Technology Center – Ashdod / Daniel Azerrad Architects

+28

Description submitted by the project team. The project is located in a modest district north of the port city of Ashdod. The site is part of a complex of educational buildings. The original building, designed by architect Itzhak Perelshtein, served as a secondary school. In recent years, only a third of the building continued to function as a secondary school, while the rest was abandoned. Intervening in an existing project presents a great dilemma. When approaching this large brutalist structure from the 1960s, the goal was to consciously create a new historical layer. The strategy was to “reuse” the original building in a responsible, respectable, generous and unique way. The Technology Center is a new initiative of the Ministry of Education that seeks to revive old abandoned schools with a new educational program composed of laboratories and workshops that promotes research in various fields – biotechnology, robotics, sustainable energy – classrooms, offices and a multipurpose room.

The building featured a classic “party”: a covered central courtyard surrounded by exterior-facing hallways and classrooms. For the spaces facing south (extremely hot for most of the year) we proposed moving the hallway to the south façade and thus the laboratories face the central space. The hallway serves as a thermal shield and can also be used as a buffer space for students. The north-facing laboratories and classrooms enjoy soft light and large windows. In the heart of the atrium we located the multipurpose room, a bright red box, conceived as an allegory of technology. The existing concrete, with its aesthetic of imperfection, contrasts with the bright, reflective and perfectly smooth red box. The case, slightly rotated, is a subtle gesture that breaks the orthogonality of the structure. The façade of the central space was created by closing the open corridors with a Uglass skin.

A porch defines the access to the renovated building, also providing a meeting place under the shade. The new exterior skin is made up of two layers: the first is a colorful HPL skin that goes from white to gray, passing through yellows and red. The second is a brise soleil of exposed concrete structured in independent rhythms. The superposition generates a play of light and shadow. Each plant is characterized by its color. Green on the ground floor, purple on the first floor and yellow on the second floor. The central stair railing leads to corresponding colors.

Two new functions were added: vertical circulation and air raid shelters. The elevator “tower” and the shelter tower, mostly blind facades, were placed in the northern part of the building, which is also its rear part, while the new emergency stairs were placed at the entrance. The existing trees on the site were the structure for the design of the open spaces. Concrete benches were simply placed under the generous shade of the trees. The flooring connects the exterior spaces with the access porch and finally the rigorously selected vegetation in the green spaces under the trees.

We created a porch that is also used as a shadowed space to define an access space. The new exterior skin is made up of two layers: the first is an HPL skin with colors ranging from white to gray through warm yellows to red. The second is an exposed concrete brise soleil structured in independent rhythms. The outer skin has depth, and when it meets the sun, a new dimension is created. Each floor is characterized by a specific color. Green is at the entrance, violet is on the first floor, and yellow is on the second, while the handrail leads us to the corresponding colors.

Two new functions were added: vertical circulation and bomb shelters. The “tower” of the elevators and that of the shelters, mostly blind facades, were placed in the north of the building, which is also its rear, while the new emergency stairs were placed at the entrance. The existing trees on the site provided the structure for the landscape design, which was composed of benches under the generous shade of the trees, flooring connecting the exterior spaces with the access porch, and carefully chosen vegetation in the green spaces under the trees.