evident in my work and design processes. This dual fascination results in architectural projects which are deeply rooted in their social, historical and physical context, and in academic writings which primarily stem from spatial curiosity.
Today I am participating in the TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment’s Master’s Programme. In parallel, I work as a freelancer with collaborators in Israel and the Netherlands, and occasionally participate as a guest studio critic at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel, from which I graduted summa cum laude. Outside the academic world, I eagerly pursue opportunities to work both individually and in various collaborations on architectural competitions and design projects.
Résumé
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01 Post-Foreign
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02 Mokum Alef: Documentation
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03 Urburbia
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04 Evergreen
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05 Spoken Language
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RÉSUMÉ EDUCATION 2020-2022 MSc Architecture - ongoing TU Delft, NL
Chosen by the Technion to participate in international workshops:
2016-2020 BSc Architecture (summa cum laude) Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, IL
Kibbutz Berlin Workshop / Hochschule Anhalt - Dessau, Germany 2019; including presentation at the ‘Bauhaus 100 - What Now?’ conference.
Grade average 94.2/100 Studio grade average 93.35/100 President’s List Honors Student in 6/7 semesters, Dean’s List Honors Student in 1/7 semester
Tsukiji Market / Urban Design Workshop, Meiji University - Tokyo, Japan 2019
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2020 Research assistant to Associate Professor Alona Nitzan-Shiftan (Chair of the Center for Architectural Heritage at the Technion). Teaching assistant to Assistant Professor architect Dalia Kramer in MSc course ‘Topics in History & Theory: A Place for Art’. Tav Group / Designer (concept to production) for the new Academy of the Hebrew Language building competition.
2019 Gitai Architects / Concept development and submission of proposals to competitions, active participant in architectural planning processes. 2018 Nachshon Studio (furniture design) / Support of design and manufacture processes, graphics and visual representation..
COMPETITIONS, AWARDS & EXHIBITIONS 2020 Top 20 Finalist / the new Academy of the Hebrew Language building open competition, in collaboration with Tav Group 2019 Citation of Excellence Award / intra-Faculty competition, for the project ‘Sense of Place’ (BSc. 05) 2018 Finalist / the Israel 2048 Competition of the Israel Green Building Council (IGBC); Awarded a Citation of Excellence - intra-Faculty competition for the project ‘PostPossession’, in collaboration with Itai Aviram and Shaked Fried (BSc. 04) Citation of Excellence / Aba Elhanani Award for the project ‘Local Narratives’ (BSc. 03) 2017 First prize / intra-Faculty competition - Rivka Hashimshoni Award, for the project ‘At First, But Then’ (BSc. 02) First prize / intra-Faculty competition - Rivka Hashimshoni Award, for the project ‘A Single Stroke’ (BSc. 01) 2015 Participation in the Street Art Photography exhibition, Jaffa Port Gallery
QUALIFICATIONS
LANGUAGES
Software CAD & BIM: AutoCAD, Revit 3D Modeling: Sketchup, Rhinoceros Rendering: Lumion, V-ray Graphics: Adobe Ps, Ai, Id
Hebrew – native English – fluent Dutch - Beginner
NATIONALITY Skills Model making Photography and image processing
Israeli European (Dutch)
01 POST-FOREIGN Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2021 Academic Project, TU Delft MSc1 Interiors Buildings Cities (grade 9.0/10.0) Guidance Susanne Pietsch Koen Mulder
At the edge of the old city center of Amsterdam, on a small piece of land next to Paradiso, a foreign type of building is proposed. Although it holds great urban and economic value due to its attractive location - het landje has never been built upon. Surrounded by strictly formal neo-classical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, this unclaimed land undermines the narrative and mainstream perception of the city of Amsterdam. Through a local interpretation of Israeli integration centers, the project proposes a place of transition and integration for immigrants and refugees - a population which is becoming increasingly present in Dutch cities, and is often seen as a cultural, economic and political threat by locals. In this light, the project offers a two-sided integration, which not only actively welcomes newcomers to the heart of Amsterdam, but also creates an unmediated positive interaction between them and the local populace.
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Comprised of three timber structures, the center adapts its character and functions when confronting the different urban situations around it. The main building, facing the Weteringschans street, hosts a threestory high workshop, which offers an intensive connection between the lively activity it holds and the street. Its size, proportions and palace-like façade attempt to echo its formal
surroundings, while not hiding the presence of exposed wood. On the South-West, a two-story building facing the canal provides a temporary housing solution for five residents, referring to the Dutch boathouse typology. A courtyard connects the workshop and the house, creating an intimate openair room as the heart of a sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces: workshop, corridor, house; street, courtyard, canal.
^ Street facade and courtyard illustrations
^ Detail drawings 1:5
The challenge of designing an urban type of building that is completely made of wood, in a highly formal architectural context, is key to understanding the final expression of the proposal. The introduction of materials which are completely foreign to the immediate environment was compensated for through the proportioning of the façades and the fastidious use of simple wood ornamentations.
The mesh panels also play an important role in supporting the narrative of the project, being an industrialized and cheap material – which introduces new tectonics to the neighborhood on the one hand, and resembles the scale of the detailing of the surrounding buildings on the other.
At the base of the building, terrazzo was used as the material for the floors and dado, in a way which resembles the plinth of Paradiso, the Gymnasium and the nearby villas. The terrazzo base stretches through the ground floor, being complimented with gravel and the shrub garden at the courtyard.
02 MOKUM ALEF: DOCUMENTATION Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2020 Academic Project, TU Delft MSc1 Interiors Buildings Cities Grade 9.0/10.0
As a foreign designer working in a new urban and architectural context, the process of active observation plays a key role in my understanding of the local built environment, construction traditions and aesthetic history. The following selected drawings show part of the documentation process and intimate study of two buildings: Johan Melchior van der Mey’s Palmenkas (1911) in Amsterdam’s Hortus Botanicus, and Willem Springer’s Barlaeus Gymnasium (1885).
> Barlaeus Gymnasium (1885)
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^ Palmenkas (1911)
03 URBURBIA Harish, Israel 2019 Academic Project, Technion, Israel Grade 9.0/10.0
Built almost instantaneously, the city of Harish might be the most explicit representation of post-urban cities, a controversial phenomenon that is gradually becoming common and prominent in Israel. The city is a hybrid: it embodies a clear neo-liberal, suburban set of values, but these are spatially manifested in ways that are reminiscent of urban patterns. This gap is at the core of life in Harish, and are the main reason for its perception as a failure, excluding it from architectural professional discourse. The reluctance to consider a way of life that does not conform to the definitions of either a city or a suburb narrows our ability to observe the phenomenon of urban sprawl in Israel, to identify its origins and to contemplate its future. This project explores the contradictory, yet simultaneous actions implemented in the Urburbia as an opportunity to imagine a city that stems from a suburban set of values.
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Instead of detached family homes, the contemporary suburban residential form in Israel consists of flats of a single model. The majority of flats built in Harish are duplicated and packed in H-buildings (following Le Corbusier’s
Radiant City model) and share a sole scheme, as presented in the illustrations. This creates a physically and demographically homogenous urban environment of middle-class families.
Similarly to the classic American suburb, the urban structure of Harish is based on a curvilinear loop road design, supposedly safer for children. The city’s parcellation follows this winding structure, separating functional areas
from each other. As a peripheral city lacking places of employment, Harish is emptied of its residents during daytime, the only remaining active areas being educational facilities.
By integrating the educational institutes into the existing residential buildings, the urban spine of Harish remains active throughout the day, as spaces currently neglected during daytime – parks, streets and promenades – are now used to serve
the students of the schools and kindergartens. The original binary function of the buildings is disputed, as well as their rigid boundaries: they now reach above the existing promenade to create elevated public squares, bridging them to the city’s green lungs.
As long as flats replace the detached house, the suburban dream cannot be fully realised. Based on this assumption, it is proposed that the neo-liberal aspiration for proprietorship will be realised by privatising parts of the seldom used public spaces, in order to supplement missing components of the flats. The most extreme realisation of this proposition is exhibited in the main park of Harish. Based on its existing landscape planning, parts of the park are divided into small, connectable modules, equal in size. Each private unit is comprised of a “basement” and a
“yard”, both fundamental components of the Israeli suburban house which are missing from the residences of Harish. The integration of private territories into the “sacred” public space is meant as more than a provocative act – it is an opportunity to re-examine familiar urban components and their relevance in the context of Urburbia. In this case, the result is a profound transformation of the city’s landscape – changing from a planned, unified appearance to a disjointed collection of materials and elements, resulting from each individual’s choice for their own plot.
The gap between the fantasy of the suburban single-family house and the harsh compromise forced by the duplicated H-building flat model, raises a fundamental question regarding the definition of a house in Urburbia. Through an examination of its spatial characteristics and its basic values, the suburban house model is implemented in an existing, typical residential storey. The proposed plan, which is based on the construction of a typical storey in a typical building in Harish, attempts to free the flat from its generic model to allow self-definition, and the accommodation of different social groups, according to current trends in the evolution of the local suburb. The proposal challenges the hierarchy found in the standard flat, bringing forward and presenting the “front yard” in order to resemble the detached house scheme. By doing so, each flat becomes distinctive, and the storey’s currently sealed lobby receives fresh air and sunlight – converting it into an intimate, open street within the storey.
04 EVERGREEN Haifa, Israel 2020 Academic Project, Technion, Israel Grade 9.0/10.0
This project revolved around the planning of an elementary school at a chosen site within a semi-industrial area, at the base of Wadi Rushmiya, Haifa, which is set to undergo extensive renewal projects over the coming decades. Proper structural and urban infrastructure could allow sustainable relations between the area’s existing and proposed urban fabrics, even going as far as renewing the connection to the wadi, which in the past decade has been converted from a natural green lung into a bustling vehicular road. The building fills dual roles: firstly, as a place of education for its students, who will benefit from its proximity to the Khalisa neighborhood and to the restored green lung; and secondly, as a public building within an urban continuum, charging the wadi with the human activity it currently lacks.
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Proposed masterplan A continuation of the lively urban core of Downtown Haifa and its reconnection to Wadi Rushmiya could create the basis for future relations between the existing neighbourhoods and the areas soon to undergo extensive development.
Chosen site At the meeting point between the wadi and the extended urban spine, near two existing education buildings. This location could allow safe pedestrian access from the urban route to the wadi, under the two existing, monumental vehicular bridges.
Site plan The positioning of the building at the chosen site defines a public pedestrian road connecting Wadi Rushmiya and the proposed urban spine.
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Making use of the topographic variations at the chosen site, the public functions and pathway are vertically separated by height from the private sections of the school. The main hall creates a vertical connection through sight and movement between the classrooms’ storeys and the public area beneath them. The space created between the rows of classrooms forms small common areas – be it a courtyard or an indoor space, both allowing natural light into the building.
^ Section 1:20
^ Section details 1:5
Construction Scheme The planned construction method of the building is hybrid – based on concrete cores where the secure spaces are located, and glulam portal frames to support all other sections of the building.
05 SPOKEN LANGUAGE Jerusalem, Israel 2020 Design & production lead Open architectural competition Top 20 proposals In collaboration with Tav Group Architects Manual illustrations by Amir Erez
The new site chosen for the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem is located in the midst of several other state institutions. As fits their status, each stands as a monolith, separated from the others by roads and parking lots, squares and greenspaces. Our proposal attempts to weave together this unraveled landscape and create a living tapestry of human proportions – one that will offer its users a place to walk, linger, and ruminate in; that embodies the spirit of Jerusalem and its alleyways, squares and gardens; that is not elevated above others, but communicates in a spoken language, with its facades bordering the street, protective and breathing life.
the nature museum
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vertical gardens
the museums axis
the national library the academy square
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1. auditorium 2. common lobby 3. shop 4. museum 5. areaway 6. courtyard 7. museum’s archive 8. the academy Square 9. the museums axis 10. the academy axis
^ The plenum hall
11. café 12. library 13. plenum hall 14. classrooms 15. administration 16. upper square 17. synagogue 18. outdoor gallery 19. research center
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^ The Hebrew language museum
^ Competition layouts
> Sections & elevations 1:100
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meitartewel@gmail.com +31 622 148 595 Delft, NL
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