House of Oberson: Crafting 'Homes'
Blending the Contemporary and the Powerful Past
I was honored to sit on a panel - House of Oberson: A Design Legacy - in celebrating the newly-published monograph by architect Dana Oberson (founder of Oberson Archtiects), an old friend and one of Israel’s leading design figures. On the panel was her father, fashion legend Gideon Oberson and desigenr Erez Nevi Pana, who collaborated with her on Bedouin-crafted textiles for the Six Senses Shaharut Hotel, famously inserted in the Negev desert. A few paragraphs from my introduction:
“Architecture is a strange profession that does not allow its practitioners to matureearly. Indeed, it requires an enormous body of work to be recognized, and long andextensive experience to achieve a reputation and to substantiate new visions.But unlike fashion, buildings are not dresses, and it takes years to completearchitectural projects. To Oberson, to be an architect means that one has to slowlygrow within, as she enjoys embracing the process and progress of the profession.Dana Oberson is the quintessential architect for the twenty-first century. Oberson’sarchitecture, whether private, public, or commercial, glorifies the roots ofInternational Style as it was developed in her homeland, Israel, during its goldenage of the 1930s, merging modernism with environmentalism. The local landscapethat surrounds her, she believes, is the most substantial agent for forging personallanguage and layered interiors and architecture, filled with meanings and narratives,as reflected across her portfolio. While celebrating her own design mantra, shetakes pride in making an “Israeli” architecture of continuity, soundly inserted in site,context, climate, and genius loci (aka the spirit of the place).
A native of Ramat Hasharon, Dana Oberson grew up surrounded by the localworld of fashion. Her father, Israel’s leading fashion designer, Gideon Oberson,recognized globally for his swimwear creations, raised his two daughters in hiscouture house. Oberson honed her skills at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Designin Jerusalem. After graduating in 1995, she joined the studio of Saadya Mandel,the late Tel Aviv–based architect who had taken a leading role in the preservationand restoration of urban plans and landmark buildings, working on some of the mostambitious projects of his time, spanning the country from Jaffa to Jerusalem, from Hebron to Safed.
indows, long, narrow, semicovered balconies, and crispy, geometric staircases,all of which became the ethos of the unique local interpretation of the moderncity. She finds her inspiration by walking through the old parts of Tel Aviv, built byarchitects who fled Nazi-occupied Europe and who built simple, white apartmentblocks just like those built in Germany by the pioneers of the Modern Movement.One such site is Dizengoff Square, the white circular plaza, designed in the 1940sby Genia Averbuch, a Russian-born female architect who won the prestigiouscompetition over the design of Tel Aviv’s main square.
To her, learning from this powerful past and its political and historical narrative,as well as from familiar architectural traditions, is a way of expanding herunderstanding of possibilities without abandoning conventions. It is the “charisma”of the aged façades and the volumetric quality of the city’s earliest buildings thatconstitute her most substantial sources of inspiration. This architecture, she says,makes her feel connected and inspired. Her 2023 Penthouse in Central Tel Aviv ischaracterized by distinctive balconies, integral to the ethos of life in the city’s earlyyears. Hers is a contemporary interpretation, making the outdoor space 50 percentof the entire apartment’s square footage. In this duplex, where she sought to createa refuge loft for empty nesters, the outdoor space has come to define the lifestyle ofthe new Israeli urban home.”
The book, featuring some of Oberson’s most recent projects, is now avaialble in Amazon.
