The ToHA office development transforms a site in central Tel Aviv with two towers and a generous public landscape. Sculpted to meet various site-specific constraints in the local context, volumes are articulated as a stepped facade arrangement. This serves to maximize solar shading and access to natural light. The building has been awarded a LEED Platinum certification.
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The recently completed ToHA office development, is the first phase of a 200,000m² project that will see the transformation of a rarely-available 1.8hectare site in central Tel Aviv - conveniently located close to the city’s largest train station – into two office towers situated within a generous public landscape. It is the first joint venture project between Amot and Gav-Yam, two of the largest investment and development companies in Israel and the surrounding region.
The forms of the two towers (28 and 70 storeys respectively) are sculpted to complement the demands of the various site-specific constraints and local context. The individual volumes are articulated as a stepped facade arrangement, maximising solar shading, while maintaining access to natural light for every desk within the generous floors. The two buildings are elevated upon slim core structures (‘the legs’) within a densely planted landscape, in order to minimise the volumetric and visual impact at ground level, and promote a more comfortable and spacious circulation experience than is usually possible in similarly large developments.
ToHA Phase 1
The 28 storey 53,000m² Phase 1 building runs along the southern and eastern boundaries of the site, and is entered via a unique 30m-tall leaning cable net facade, leading to a seven-storey-high foyer complete with internally planted trees. Above this, a sculptural atrium crowned by a generous skylight extends over 100m to the roof, stepping to the same rhythm as the articulated external facade, and enabling daylight provision to the deeper areas of each floor.
For a building of this scale - with a maximum floor area over 3,000m² - it has a very minimal footprint (1,200m²). Combined with the necessary scale of the cores, Ron Arad Architects’ innovative solution of locating the majority of the building’s MEP/technical plant within these lower floors, frees up large portions of the roof from technical equipment, and enables the creation of additional public spaces. The lower technical floors are clad with a permeable facade of cross-mounted panels, creating an ‘X’ pattern. This woven basket-like arrangement allows for optimal ventilation to the technical areas, and provides a coherent aesthetic to the first seven floors of the building. The roof features two large terraces (north and south facing), a perimeter walkway, and facilities for the operation of up to three restaurants/bars, with incredible views across the city of Tel Aviv towards the Mediterranean.
One of the more noteworthy features of the building is the diversity of its floor layouts, generated by its most pronounced characteristic; the sculptural nature of its unusual volume. This design was developed and optimised over many iterations to satisfy a multitude of considerations. Key reasons included the creation of varying silhouettes on the urban horizon (in response to dialogue with the city), the attenuation of the wind flowing in and around the site, and the maximisation of daylight into deeper areas of the site. In addition, as the needs of contemporary tenants vary and change over time, the building’s interior spaces needed to be inherently adaptable. While no two floors are the same, there is sufficient consistency to enable flexible space planning and varied sub-division possibilities. This flexibility is further augmented by the structural system used; by combining post tensioned slabs, with structural elements along the buildings’ perimeter, the requirement for mid-floor columns is eliminated, freeing tenants to create more personalised layouts. The floors range in area from approximately 1860m² to 3100m², and can be arranged as large open plan spaces, or sub-divided for up to seven tenants per floor.
The building’s environmental approach fuses traditional regional passive solutions, with state-of-the-art, energy saving and intelligent facade systems, and is the result of extensive research and development from inception to completion. It makes significant use of the technological advances affecting working environments, from adaptability and connectivity to comfort and amenities. The project team has also set itself the goal of leading the way in the reduction of the environmental impact large developments bring during construction and throughout their lifetime, and this has been recognised in the building being awarded LEED Platinum Certification.
