The Tel-Aviv White City Forum winning proposal by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects is an exhibition center, part of the huge Tel- Aviv wholesale market project currently under construction. Comprising thousands of apartment units, a mall, a school and a sports complex, the Forum will be a platform for genuine urban celebration. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The project is located in the city center, and is built on the grounds of the former market, recently removed to the outskirts. The architects hope to create a place that provides an exciting urban experience, attracting the public not only to exhibitions but also to its diverse and bustling urban space.
The neighboring residential project creates a unique urban situation of a park on the upper level, 8 meters above street level. This park is surrounded on all sides by buildings - a kind of hidden garden. The Forum develops this upper level as its' main urban level and "pulls" the park to the front , thus enhancing its presence in relation to the city.In this way a comprehensive inviting urban space is created that can operate independently during 24 hours of the day as befits “the City that never sleeps".
The chosen Architectural syntax is of a vertical large-scale White City, and is derived from the desire for a visual quiet environment that allows good neighborly relationship with the powerful presence of the Wholesale Market Project. In contradiction to the exhibition halls which require big windowless "black boxes", the building's circulation system is transparent and offers the vertical roaming space consisting of an escalator system, large viewing windows and balconies.
Visitors of the building will enjoy panoramic views of the city at 360 degrees and at different heights. In addition, there will be a roof- terrace cinema and bar, in the tradition of the Tel-Aviv open cinemas of the past.
All transparent parts of the building are protected by shading systems which contain arrangements of LEDs which project advertising on huge screens. The rest of the buildings' envelope is made of double skin panels.
