Mehoz Hefetz

Ezri Tarazi, Divided City, 2015

The table’s design reflects the geopolitical situation of the divided city of Jerusalem. The table top is made up of a puzzle of twenty parts of typical Jerusalem objects from the Old City. The items are separated from each other according to streets marked on a map of the city. An opening mechanism divides tabletop in two by raising the serving areas and moving them toward those using the table, as if serving up an offering. On opening the table, the map splits in two to produce a tangible expression of the divided city. Thus, when the table is closed it emphasizes the beauty of the city as a whole consisting of many multi-faceted parts; however, when the table is in use its top is no longer a single unbroken surface, the mechanism is revealed and its aesthetic appearance is spoiled for the viewer.

design assistants

Nir Amir, Avi Fedida, Sharon Sides, Inbal Yannai

production

Avi Fedida Studio, Haeli Metals, Tarazi Studio

Materials

Parts of items made of different materials such as glass, wood, marble, pottery, leather, galvanized iron, and copper

Technique

Welding and soldering, milling and machining, hand cutting, and CNC cutting

Ezri Tarazi, Maqam/Makom (Place), 2015

Maqam (the Arabic word for ‘place’) is the system of melodic modes and structures used in traditional Arabic music. The table pays homage to two traditions that are often combined at social gatherings: Coffee drinking and making music together. The table contains twelve shallow cavities for coffee cups and an additional one for a coffee pot. A cup placed in one of the cavities completes an electric circuit between two copper conductors, activating a musical ‘loop’. Each cavity causes a different sound to be produced by a single musical instrument. Like a band made up of different musicians, each cup joining the social circle contributes to the musical richness of the sound track being played in the background. The table emphasizes the complex beauty of a joint group creation.

design assistants

Nir Amir, Avi Fedida, Noam Yaish, Inbal Yannai

Programing and sound

Noam Yaish

production

Avi Fedida Design Studio; Amir Zobel, Digital Workshop of the Master’s Degree in Industrial Design at Bezalel; Cut-Art Laser Technologies Ltd.; Hansen Center for Design, Media and Technology; Tarazi Design Studio

Materials

Two-ply walnut wood, laser-cut copper bands, glass cups with copper bases, metal frame and legs, speaker, player, and control panel

Technique

Laser cutting, metal spinning, machining and milling, manual wood turning, and CNC cutting and machining

Ezri Tarazi, Dirt from Your Earth, 2015

The table is made up of a group of deep wheel-turned bowls shaped like amphorae, the pottery vessels used to store perishable goods in antiquity. Once common in the eastern Mediterranean basin, similar vessels have also been found in archaeological excavations in Jerusalem’s Old City. The bowls in the table are made of porcelain clay mixed with soil from the Temple Mount excavations. The cracks formed while firing the vessels were deliberately retained as a reminder of the raw clay material. Because of their pointed bases, the bowls can only stand when inserted in special holes in the metal plate that forms the base of the table. The table’s design reflects two issues. One is the political-religious issue, signified by the origin of the raw material – a controversial historical and archaeological site; the other is the cultural aspect – the tradition, common in Mediterranean countries, of providing refreshments in numerous small bowls.

design assistants

Avi Fedida, Michal Liberman, Inbal Yannai

production

Avi Fedida Design Studio; Cut-Art Laser Technologies Ltd.; Michal Liberman, workshops of the Ceramics and Glass Design Department, Bezalel

Materials

Soil from the Temple Mount (stored and sieved using different-sized meshes), porcelain, steel

Technique

Pottery wheel throwing, laser cutting, powder coating

Ezri Tarazi, Zion Bloc, 2015

The Zion Bloc table is designed as a solid entity with clean lines that form a geometric abstraction of a map of the Old City. The table’s base is narrower than its top, and the structure can be viewed converging downward to form a kind of inverse projection of the city’s map. In contrast, when the table is viewed from below toward its top it seems to be in an upward thrust, from the earthly level of the city to its heavenly level – a visual depiction of the ‘Heavenly Jerusalem’. Despite its bulky appearance, the table only weighs 15 kg and is light and easily carried.

design assistants

Avi Fedida

production

Avi Fedida Design Studio and workshops of the Industrial Design Department, the Polonsky Digital Prototyping Center, Bezalel

Materials

Black oxidized iron

Technique

Laser cutting on wood, water-jet cutting on glass

Ezri Tarazi, Excavations, 2015

The table provides an exaggerated depiction of the archaeological excavations that are frequently carried out in the Old City, initiated by different political and religious factions. It reflects a hypothetical situation in which the excavations have become detached from their original purpose – of excavation and preservation – to become an end in itself. The table’s design resembles a model of an archaeological site. Its main part consists of layers of soil gradually funneling downward, supporting a glass surface resembling the glass floors at archaeological sites that allow visitors to view the excavations. The form of the table resembles an abandoned futuristic mine, portraying the dystopian world of a city that has been totally abandoned after being completely excavated.

design assistants

Avi Fedida, Nurit Greenberg, Inbal Yannai

production

Avi Fedida Studio, Tarazi Studio

Materials

Birch plywood, 6 mm tempered glass

Technique

Laser cutting, metal welding and cutting, glass water-jet cutting

Ezri Tarazi, Dressed Stone, 2015

The Dressed Stone table evolved from studying the material that is perhaps most identified with the city – Jerusalem Stone. It was partially cut mechanically from a block of stone and partially hand dressed. Consequently, the upper part of the table is worked to a smooth and shiny finish, whereas its lower part remains unrefined with a rough, coarse texture. The table was made at the Jerusalem Limestone factory, the first modern stone industry in Israel, established in 1923. The factory has provided stone for some of Jerusalem’s most distinguished projects, including Israel’s Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the Temple Mount Plaza, and the Hurva Synagogue.

design assistants

Nir Amir, Baruch Mogilevsky, Noga Shimshon, Inbal Yannai

production

A. Grebelsky & Son Jerusalem Limestone.

Materials

Limestone

Technique

Computerized sawing, hand dressing, and mechanical polishing

Ezri Tarazi, Bars, 2015

The table is made of a variety of bars covered with glass surfaces at different levels, expressing the changing contours in the city’s topography. The designs of the bars are based on photographs of original door and window bars found in the Old City and were produced to a special order by using laser-cutting files sent to the manufacturer. The houses of the Old City, like many public buildings in Jerusalem, commonly have bars across the doors or windows that are embellished with symbolic ornamentation, decorations, and texts with different meanings. One sometimes finds bars in different styles incorporated side-by-side in a single building. This is usually due to economic considerations, yet it also provides evidence of the range of cultures in the different parts of the city.

design assistants

Avi Fedida, Inbal Yannai

production

Avi Fedida Design Studio; the Digital Workshop of the Master’s Degree in Industrial Design, Bezalel

Materials

Iron, glass

Technique

Laser cutting, water-jet cutting, glass tempering, welding, and powder coating.

Ezri Tarazi, Voronoi, 2015

A Voronoi diagram is a method of mathematical calculation based on partitioning a plane into polygons based on their distance from sample points in the plane. Voronoi patterns tend to breakup continuity and expand. They occur in different natural structures such as animals, plants, and the basic elements. In designing the table, data from a map of the city was translated with the use of a Voronoi diagram – first to a two-dimensional diagram and then to a model produced with a three-dimensional printer. The resulting table has a rhizomatic structure whose form resembles a multi-branched tangle. The table’s design was inspired by the future demographic changes anticipated in the Old City regarding the population’s future growth and obvious trends in its segmentation.

design assistants

Avi Fedida, Shy Tavori

production

Printed with a Creator 3D printer

Materials

3D printing polymer, metal

Technique

3D printing on an object printer

Ezri Tarazi, Remapping, 2015

The design of the table relates to the alterations imposed on the topography of Jerusalem by different factors at work in the city that are attempting to fundamentally change it – either by new construction or by the destruction and appropriation of existing buildings. A map of the buildings of the Old City is projected onto the tabletop, above which a three-dimensional sensor detects any objects moving in the space surrounding it. Hands moving over the table cause the buildings on the map to regroup, thus creating a new map. This optical mechanism depicts the city as a dynamic place, subject to frequent changes that are often caused by the different populations making up the human fabric of the city.