Start-Up Nation Central Headquarters

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

Tel Aviv, Israel - November 26, 2018: Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), an Israel-based NGO that acts as a gateway to Israel's exciting innovation ecosystem, has unveiled its new headquarters designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, an award-winning Israeli architecture practice. Kimmel Eshkolot Architects' latest project, a new hub in the heart of Tel Aviv's buzzing tech district, breaks new ground in fusing design concept with organizational mission. The innovative project creates a modern and living building for the nonprofit organization's mission to support Israel as a thriving innovative nation, globally recognized as such.

Kimmel Eshkolot Architects converted a freestanding six-story building to create working spaces, conference rooms, hosting floors and exhibition areas tailored to the meeting of two worlds: Israeli startups and global entities seeking innovation. The firm's design program begins a new chapter in Start-Up Nation Central's work, helping international organizations and businesses discover Israel's innovative technology sector, and to support the Israeli innovation ecosystem through community work and sector development.

The design team of the Start-Up Nation Central Headquarters was led by Terry Kassel, one of the co-founders of SNC and chairman of its board. The building's internal spatial layout creates a living organism with each level dedicated to a different function of the organization's work. The building is designed in three parts, a lower level for the ecosystem and a top level for global delegations. A middle level, occupied by Start-Up Nation Central staff, serves as the connecting tissue between the lower and upper levels-- between the ecosystem and the world.

Beneath the entrance lobby, the basement floor is a hybrid hub made up of an event space that can hold up to 120 people, 3 nooks, and a large 12-seat conference room. These facilities can be used for meetups, conferences, lectures, and workshops. A large interactive screen on the main wall is connected directly to live data from Start-Up Nation Finder, an innovation discovery platform that maps Israel's tech ecosystem in real time.

A ground floor restaurant accessed via a separate public entrance on Tel Aviv's storied Lilienblum Street, will feature rotations of promising young chefs in a pop-up restaurant concept. The initiative connects naturally with Tel Aviv as a food innovation hub, as the chefs will always be changing and the menu regenerating.

The first floor is another hybrid space, with 3 meeting rooms, several open-plan work desks, a small lounge space in the middle, and a large classroom, named after Marie Curie, where up to 25 people can sit in classroom chairs with retro-style folding notebook panels. Large glass windows encompass the entire space.

Levels two and three provide a home for SNC's employees and are the heart and daily operations of the organization. Kimmel Eshkolot Architects' design of the work spaces oscillates between a formal and laid-back environment with sleek transparent glass offices, wooden finishes and carefully aligned barriers providing a dual sense of open work flow and individual spatial privacy. The architectural configuration and internal design language speaks to the needs of the tech world - quiet productivity open to bursts of creative energy -- and aspires for precision and practicality. The transparent glass exterior provides views of downtown Tel Aviv's skyscraper skyline and neighboring eclectic 20th century buildings.

On the upper floors of the building, levels four and five host SNC's international delegations and visitors. Because hosting high-level delegations of business and government leaders is such a critical part of what SNC does, extra efforts were made to ensure that the building has an open and inviting atmosphere for guests should they be in the country for a few hours or a few days.

A glass pixel wall of screens installed within the fourth floor provide ongoing and real time information about the Israeli innovation ecosystem, and display personalized programs for site-specific meetings and engagements. Several digital and physical exhibition areas focusing on Israeli innovation line the floor, with a staircase leading to the fifth floor where SNC's central meeting room - the J.R.R. Tolkien conference room -- is located. The fourth floor leads out onto a large canopied rooftop terrace that frames the view of Tel Aviv's Mediterranean Sea coastline.

Kimmel Eshkolot Architects' design of the Start-Up Nation Central Headquarters is intended to bridge the Israeli tech ecosystem and the world, allowing the organization to showcase the breadth of its offerings and create customized engagements for global decision makers.

"Start-Up Nation Central wanted a space that reflects its identity as a place that connects the Israeli innovation ecosystem to the world and where the world connects to the ecosystem," said Etan Kimmel, CEO of Kimmel-Eshkolot Architects, who oversaw the renovation project. "We didn't want the chaos that start-ups live in, so much as a calmer environment that suits SNC's higher mission."

As a philanthropy-funded public-benefit organization, SNC is independent and unconflicted, making it uniquely placed to leverage its in-depth knowledge of Israel's powerful innovation sector to connect business leaders, governments, and NGOs from across the globe to the most relevant people and technologies that can address their most pressing challenges.

SNC's new home is durable by design -- it's designed to host hundreds of people every day in a comfortable and professional setting. There will be a revolving calendar of activities such as hackathons and other meet-ups. Finally, there are green concepts incorporated throughout the building, including an agricultural garden and mini-urban farm on the roof. "The building is a great place to try out all of these experiments,' Mr. Kimmel said. "It's an innovative space and it's unlike any of the other projects we've worked on."

Project credits
Project: Start-Up National Central Headquarters, Tel Aviv
Client: Start Up Nation Central, Tel Aviv
Architect: Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, Tel Aviv. Etan Kimmel, Limor Amrani, More Gelfand, Yoav Ronat
In collaboration with: Matei, New York. Corvin Matei
Main Contractor: A.Weiss
Project Management: Yaron-Levy
Lighting Design- office: Asaf Ben Asher
Lighting design- restaurant: Orly Avron Alkabes
Construction engineer: Rami Ballas
Air Conditioning: S. Anavi
Electricity: Asaf Ben Asher
Kitchen design: DC Design Culinar
Plumbing: Igal Czerniak
Acoustics: Mem Gimel Acoustics
Safety: Efi Sher
Graphic Design: Reut Ashkenazy
IT& AV: Arrownet
Size: 2,900 square meters (approximately 31,215 square feet)