House Reborn by Spiegel Architects
House reborn: renews a private family house in Israel by Spiegel Architects, led by architect Ron Spiegel, through a careful renovation rather than demolition. The project reshapes an existing split-level home for a couple and their two children, prioritizing light, greenery, and a richer daily routine. Across interior rooms and garden settings, the intervention balances inherited structure with a newly cohesive material palette that threads through every level.
A stepped, illuminated path guides visitors toward an almost seven-meter-high front door, casting soft light across the entry in the evening. Just beyond, generous ceiling height and long views to the garden shift the perception from enclosed split levels to a calm, expansive home.
This house in Israel is a private family residence reworked by Spiegel Architects, with Ron Spiegel directing a year-long renovation of an existing structure. The project keeps the original footprint and split-level logic but rewrites the interior palette to support contemporary living, from the main living room to the triangular backyard. Material choices, color tones, and crafted joinery become the connective tissue between everyday rituals inside and relaxed gatherings outdoors.
Reordering The Heart
The most decisive move shifts the public areas toward the rear, where height and garden contact are strongest. Living room, dining area, and kitchen now share one tall volume, with sloped wooden beams and exposed systems reading as a clear, linear ceiling rhythm. Large openings fitted with Marvin Windows and Doors frame greenery on several sides, so light and shadow move across floors and walls through the day. A travertine-clad media wall with an Ortal fireplace anchors this level, giving the main room a tactile, central focus without closing off the entrance.
Kitchen As Daily Stage
At the core sits the kitchen, developed with Semel Kitchens and tuned precisely to the family’s habits. Tall cabinetry forms a calm backdrop to the room, while generous ceiling height and direct garden access keep this working zone bright and social. Behind the composed front, a full walk-in pantry absorbs storage and equipment, so counters stay clear and the main volume reads as ordered. A dedicated coffee station, planned down to small ritual gestures, underlines how the material envelope supports repeat daily moments rather than one-off spectacle.
Tones, Textures, And Light
Natural materials set the atmosphere from entry to upper levels. Bleached wood ceilings and window frames reveal their grain, softening the tall rooms while keeping the structure visually legible. Lightly smoked oak flooring grounds each level, giving a continuous underfoot texture that connects the reworked hierarchy of rooms. Sand, coffee, and off-white tones run through walls, cabinetry, and textiles, creating warmth without heaviness and letting daylight, rather than color contrast, do most of the visual work. This restrained palette allows the preserved split-level organization to feel coherent and contemporary at once.
Garden Rooms Outside
Outdoors, the material language extends into a triangular backyard that reads as a series of open-air rooms. A covered swimming pool anchors one side, with lounge areas positioned to keep views back toward the tall living room openings. The outdoor kitchen, clad in natural travertine, echoes the interior media wall, so cooking and gathering outside feel like a direct continuation of the main floor. Planting and hardscape sit within the same sand and stone spectrum, tying the irregular plot into the house’s calmer interior world.
As day fades, the stepped approach, high door, and tall interior volume reconnect visitors to the house’s layered history. The retained structure, reworked rooms, and consistent palette hold traces of the original home while supporting an updated way of living. Every surface, from bleached ceilings to travertine edges, quietly reinforces that balance between continuity and change.
Photography courtesy of Spiegel Architects
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