Boyan and Gita Dulitz asked Boyan’s father, architect Benjamin Dulitzused to realize their vision in bricks and mortar when building their home.
By GLORIA DEUTSCHNatural wood in similar shades adds warmth to a home that could have been seen as cold and minimalist(photo credit: URIEL MESSA)
When your father is an architect, you don’t have to look very far to find someone to design the house of your dreams.That’s what Boyan and Gita Dulitz discovered when they set about building their home in Kfar Menahem five years ago and asked Boyan’s father, Benjamin Dulitz to realize their vision in bricks and mortar.Benjamin is a senior architect in the well-known firm of Eli Arnon, a prize-winning company which has produced some outstanding public buildings. The synagogue at training base Bahad 1 comes to mind.For this project he turned his talents to creating a home for his son, daughter-in-law and two small grandchildren that would fulfill all their expectations.“We wanted clean lines and minimal fuss,” explains Boyan, “but at the same time, we wanted to create a warm family home.”The decision to build in Kfar Menahem, a kibbutz not far from Kiryat Gat with a section set aside for private building, was taken among other reasons because of the good education known to be available in the area.“We told my father what we were looking for and the whole dynamic between architect and client was very simple, because we were not strangers and did not have to get to know each other,” explains Boyan, himself a building engineer who was able to construct the plans his father designed into the warm family home pictured here.“The house definitely has some Bauhaus influence,” says Boyan, “although people passing by and looking at the façade consider it very modern.”To bring in warmth to counteract what could be a cold minimalist look, they introduced many features of natural wood in similar shades. The dining room is furnished with an all-wood table and chairs, the living room has a wooden coffee table and wooden “cube” furniture. Touches of wood are on the staircase, the steps and all the doors. Not all the wood finishes used are the same – some are walnut, some African walnut, some beech – but the shades blend together pleasantly.The all-wood picture at the entrance, made by Benjamin, contains all these different woods in a geometric pattern, but if one looks closely they can detect a hidden message of love inside the work of art: four vertical lines at the center of the painting, which represent the two parents and two children living within the four walls of the house.“My father even left a space in the middle for more children,” says Boyan with a huge smile.To complement the wood, the floors are covered in a pearly natural stone called Talmina, which is found near Hebron. It’s similar to the more familiar Hebron stone, but smoother and with a cleaner finish.The air conditioner on the east wall of the lounge is set into a shallow niche camouflaged with a large yellow panel, which also introduces an element of warmth and cheer into the room. Underneath stands a piece of furniture for which they searched for a long time. It’s a storage sideboard painted in multicolored vertical stripes that they finally found in ID Design.Raw concrete has been left as the finish of choice in several places – up the stairs and particularly as a background for the wooden family picture. A niche next to the stairs holds a glass-fronted heater that reflects part of the room.Lighting is mainly provided by spots on the ceiling and walls, to avoid the need for electric flexes. Between the kitchen and staircase, a half wall was constructed to disguise the fact that there is a supporting column here.“In many ways we prefer the wall there, as you don’t see the kitchen the minute you walk in,” says Boyan. “It’s also handy for hanging the picture my father made.”The house is also designed to ensure that the hot summer sun does not enter and heat up the house. All the windows facing south are set back, almost as though they are wearing hats that shade from the sun. In the winter, when the sun is lower, heat enters to warm the rooms. Minimal windows to east and west also keep the heat out when necessary.The pergola shading the large front balcony is made from steel, and has an attractive geometric design fitting in well with the straight lines of the home.On the northern side, where the back walls are painted in light and dark gray, another balcony clearly shows the intrinsically straight geometric lines on which the design of the house is based.Although it’s close to 100 years old, one could say that Bauhaus design is alive, well and very visible in Kfar Menahem.
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