Z-A studio306 West 38th Street

Suite 1007

New York, NY 10018

info@Z-Astudio.com

www.Z-Astudio.com

Who we areWe are a community oriented design firm with a specialty in finding innovative solutions for complex problems.

We bring together a pragmatic outlook and a collaborative approach, which help us produce enriched and

meaningful environments. Our expertise includes: architecture, interior design, exhibition design, graphic de-

sign and product design. Our expansive portfolio ranges from public buildings to retail interiors and from resi-

dential buildings to urban landscapes.

What we doWe create fresh and enduring designs. Our focus on experience is the guiding principal for the way we work

with communities. We believe that diverse and dynamic communities present unique opportunities that can be

exposed through discussion and collaboration. We find unexplored opportunities in what is typically consid-

ered a projects’ constraints. Budget limitations, expedient deployment, universal accessibility or environmental

concerns, are where we find inspiration for our designs. By utilizing our creative talent, we are able to expand

our reading of these constraints and turn them around. The result is an inventive and inclusive experience

which produces holistic and seamless environments.

What others think of our workOur work gained national and international visibility through numerous awards and publications such as; The

New York Times, CNN, Fox TV, Channel 13, Time Magazine, New York Magazine, Dezeen, Huffington Post,

Fast Company, Architectural Record, Frame, Wall Paper, Metropolis, We-Ar, SPA-DE, Mark, Time Out, Archi-

tect’s Newspaper, Haaretz and Marie Claire. Our work was exhibited and acknowledged by various institutions

such as; Venice Biennale, SOFA Chicago, Domotex Hanover, Perspecta Lisbon, Compotec Massa-Carrara,

Municipal Art Society of NY, Columbia University and the Fulbright foundation.

Design Challenge: Renovate a 40 year old, multi-use facility in the East Village of NYC.

Solution: The design celebrates the biggest assets of the Y as a diverse community facility. Through the use of distinct colors to represent various ac-tivities, users can easily identify with the different spaces. For instance, the use of gradient color in the Formica finish in the locker room, both animates the space and creates color coding to differentiate between locker size. This was one of the many ways we created unique results at no additional cost.

Result: The transformation of the fitness center gen-erated 130% increase in membership. The redesign increased fitness equipment use by 25% by merely reorganizing the same square footage.

14th Street Y Community CenterNew York, NY, 2009 Budget: $1.2M Area: 12,000 sq.ft.

Public: Community Center

Public: Community Center

Design Challenge: Design a community center that gives presence to the community and respects the building’s context and environment.

Solution: The building is designed as a continuous loop that sweeps the landscape into the building and out again. The loop building is placed around the perimeter of the site hugging a central court yard.

Result: The loop building blends in with the land-scape. The intricate relation with the landscape cre-ates a variety of outdoor / indoor relations such as Large courtyard and more intimate terraces. Light and views are filtered into the building to empha-size the Sanctuary, Social Hall and Daily Chapel.

Kesher Community CenterEnglewood, NJ, 2009 Budget: $4.5M Area: 18,000 sq.ft.

Public: Recreation Area

Kalahari YardHarlem, NY, 2012Budget: $70,000 Area: 12,000 sq.ft.

Design Challenge: Transform a long and narrow courtyard to a space that encourages Children’s physical activity.

Solution: We took advantage of the long path to encourage movement. “Challenge stations” where placed one after the other provoking kids to pass through each “challenge station” successfully.

Result: The subtle design of the “challenge stations” and the use of materials blend it with its environ-ment. The design received overwhelmingly positive response from the city officials and private develop-ers. It was selected to be published in a book about “Active Design Strategies” which the city and the nation is supporting.

Public: School

Design Challenge: Convert a warehouse into a suit-able environment for a school.

Solution: We utilized the adaptation of existing materials into a new context. Openings and doors were enlarged to generate maximum connectivity between spaces.

Result: The reuse of materials offered a sustainable solution for an affordable cost while maintaining a high level of quality. The enlarged openings allowed for spaces to connect and form one big Gross-Motor space throughout the school, which can close and be divided again into classrooms.

Kesher SchoolSomerville, MA 2012 Budget:$300,000 Area: 6,500 sq.ft.

Press Sample

Press Sample

Press SampleN D11THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2010

By DAVID KAUFMAN

TEL AVIV

DESIGN buffs may swoon over Tel

Aviv’s legendary Bauhaus archi-tecture, but most of the city’sapartment buildings are like theone where Idit Barak, a fashion de-signer, and her husband, Ron Rein-feld, an executive at a high-tech

company, live — big, boxy and boring.Ms. Barak and Mr. Reinfeld’s six-story build-

ing, which was constructed in the 1950s, is on thesouth side of Rabin Square, one of the city’s big-gest public spaces. And their 1,100-square-footapartment, bought in 2008 for $540,000, “was darkand gloomy when we first found it,” Ms. Baraksaid. It was also on the second floor, overlookingbusy Malchei Yisrael Street, so it offered passers-by an irresistible opportunity for voyeurism.

Still, she added, it was “about 40 percent larg-er than other apartments I’d seen for the sameprice.” Rather than fret about the lack of privacy,they decided to embrace it, giving passers-bysomething worth looking at and making “the mostof these incredible Rabin Square views,” she said.

Ms. Barak, 35, who owns two women’s cloth-ing boutiques here called Delicatessen, employedGuy Zucker, the owner of Z-A Studio, the New Yorkfirm responsible for designing her stores, to turnthe apartment’s “small, obscure and unusablerooms” into a bright, unified space that felt morelike a loft.

Mr. Reinfeld, 35, willingly took a backseat dur-ing the design process. “I have no background indesign or architecture,” he said. “So I just trustedin Idit and Guy’s collaboration.”

The renovation, which was completed in 2009for $90,000, focused on creating a sense of trans-

parency. Several internal walls and beams wereremoved to create two sizable bedrooms on oneside of the apartment and an open kitchen, livingand dining area on the other. Heavy plate-glasspanels were used in lieu of conventional sheetrockwalls to define the living area and the master bed-room; in between the two rooms is an interiorcourtyard that faces the street. With no drapes andwhat amounts to a glass facade, the apartmentglows from within at night, offering an illuminatedview of its inhabitants.

“People always say they love the design, butthey could never live with so much glass in themiddle of the city,” Ms. Barak said. “We had noqualms trading privacy for this amazing light.”

It’s a level of exposure that would test theopenness of the most free-spirited couple, but nei-ther Ms. Barak nor Mr. Reinfeld seemed to minduntil three months ago, when their daughter, So-phia, arrived. As the baby grows, Ms. Barak con-ceded, “we may want the option of privacy — per-haps electrical blinds, which still allow for somesort of translucence.”

White walls accentuate the brightness of thespace and provide a simple backdrop for the cou-ple’s modern furnishings — Ikea cabinets ar-

ranged in Tetris-like blocks on the kitchen wall;and in the living room, a sofa from LS Designs inTel Aviv flanked by an Eero Aarnio Ball chair thatwas a wedding gift; and a black leather chair Ms.Barak found on the street and had restored.

The bathroom sink looks modern, but it isoriginal to the apartment. Ms. Barak calls it “thefish sink,” because she imagines it was once usedfor laundry “or to store live fish before they weremade into gefilte fish for Shabbat.” Now it is whereshe gives Sophia a bath.

In the more than 50 years since it was com-pleted, Ms. Barak and Mr. Reinfeld’s building haswitnessed some of the most pivotal moments in Is-raeli history — from the protests during the 1982Lebanon war to the assassination of Prime Min-ister Yitzhak Rabin 13 years later. And while theyare too young to have experienced much of RabinSquare’s past glory, the couple is perfectly posi-tioned to see its future.

“We feel like we have the best seat in thehouse,” Ms. Barak said. “And because the square issuch an important part of the city, we don’t have toworry about waking up one day with a new sky-scraper being built outside our door.”

4.

2.

3.

5. 6.

1.

Focusing Tel Aviv’s Sun

A couple turns big, boxy andboring into a bright space.

And who cares about a littleloss of privacy?

1. Ron Reinfeld and his wife, Idit Barak, sharethe 1,100-square-foot apartment they renovat-ed in Tel Aviv with 3-month-old Sophia.

2. Their six-story building, which was construct-ed in the 1950s, is on the south side of RabinSquare, one of the city’s biggest public spaces.

3. In the master bedroom the furniture wasbuilt by the original contractor in 1958. “Wedecided to save it because it is so well madeand so beautiful,” Ms. Barak said.

4. The Ikea kitchencost about $4,500;the cabinets were ar-ranged in Tetris-likeshapes by Guy Zuck-er, the architect. Thesofa is from LS De-signs in Tel Aviv, andthe leather chair wasfound on the street.

5. The living room andmaster bedroom haveglass walls and sharean interior courtyard.The media cabinetwas designed by Mr.Zucker and custom-made for $3,000; theEero Aarnio Ball chairwas a wedding gift.

6. The bathroom mir-ror was bought at theJaffa flea market for$50. The sink, whichis original to theapartment, was likelyused for laundry orstoring fish, Ms. Baraksaid; it is now used forbathing Sophia.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAHAR TAMIR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

O N L O C AT I O N

Press Sample

Publications Awards and ExhibitionsTELEVISION

2011 Fox News NY, July 20, NewsCore2011 CNN, July 30, Jeff Stein����� �������� ����������������������2011 Cannel 13, July 27M, Metro Focus

BOOKS

2011 Out of the Box, Gestalten, Berlin2011 Top II, Art Power, Hong Kong2010 In Home, Rihan Publishing, Hong Kong2010 Active design Guidelines, New York2010 Public Landscapes2, Rihan Publishing, Hong Kong2009 Public Landscapes, Rihan Publishing, Hong Kong2009 Space X Files, Rihan Publishing, Hong Kong2008 100x400, Rihan Publishing, Hong Kong2008 One Off, Laurence King Publishing, London����� ������������� ��!�!��"���#� �����$ �����%��� ��!�!2006 Dress Code, Frame Publishers, Basel, Boston, Berlin

AWARDS

2010 Israel Architecture, Project of the Year, 2009 Contractworld, Shop Design2009 Exhibitor Magazine, Green Exhibits2009 Israel Architecture, Project of the Year2008 Kesher Community Center2008 14th Street Y Community Center2006 Israel Architecture, Project of the Year2005 Place in History, LIC Grounded competition2004 The Democratic School2004 The Van Alen Inst., LMCC and the Arch League2002 ‘William Kinne’ Fellow Prize1998 The ‘American Israel foundation’1998 IIT Award for ‘Floating Metamorphosis’1997 The ‘IFHP’ International competition Award1997 IIT Industrial Design Award1997 IIT Ingenuity Award1996 IIT Award

EXHIBITIONS

2010 Open House TLV, First Floor Penthouse, Tel Aviv2010 ZEZEZE Gallery, Young Architects, Tel Aviv2009 Contractworld, Shop Design, Hamburg2009 Compotec, Digital Primitive, Massa-Carrara2009 Experimenta, Digital Primitive, Lisbon2009 The Belarus Biannual, Prague Library, Minsk2009 The AIA Gallery, Prague Library, Jaffa2009 The ZEZEZE Gallery, 1st Floor Penthouse, Tel Aviv2008 The Jewish Museum, Off The Wall, New York����� &���'"$��������"�(���)��"�*�+�/�":2005 The Van Alen Institute, Civic Exchange, New York

PERIODICALS

2011 ARTnews / September – New York2011 NRC Handelsblad / August 2 – Amsterdam2011 DeZeen / August 19 – www2011 Time / July – New York2011 Fast Company / August – New York2011 New York Observer / August 02 – New York����� <�=#�%���������>���%�����?�@�+++2011 ArtInfo / August 05 – New York2011 Inhabitat / August 02 – www2011 Designboom / August 02 – www 2011 The Village Voice / July 30 – New York2011 Glamour / July 30 – New York2011 Forbes / July 30 – New York2011 New York Magazine / July 27 – New York����� <�=#�%���������>��� ���?�@�+++2011 Forbes / July 26 – New York2011 Building Design / July 26 – www2011 New York Times / July 26 – New York2011 Dwell / March 10 –San Francisco2011 Space Cool Hunter / March 5 –Rome2011 Space Cool Hunter / Feb 22 –Rome2010 The New York Times / December 1 –New York2010 DeZeen / November 24 –www2010 Metropolis / August 2 –New York2010 Sites Archi / June, no 199 –Paris2010 MARU / Vol. 98 –Seoul2010 Haaretz, Galleria / May 6 –Tel Aviv2010 The Marker / April 30 –Tel Aviv2010 Haaretz Gallery / March 25 –Tel Aviv2010 Israel Architecture / No. 80 –Tel Aviv 2009 Good Magazine / Dec. 29 –San Francisco2009 Maariv -styles / December 23 –Tel Aviv2009 Mark Magazine / December –Amsterdam2009 The Jewish Week / December 18 –New York2009 Instore / No. 54 –Athens 2009 Israel Architecture / No. 79 –Tel Aviv 2009 PSFK.com / December –www2009 Frame / November –Amsterdam2009 Architect’s Newspaper / Nov. 4th –New York2009 New York Times / October 19 –New York2009 New York Magazine / October 12 –New York2009 NotCot / October 10 –www2009 The Cool Hunter / October 10 –www2009 Exhibitor Magazine / May –MN 2009 Interior Design / April –Shanghai2009 a+d+m / April –Milan2009 Israel Architecture / February –Tel Aviv 2008 Maariv -styles / December 17 –Tel Aviv2008 Haaretz Shamenet / July issue 058 –Tel Aviv2008 Wall Paper / August –London2008 Architecture Plus / Issue 19 –Dubai2008 Architectural Record / April –New York2008 Architect’s Newspaper / April 16 –New York

PERIODICALS - continued

2008 Mark Magazine / Vol.12 –Amsterdam2008 eOculus –www2008 We-Ar / Vol.13 –Berlin2008 Artis –New York2007 Haaretz Gallery / August 8, Tel Aviv2007 FIT network / Spring Summer, New York2007 Spa-De / Vol.7, Tokyo2007 Spa-De / Vol.6, Tokyo2006 Israel Architecture / December Tel Aviv2006 JNC / October –Germany2006 Spa-De / Vol.5 –Tokyo2006 Frame / March –Amsterdam2006 Time Out / January 12 –Tel Aviv2005 Metropolis / November –New York2005 Global Innovation Report / October –London2005 FX / October –London2005 Page / September –Hamburg2005 Walla / April –www2005 Genius / July –Belgrade2005 Van Alen Report / July –New York2005 32BNY / issue 5/6 winter 05 –New York2005 Architect’s Newspaper / February 16 –New York2004 Time Out / December 9 –Tel Aviv2004 Van Alen Report / October –New York2004 Architect’s Newspaper / September 7 –New York2004 Binyan Vediyur magazine / June –Tel Aviv2004 City Mouse / May –Tel Aviv2004 Maariv -styles / January 21 –Tel Aviv2002 Abstract / 2002 –New York1997 Haaretz Gallery / June 9 –Tel Aviv1997 City Mouse /May 24 –Haifa

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