When BIG Shopping Centers and Africa Israel came together under one roof, the challenge extended beyond designing a new headquarters. The project had to create a shared environment for two established real-estate organizations, each with its own identity and culture, while giving them a new spatial framework in which to coexist.
Rather than approaching the 6,000-square-meter workplace as a conventional corporate interior, RD&A conceived it as a sequence of spaces that unfolds through movement. Architecture becomes a means of orientation: shifts in light, material, scale and perspective guide people through the building, replacing the rigid hierarchies and predictable circulation often associated with large headquarters.
The arrival space forms the project’s conceptual and social heart. Rather than functioning simply as a reception area, it was designed as an internal urban space, a generous volume where circulation, informal meetings, and moments of pause overlap. From here, views extend across the surrounding landscape while connections to the different working areas remain visible, allowing the entrance to act simultaneously as threshold, meeting place and point of orientation.
Throughout the interior, openness is balanced by a series of more intimate spaces embedded within the larger architectural framework. Lounges and informal meeting areas sit alongside focused work environments, creating different degrees of privacy without fragmenting the overall space. The intention was to allow employees to move naturally between collective and individual modes of working throughout the day.
Materiality reinforces this sense of contrast. Dark, monolithic surfaces sit against lighter, more tactile finishes, while carefully controlled natural and artificial light adds depth to an intentionally restrained palette. Rather than relying on decorative gestures or overt corporate branding, identity emerges through proportion, repetition, material transitions and the experience of moving through the space.
The result is a headquarters shaped less by the image of the traditional office and more by the rhythms of everyday occupation. Architecture provides the framework, while people, movement and changing patterns of use continually redefine it.
For RD&A, the project reflects a broader question surrounding contemporary workplace design: how can a large corporate environment maintain clarity and presence without becoming rigid? At BIG + AFI, the answer lies in architecture that is deliberately quiet, one designed not simply to make an impression on arrival, but to remain relevant through daily use and change over time.
Design:
Photography:
The post appeared first on .
Related Posts
