“Heart of The City”, Titanium Wall.
Heart of the City or Rova Lev Ha’ir, is an über-posh real estate project in the heart of Tel Aviv.
I was asked to produce a titanium cladding on number of adjacent curved walls in the lobby of the spa there.
The underlying walls were already erected, but all the other details waited to be solved.
The material and the location in large extent defined for me the details: Identical rectangular panels with flat seams.
The cutting pattern of the panels was modified from the common pattern; all cut edges folded under – so accidental hand brush would not result in an injury. The long seams were receded to soften the stark lines and to hide the sharp metal corners; the vertical seams left as simple 180 deg fold.
The rows of panels were laid in deliberately “random” diagonal, to eliminate the disturbing accidental line-ups with other lines in the lobby.
The vertical seams staggered off-center, at about 1/4 for the same reason.With the start of installation the titanium panels proved to be too stiff to conform to curve. In order to solve this problem, they were re-cut to half their length. Still, in some areas it was not enough, therefore some panels were additionally pre-rolled to conform to the curve.
The work itself was slow, with constant attention to detail. Whatever you do to the metal, it won’t forgive you.
No “Eight Feet Rule” to hide behind.
This set of photos is taken 5 years after the installation. It all looks as on the day one.
