The Ravnitsky House

Architectural Review

The urban villa in the corner of Ahad Ha'am and Maza streets was designed by the architect Berlin and was lived in by the writer Ravnitsky.

• The building is designed with the Art Deco style in mind, combining elements of clean construction using silicate bricks, and there are precious few buildings like it in Tel Aviv.
• The courtyard includes elements of area development, a direct continuance of the treatment of the building itself.

In addition, the courtyard, though small in size, contains diverse flora of cypress trees, miniature palm trees, and Bougainvillea and Ficus plants.

The building is based on a compositional balance between ornamentally arranged surfaces of silicate bricks and sprayed plaster and strips of silicate bricks and a smooth finish. The fa'ade facing Ahad Ha'am Street includes a unique entrance structure that includes two triangular pillars and the ?crown? of the balcony on the second floor. The element is riddled with acute angles, which even appear in the carpentry of the front door. Two cypress trees on each side of the entrance strengthen the symmetrical array and emphasize the entrance. There is an interesting transition between the symmetrical ground floor and the second floor, which contains a break in the building?s volumes.

The facade facing Maza Street includes a central polygonal outside niche, on the basement and ground floors, with window openings on the basement floor and a strong emphasis of the silicate block capitol and the heavy keystone.

The courtyard: as above mentioned, the treatment of the courtyard is unique, successfully utilizing the height differences, sloping down from the entry level on Ahad Ha'am Street to the basement of Maza Street. The fence, the entry stairs element and the courtyard paths are also composed of silicate bricks.

* Excerpt from a document prepared by the architect Nissim Davidov from the Adam Mazor/Eli Firscht Architects' firm, dated 9.8.1992