E30 – House in Caesarea by Raz Melamed. Architect
E30 – House in Caesarea sits in Caesarea, Israel, by architect Raz Melamed as a pool-centered house conceived first as a weekend retreat. The project grows into a full-time home for an extended family, where a disciplined structural idea and a restrained interior palette hold together generous rooms for gathering and quiet corners for rest. Calm surfaces and one decisive black beam tie every level into a clear, legible whole.
Travertine paving runs unbroken from interior floor to garden terrace, drawing the eye straight to the water’s edge, where the pool sits flush with the lawn. Above, a single black steel line cuts across rooms and façade, holding together living areas, terraces and pergola in one continuous structural stroke.
This is a house in Caesarea, Israel, planned as a pool-first retreat and developed by architect Raz Melamed into a full-time residence for an extended family. The real estate type is a private house, yet its sequence of public rooms, leisure levels and outdoor kitchens reads with the clarity of a small resort. One decisive beam organises structure, plan and daily movement so that every route, view and gathering zone relates back to the water.
Public areas sit beneath a double-height ceiling, stacked as a run of dining and living settings aligned with the long edge of the pool. The black steel beam, 44 centimetres tall, traces this volume at eye level, dividing the glazed façade horizontally but keeping an open band of sky in view. Families step from travertine interior to travertine terrace without a threshold, so social life drifts easily between sofa, dining table and poolside seats.
Beam Drives The Plan
Rather than hiding the main structural member, the architect treats the exposed black beam as an armature for rooms, levels and circulation. Inside, it becomes a bridge that links the staircase landing to the bedroom wing, turning a structural span into the walkway that ties generations together. In the living room, the beam slices the tall glass elevation into two precise bands and fixes the project’s linear geometry, so furniture and lighting align with a clear datum.
Toward the garden, the same line extends outward to hold a cantilevered pergola without perimeter columns. Shade falls across outdoor seating while uninterrupted views run from interior sofa to pool’s far edge. The structural gesture therefore sets both the proportions of the main volume and the experience of sitting, crossing and looking out.
Envelope Frames Interior Life
From the street, a white plaster façade with horizontal joints and vertical wooden slats sets a quiet, ordered face. Those timber elements do more than soften the elevation; they screen the stair from direct view and promote natural ventilation through the depth of the house. Once inside, the same vocabulary continues as wood, black metal and neutral surfaces, so movement from threshold to living areas unfolds in a steady material rhythm.
Travertine flooring ties interior rooms to garden terraces, while the kitchen reads as a deliberate centerpiece along this route. Parallel counters and an island with white Corian worktops handle cooking and serving, and a tall wooden façade conceals storage and mechanical systems behind one calm plane. That full-height surface rises into the double-height volume and intersects the black beam, marking where daily work meets the house’s primary structural line.
Rooms For Generations
The ground-floor master suite opens directly onto the pool, so early-morning light and water become part of its daily routine. Parquet flooring sets a warmer tone here, shifting away from the cooler travertine underfoot in the public areas. In the adjoining bathroom, travertine planes meet black granite walls, black fittings and white Corian fixtures, giving bathing a clear, almost graphic composition.
Upper levels and basement deepen the program with additional bedrooms and leisure rooms for children and grandchildren. A home cinema and games room sit alongside sleeping areas, all linked by floating black steel stairs and a glass-railed bridge that repeat the project’s structural clarity at a finer grain. Layered lighting, mixing suspended fixtures with recessed spotlights, adapts these volumes for gathering, play and quiet nights.
Pool As Centerpiece
Outside, several seating zones, an open-air kitchen and the travertine-clad swimming pool form one continuous ground plane. The water sits level with the garden, so children move straight from grass to shallow edge, and adults walk barefoot without stepping down. Minimal planting keeps sightlines open and lets the dark steel, pale plaster and stone surfaces set the character of the plot.
As the day shifts, light tracks along the length of the beam, marking time across pergola, bridge and living room ceiling. The family house reads as a clear composition: one pool, one structural line, and a series of generous rooms that all turn back toward water and garden.
Photography by Amit Geron
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