Herbert by Baranowitz & Goldberg Architects and Pitsou Kedem Architects: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Showroom

Living in a luxury beachfront neighborhood on the Mediterranean Sea, near Tel Aviv, generally conjures up images of sunny days spent floating in the water before dancing the night away. Less known is the area’s industrial side, where this manufacturer of indoor-outdoor furniture and fireplaces is located. The company’s products aim to offer practicality with a minimalist twist on raw materials, and this showroom is intended to do the same.

It was designed by Sigal Baranowitz and Irene Goldberg, who went out on their own after working together on projects for Pitsou Kedem’s firm, with which they collaborated on this space. The architects wrapped the showroom’s 1,900-square-foot interior entirely in concrete block, left unfinished. To improve the customer’s ability to imagine the wares in their eventual outdoor setting, some are displayed, like garden statuary, on platforms. There’s no blue sky overhead, of course. Instead, rows of rusted steel rods descend from the ceiling in addition to rising from the floor. They will continue to oxidize over time, reinforcing the idea of the showroom as a natural environment of sorts.

Project Team: Baranowitz & Goldberg Architects: Adi Pecket. Pisou Kedem Architects: Orly Avron Alkabes; Guy Ithaki.

> See more of the December 2017 issue of Interior Design

> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees