Shenkar School of Engineering and Design

Fashion Design Department Building

Architect: Amir Mann - Ami Shinar

Location: Ramat-Gan, Israel

Client:      Shenkar School of Engineering and Design

Area:       43,100 sq ft

Status:   Completed 2013

Project architect through SD, DD, CD and CA - to completion. Including design studies and client presentations, construction drawings and details, consultants coordination, vendor research and dialogue, contractor coordination and site walks throughout the construction process..

The Pernick Building won the Israeli Architecture Magazine “Public Building of the Year” award.

The renovation and addition to the Fashion Design Building  are part of the new urban plan for the Shenkar School of Design Campus. The campus plan, by Mann-Shinar Architects, was the winning design in an architectural competition in 2008.

The design included overall renovation of the Fashion Department existing three floors, as well as the addition and interior design of two new floors above (overall area of 43,100 SF), housing studios, sewing workshops, display areas and administration offices.

The Pernick Building is entirely encased in a white steel external frame, which provides structural bracing for the existing floors, as well as the structural frame for the additional ones.

Aluminum louvers are hung on the external frame in varying densities within fixed modules, creating a new façade that provides climate control. The louvers are designed as a “fabric” that covers the entire building and unite the new and existing floors into one entity. Colored glass “exhibition boxes” are located within the modules, allowing students to display their designs to the public.

The ceilings of the new floors' studios expose the building’s MEP systems and steel framing, all painted white, which create open, loft-like spaces. The exposed systems enrich the interior with industrial character.

Partial height drywall partitions, including deep niches, separate the studios and the hallway. The MEP Systems and steel beams in the hallway penetrate the clerestory glazing above the partitions, into the studios beyond. Clusters of lockers, designed in random colorization pattern, are located in the niches facing the hallway. The exterior louvers and the colored glass boxes create different patterns of shadows and colored reflections throughout the day, once again resonating the concepts of layered “fabrics”.