Schwartz Rooftop Flat, Jerusalem, 1988

My very 1st project for a client, who was also a friend, mostly revolved around solving a major problem in a battle he was having with one of his neighbours who refused, out of principle, any extension whatsoever.  The client’s instructions were that any solution had to be cheap, built fast and made of materials that one could dismantle, in the case of losing the battle.  The intention was to negotiate the extension with the municipality and the neighbour after being completed.

I came up with an idea to build a metal structure of painted iron beams, covered with plastic sheets.  To prevent the noise of raindrops falling on the sheets in winter (there is no drizzle in Jerusalem – just torrential rain), I suggested stretching fairly thick net 20 cm above the white plastic sheets, also providing further protection from the sun’s radiation in summer (the plastic sheets themselves were also designed to reduce the damage from the sun).

Visualisation credits to Yael Reisner Studio.