Lessons in DIY Design

I first heard about Yona3 from my neighbor Miry who popped into their studio out of curiosity when walking around our area of Tel Aviv several months ago. I staked out the place myself a while ago too, but did not decide to go inside and introduce myself until this week. The studio is a small loft space at 1 Ahuzat Bait Street, at street-level in the shadow of the neighborhood’s landmark Shalom Tower.

Walking through the already open door, I was greeted by Ayal Segev and Yasha Goman, who were sitting with their Macintosh computers at the work table they built using two carpenters’ saw-horses and a large slab of translucent corrugated pvc.

I told them I was interested in whatever it is they do, because at this point I wasn’t exactly sure. I just knew I loved the way they had set up their studio, for which they intentionally chose a location on the street because they like having walk-in visitors. Turns out they are a team of three architects who recently graduated from the program at Bezalel and had also each studied abroad in different locations. They decided together to skip the three-year internship that is customary for architecture grads in Israel because they wanted to break away from the established building and design methods here.

They were able to win a bid for a contract to design a development of 13 semi-detached homes in Hod Hasharon as their first major project, which they are currently working on alongside a few other endeavors. Their design philosophy encompasses the entire process of creating a space, especially finding inexpensive materials and configuring them for easy assembly. “We refuse to allow building companies and contractors to constrain our creativity and eat up project budgets”, they explained. And they went on to demonstrate these ideas via a tour of their own work space. Using some old materials and simple raw elements, they were able to renovate the space on their own, and only needed to hire a handyman to help out with some of the carpentry.

The studio was previously a restaurant, with all the conventional types of covering and fixtures you see in most homes and commercial spaces—a sheet rock facade on certain walls, drop ceilings, tile floors. The guys wanted a rough-and-ready aesthetic, or as they put it, “we wanted to reset the space to its original state”. They stripped out any non-functional elements leaving a concrete floor, exposed wires, and bare walls. The light fixtures that went with the drop ceilings are now hanging from wires, and the ladder they use to reach the top shelves of their industrial steel bookcases gives the place a playful “under construction” feel.

Most of the furniture in the studio was built from scratch to fit into specific places. Iron railings with steel cables strung through them, like you would see in many upscale modern spaces, were built for a fraction of the cost you would pay a contractor. Floor lamps, sometimes used outside for parties, were very simply constructed from existing light fixtures, rigged plastic sheeting, and a few screws and bolts.

Upstairs, Igor Shevchenko was working on a topographic model, which the team is using for their entry in a competition to design a new city hall for Eilat. We looked at another design element they built from scratch, a long aluminum shelf anchored into the wall for their kitchen area. There’s also an old refrigerator (one of those cool 1950′s ones with rounded corners) that they rescued and painted gray—it fits in beautifully.

I asked if they take smaller projects for everyday consumers, and these guys are ready for anything. Custom furniture, additions and renovations, they can do it all. Take a look at these pictures of a rooftop kitchen and laundry room that was built for a friend. Again, they used simple materials like wood and aluminum cut to size and then assembled onsite. Ayal explained that they did not want to use any paint for this structure because it is very close to beach, and the salinity in the air would corrode the paint. I’m really impressed by how simple this setup is, but it still has character and looks comfortable.

To see more projects by Yona3, check out their website or drop by the studio sometime!