Postscript is a modern, minimal, private home located in Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel. It is the first private home undertaken by Architect Asaf Gottesman in over a decade. 

Approached by a former client, this project offered an opportunity to re-sharpen old skills and to rekindle a discourse with both clients and friends. The result is a deceivingly simple design that appears both effortless and unassuming.

Cast in situ in fair-faced concrete, Postscript reflects a preoccupation with meticulous detailing. Designed for a large and growing family, the home unifies several narratives while underlining the importance of the family nucleus. 

Utilizing the plot’s minimal slope, the home is designed to appear as a single-floor house from the West, with a second floor visible from the East. A 20-meter long pool designed in parallel to the home liberates half of the property to serve as a garden and opens up the possibility to accommodate future additions.

As part of the initial concept , the clients requested to have their bedroom on the ground level adjacent to the living area, with the children’s rooms and family areas on the floor below.

Family life is informal yet the aesthetic is minimal and rigorous. There is very little clutter and every item in the home is chosen carefully. The use of fair-faced concrete formed from regular planks strengthens the sense of minimalism, as do the large, thin-framed windows.

Like the house, the garden design is accurate with clearly defined areas. A set of large deciduous trees are positioned to the west of the house in order to cast shade as the sun begins its descent to the sea. In Postscript, there are a host of ongoing conversations; between members of the family and the spaces they occupy, between inanimate concrete surfaces and the play of foliage. Because of the minimalistic nature of the architecture, there is space to listen and observe, to note the discourse of light and shade and to catch the momentary reflections of both architecture and nature.


Architect: Gottesman Architecture / GSArch

Lighting Designer: Rama mendelson

Category: Residential