In an original brutalist building from the 1960s, architecture studio Daniel Azerrad Architects has transformed a space that previously served as a high school into a new technology hub for the city of Ashdod, in Israel.

With the intention of consciously creating a new historical layer, the project repurposes the original building. The intervention is part of a new initiative that seeks to revive old abandoned schools with a new educational program composed of laboratories and workshops that promote various fields of research.

The intervention by Daniel Azerrad Architects preserves the essence of the original building, reorganizing its spaces, as well as adding a new communications core and a multifunctional room in the central courtyard. Like a slightly rotated red box, the new room creates a subtle gesture that breaks with the orthogonality of the building's original structure.

The building, characterized by grey concrete, with its aesthetic of imperfection, contrasts with the bright, reflective and perfectly smooth red box in the central courtyard, as well as the green at the entrance, violet on the first floor and yellow on the second, creating a play of colours that enriches the architectural experience.

Centro Tecnológico - Ashdod por Daniel Azerrad Architects. Fotografía por Amit Geron.

Technological Center - Ashdod by Daniel Azerrad Architects. Photograph by Amit Geron.

Project description by Daniel Azerrad Architects

This 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 a secondary school. In recent years, only a third of the building continued to function as secondary school, while the rest was abandoned.

Intervening in an existing project presents a great dilemma. When approaching this great 1960s brutalist structure, the goal was to consciously create a new historical layer. Our strategy was to REUSE (ARD) the original building in a way that is responsible, respectable, generous and unique.

Centro Tecnológico - Ashdod por Daniel Azerrad Architects. Fotografía por Amit Geron.
Technological Center - Ashdod by Daniel Azerrad Architects. Photograph by Amit Geron.

The Technological 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 multi-purpose room.

The original partition was classic: a covered central patio surrounded by hallways and classrooms facing the outside. For the spaces facing to the south elevation (extremely hot for most of the year) we proposed to move the hallway to the south façade and in this way the laboratories would face the central space. The hallway serves as a heat protector and can also be used as an intermediate space for students. The laboratories and classrooms face the north, enjoy soft light and are completely glazed.

Centro Tecnológico - Ashdod por Daniel Azerrad Architects. Fotografía por Amit Geron.
Technological Center - Ashdod by Daniel Azerrad Architects. Photograph by Amit Geron.

In the heart of the atrium we locate the multi-purpose room. A box with a Danpal red skin, it is conceived as an allegory to technology. The grey concrete, with its aesthetics of imperfection, is contrasted by the red box, shiny, reflective and perfectly smooth. The box, slightly rotated, creates a subtle gesture in order to break the orthogonality of the structure.

The interior façade was created by closing the open hallways with a UGLASS-profile glazed skin.

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.

Centro Tecnológico - Ashdod por Daniel Azerrad Architects. Fotografía por Amit Geron.
Technological Center - Ashdod by Daniel Azerrad Architects. Photograph by Amit Geron.

Each floor is characterized by a specific color. Green at the entrance, violet on first floor and yellow on 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.

More information

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Architects
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Daniel Azerrad Architects. Lead Architects.- Daniel Azerrad.

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Project team
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Hila David, Shoham Ben Hamo, Noya Moran, Danel Vasana, Itzik Ohayon.

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Collaborators
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Structure Engineer.- Eran Schiller.
Project Manager.- Miky Gronsky.
HVAC Consultants.- Eyal Niv.
Concrete Conservation Consultant.- Luis Bosernitzan.
Landscape Architecture.- Noga Alter.
Fire Safety Consultant.- Dany Levin.
Electrical Engineer.- G.B. Engenier Ltd.
Acoustic Engineer.- B.G.Acoustic Consultants.

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Client
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Ashdod Town Hall.

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Builder
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Sh.A.Y. Enterprises & Investment Ltd.

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Area
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3,000 sqm.

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Dates
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2019-2023.

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Location
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Ashdod, Israel.

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Manufacturers
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Danpalon.- Danpal Skylife.
Uglass profile.- Winnex.
HPL Cladding.- Cubes.

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Photography
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Daniel Azerrad Architects, is an architecture practice located in Tel Aviv, founded in 2015 by architect Daniel Azerrad. The firm is currently involved in setting up many projects – mostly residential and public buildings for leading public institutions and private initiatives. Azerrad investigates the capabilities of the sketch to generate and develop architecture. From 2000 to 2008 he worked with Phillippe Starck as the local architect on the YOO TLV towers project.

Daniel Azerrad was born in the city of San Juan, Argentina, in 1961. He began studying architecture at FADU Buenos Aires in 1980. In1983 he moved to Israel where he finished his degree at the Technicon in Haifa (1987). After graduation he joined the firm Ram & Ada Karmi Architects to work on the project of The Supreme Court in Jerusalem. In 2011 Daniel moved to Barcelona to get his MA. His thesis dealt with a comparison between the Urban Grid fabric of Barcelona (Cerda) and that of Tel Aviv (Geddes).

Over the years, he has won awards for his work, including the "Design Award 2011", Project of the Year –AIQ (2016, 2017,2020 ) CS & The marker Award for HNM 35 project. He has participated in various competitions, including a public competition to design the Museum of Art in Umm al-Fahm (third place), an invited competition for a residential complex on the Dead Sea (first place).

Daniel Azerrad was invited to the Buenos Aires Biennale 05 BA, CLEFA 09 (La Boca – Buenos Aires) the Design Biennale 2017 FADU in Argentina. He has been invited to lecture on his work in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Cordoba and San Juan. Since 2017 he has been leading a workshop "From Sketch to manifest" focused on the sketch as a way to develop students’ imagination and creativity.

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Published on: January 7, 2025
Cite: "Reuse consciously. Technological Center by Daniel Azerrad Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/reuse-consciously-technological-center-daniel-azerrad-architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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