Architecture_Gallery
azrieli sarona center
@ Moshe Zur Architects and Town Planners LTD
Azrieli Sarona
Photo: Gidi Epstein [cropped]/ CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Location: Tel Aviv - Jaffa, Israel
Year: 2011-2019
Project Area: 150,000 ㎡ above ground; 60,000 ㎡ underground; average floor area – 2,400 ㎡
Design Team: Lead architect Prof. Moshe Zur, chief designer Shmaya Zarfati, managing partner Mendi Rotbard; architectural team – Orly Even, Adam Haklai, Galit Livay et al

The Azrieli Sarona Tower is a skyscraper under the final stages of construction, located beside the former German Templer colony Sarona, in Tel Aviv. It is 238.5-meter-high (782 ft) with 50 floors of office and hotel space, topping a 3-story shopping mall and a 7-story underground parking garage (accommodating 1600 vehicles). It is the tallest and largest building in Israel, to date.

In May 2011, the Azrieli Group acquired the land from the Israel Land Administration. The plot's size is 9.3 dunam and had a plan for a 180-meter-high (590 ft) office building. In 2012, the Regional Committee for Planning and Construction of the Tel Aviv District revoked the height limitation, allowing the design of a massive yet slender tower.

Design concept: the rectangular concrete core (850 m2) has been wrapped by two vertical trapezoidal volumes which accommodate a series of offset floor plates, carried by slanted structural columns. Twisting around two different axes, the glass-tower’s outline shifts towards the sea as it ascends, while the base of the building lies parallel to the existing street grid of the surroundings.

Positioning: On Menachem Begin Street, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, a small piazza and two mall entrances would escort visitors to the project's commercial component. When completed, the sleek façade of the tower would provide a glassy backdrop to a pedestrian arcade lined with stores and coffee shops. The east entrances of the building would host a roofed sitting area and open spaces facing the 19th-Century houses of Sarona colony.

Envelope: the tower’s envelope is comprised of a double-skinned curtain wall. The inner glass modules are rectangular and vertical, enclosed by a wide white aluminum frame. As a result of the offset between floors, the vertical modules are mounted in a staggered pattern. The outer skin is comprised of slanted parallelogram glass modules, aligned with tower’s twist. Contrasting the inner skin, the outer modules are framed by minimal dark aluminum construction. The gap between the two skins provides energetic efficiency and acoustic insulation, in addition to its visual impact.

Aerial View
Aerial View
Schemes
Bird's Eye View from South
Bird's Eye View from South
Mall Floor Plans
Mall Floor Plans
Mall, View from Begin Rd.
Mall, View from Begin Rd.
Toewer Floor Plans
Tower Floor Plans
Photo: Gidi Epstein [cropped] / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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