World Heritage Site

Timbuktu was a thriving university city for over a thousand years. Historically a seat of Islamic learning, the town had come to house many priceless Islamic texts and books. Written in almost forgotten languages and dialects of North Africa, these priceless but decaying collections were being stored in private homes throughout the city. The Ahmed Baba centre was established to restore this scattered collection. As a result of a visit by the then South African President Thabo Mbeki, and his concern for this African heritage, a presidential project was established as a gift from the people of South Africa to the people of Mali. The world heritage site in the Sankore Precinct occupies a zone between the old mud-brick city and the more m... More

In the heart of Tel Aviv, next to Rothchild Street and the world heritage site of the white city, inside a heritage building from the 30's, a new branch of the Theodor Café -Bistro was put up. Just like the other Theodore Café Bistro in Ramat Ishay, the Tel Aviv one, is also a place of culture. It is a café restaurant that , on the one hand exudes a culinary atmosphere, while, on the other, is leaning on an Israeli cultural foundation from the last 60 years, exhibits in Literature, song, art and architecture, that are displayed on the shelves. This allows one to dine while staying in very special atmosphere. This atmosphere is mainly created by the design that creates an aesthetic drama by the contrasts of the old building and the contempor... More

In his “Atlantida de hormigón”, Reyner Banham posits “a casual connection, conscious and cultural, between modern architecture and industrial utilitarian structures of an industrial epoch”. From Loos and Berhens to Gropius and Le Corbusier among others, in the beginning of the 20th century, a constant back and forth was established between architecture and industrial construction - up until this time marginalized in Architecture - that would continue to be a characteristic of contemporary architecture. To reinvent the industrial world was a task with which architecture had paid back the favor of having been shown the path as to how to disengage of the heavy formal and stylistically weight of almost two centuries of vacuous rhetoric and eccl... More

The new Juliana Bridge lays on a unique location, in a wide bend of the river Zaan at the foot of the historical Zaanse Schans; a Unesco world heritage site. The bridge design is kept purposely modest in order not to compete with the skyline of windmills, small wooden houses and typically Dutch polder land. The bridge is carefully integrated in the surroundings and although the design is contemporary, it is subtle and never overshadows the historical buildings. With an elegant swing it skims low and comfortably over the water, offering the users an unobstructed view of the surroundings. The bridge is supported by a series of elegant piers that are set back from the deck edge, thus allowing a continuous horizontal line for the deck. The d... More

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia sent a request to the Japanese Embassy to build a memorial in commemoration of the 2000th year on the Julian calendar by creating a cultural center that would bridge the two cultures. The site is located in Fassil Ggebbi, a world heritage site in the old imperial capital, Gondar. Our concept was to integrate the 2 cultures architecturally by relocating each countries traditional dwelling to its designated site. A new sense of space and value was created by relocating traditional Japanese dwelling that was no longer in use to an entirely new and social and cultural setting. The Japanese Pavilion operates as a socio-cultural exchange center to home exhibitions and open markets for music, dancing... More