Ben Ami House

Rooms are shared between two matching concrete blocks at this house in Israel by architects Shilo Benaroya.

A corridor and stairwell joins the two halves of the Ben Ami House together and a small patio slots into the space between.

The architects explain how this division satisfies the “simple need for privacy” in the two-storey family house and have separated bedrooms between the two blocks.

The kitchen is located at the back of the house and opens out onto a second terrace.

The facade of the house displays two tones of grey, where some parts of the concrete have been coated in plaster and others are left exposed.

Other Israeli houses we’ve featured include one that is entirely white and one that is concealed behind a house-shaped brick wall.

Here’s some text from the architects:

Ben Ami House

We started the project with the simple need of the family for privacy, hence the architectural model composed of two boxes that responds to the organization of the program; one box contains kitchen and living areas on the ground floor, private bedroom with an open terrace on the first floor, while second box contains private bedrooms and service areas on both floors.

A patio on the ground floor, situated between the two boxes, constitutes the main entrance volume to move through the courtyard, staircase and corridor into the house and also between the boxes.

The house feels large due to its clear circulation and continuous spaces.

With the aim of providing complete flexibility of arrangement in the interior, two parallel structural exposed concrete walls have been created at the north/south walls, while the other east/west walls are composed as infield of plaster finish and the window strips.

The two-boxes-house is as rational in arrangement as in construction, a reflection of the compactness of the lot and of the key desire for clarity in program, structure and materiality of the house.

Construction Engineer: Vera Neustein
Interior Design: Shilo Benaroya architecture office

Concrete floor: Ran Abengan
Steel work: Yarden Nachmias
Air conditioning: Avi Zerah
Kitchen and Furniture wood work: Yossi Belishevski
Kitchen and Wood: Yossi Belishevski
Stainless steel: Nirosta Yussin