by Nancy Shekter-Porat

a new generation of Israeli architects is changing the face of Israel as they meet the challenge of providing for the country’s contemporary housing needs, and women are at the forefront of this architectural revolution. According to Professor Elinor Barzacchi, Head of Tel Aviv University’s School of Architecture, over half the architecture students in Israel today are women. She also notes that, “Being a good architect is not gender-linked but women often have to work harder than men to prove themselves.”

Israeli architecture is still in transition after 53 years of statehood, explains architecture historian David Kroyanker. Like the country itself, a multiethnic mosaic, architectural themes and ideas come from around the world and are influenced by global trends. “A wide range of architectural styles can be seen in Israel. Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences can be found alongside Bauhaus motifs. This is natural because we are located here in the middle, between East and West,” Kroyanker observes.

Residential architecture in Israel has come a long way from the boxlike cheap housing projects that were thrown together to meet the immediate housing needs of thousands of new immigrants in the 1950s; the innovative but impractical housing projects of the 1970s, such as avant garde architect Zvi Heckler’s pentagonal apartment units; and the prestigious but often sterile high-rise condominiums of the 1980s and 1990s.

Owing primarily to a change in the Israel Land Authority’s policies, private residential housing has become a growing field for Israeli architects. In the last several years the Authority, which controls over 93% of the country’s land, has been leasing property for private homes throughout the country through the government’s “Build Your Own Home” projects, thus making single-family homes more affordable on a middle-class income.

The new generation of Israeli architects, represented by the three women professionals profiled below, create modern, distinctive, and beautiful homes, with an eye toward the landscape, the climate, and local building materials, as well as functionality and the client’s needs. As women working within the construction industry, a male-dominated field, they have all experienced discrimination against their gender as well as their youth, but with experience they eventually succeeded in asserting their professionalism and have gained the respect they deserve.

profile: Yael Oded
age: 36
born: Ramat Gan, Israel
education: ORT Careers, Jerusalem

A home designed by ORT graduate Yael Oded was featured in the summer 2000 edition of Binyan Vediyur, an Israeli architectural magazine. The magazine chose the home on Moshav Beit Yoshua because its design was "inspired by the orchards and eucalyptus trees in the region. She created a space that is pleasant and spacious while integrating naturally with the surroundings.”

Integration with the environment, bio-climatics, the use of local building materials, and organizing the living space according to Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of placement, are the central principles that guide Oded in designing homes. She lauds her teachers at ORT for helping her to develop her working philosophy, “I had wonderful teachers at ORT. I owe them everything. They taught me above and beyond the curriculum. They influenced me and my outlook while allowing me to express my own independent ideas.”

Already holding a BS in Biology and an MBA from the Hebrew University, Oded began her studies at ORT Careers in Jerusalem in 1990, at the age of 26. She chose ORT because it suited her lifestyle; “I was married and pregnant when I began studying. ORT made it possible for me to study in the evenings and work during the day.”

Yael Oded’s ties to both architecture and ORT go back to her grandfather Zvi Sreberny, who was an architect. After escaping the horrors of the Holocaust by finding refuge in Russia, the family returned to Germany, where Sreberny served as a director of ORT. In 1948, her grandmother, an ardent Zionist, prevailed and the family moved to Israel, where her grandfather became the city engineer of Petach Tikvah.

Grandpa Sreberny clearly influenced Oded’s career choice. “Architecture is in my genes,” she says, and proudly displays her grandfather’s old drafting tools, which she keeps in her desk even though she does all her own drafting work on a computer.

For Oded, being a woman in the building profession is a continuous challenge. “Discrimination is a given,” she says, but over the years she has found builders and contractors who can work comfortably with women. "However,” she notes ruefully, “sometimes a client brings his own building team and they talk rudely and disrespectfully to me. I’m sure they wouldn’t dare speak that way to a man.” While she had some very difficult moments in the early years of her career, experience has taught her how to deal with unpleasant situations.

Oded’s office is in her home in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat HaSharon. “For the most part I love working at home,” she explains. “I don’t have to contend with traffic jams. If I’m under pressure to finish a project I can work in the evenings. Sometimes, however, not leaving the house and not seeing people can be difficult.” She is currently building a new home for her husband and two sons ages 5 and 9.

profile: Orna Levy-Osenger
age: 35
born: Tel Aviv, Israel
education: Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa

Sitting in a popular café outside Jerusalem, Orna Levy-Osengar is greeted warmly by a client who pops by her table to say hello. From the animated way that the two women chat about the new home Levy-Osengar designed it is clear that she is more than just a paid professional to her client, and she admits that she often befriends the the people she works for.

"If I like to go back and visit a house I’ve designed,” says Levy-Osengar, “it’s a sign that it was a success.” Levy-Osengar’s homes have clean, simple lines. Her designs reflect a harmony between the interior and exterior space, take the local climatic conditions and the elements of shade into account, and last but far from least are especially suited to the individual needs of her clients. Dikla Simsolo from Moshav Shoresh said, “Having a woman design our home was an advantage as she understands the functions and needs.”

Before enrolling in the Technion’s School of Architecture, Levy-Osengar took a year off after her two-year army service. “I was debating between medicine and architecture as a career and now I know that I made the right decision. Architecture,” she says with a smile, “is art with a practical side.”

In Levy-Osengar’s view women architects have an edge: “A house needs to work and this is something beyond just technical skills, where a woman’s sensitivity can be an asset.” But she notes that being a woman wasn’t always a plus. “When I started out I had two strikes against me, being both young and a woman,” she explains. “It took time for people to see me as a professional. Today I experience less discrimination. While some of the men I work with still have a problem relating to me at first, the strain in our relations quickly comes to an end when they realize my worth.”

Israeli clients today are very definite, if sometimes unrealistic, about what they are looking for. Levy-Osengar says, “People have dreams and they know what they want in their homes. Often they dream of a mansion crammed into one small house. They want to put all their dreams inside and this can cause disharmony. A good architect will help them realize their dreams within architectural constraints.”

"Changes within Israel are reflected in residential building styles,” Levy-Osengar claims. “In the last seven years the standard of living in Israel has jumped and local product designs have been improved. There is a greater awareness of design and more people are reading architectural magazines, but on the down side, these magazines all show the same designs and everyone wants to imitate them.”

Levy-Osengar, together with her husband, who is also an architect and her business partner, works in a studio in their home in a Tel Aviv suburb of Tzahala.

profile: Tamar Koren
age: 43
born: Jerusalem, Israel
education: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem

Tamar Koren’s home in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevesseret Zion is a showcase of her work. The neatly arranged and modern light-filled rooms are inviting and characterize her architectural style of bringing the outside in. Large windows frame the panoramic view of the Jerusalem hills and reflect her design philosophy. “It is important,” she explains, “that the house come out of the local topography, and the connection between interior and exterior is integral. Light is another essential element, and because the Israeli sun is so strong it must be taken into account.” The centrality of spatial relationships are also evident in her work. “The connection between spaces is what turns a design from just a box into a home,” she declares.

Koren began her studies in ceramics at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design but quickly recognized that her first love, ceramic sculpting, was best kept as a hobby and that architecture suited her better as a career. “I love being an architect because of the diverse aspects – creativity and the arts, psychology and working with people, and the intellectual challenge of on-going study.”

At the beginning of her career, working among men, she always had to prove that she was the planning authority, but today she views her gender as an advantage. “In designing homes,” she says, “a woman’s intuition, the feminine touch, is clearly a benefit.”

According to Koren, “Israeli architecture is still looking for its roots. In my field of private homes we are still feeling our way and adapting styles from other places. It is hard to point to a clear local style.” She ponders the change in Israeli awareness of style. “In recent years Israelis have become more aware of aesthetics and have higher standards. Economic prosperity, exposure to the world at large, a profusion of magazines, beautiful stores, and more attractively packaged products all combine to shape popular taste in Israel.”

Koren’s office is in the home she shares with her husband and two children. She is currently teamed up with another architect designing a school in a Jerusalem neighborhood.

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