In South Tel Aviv, surrounded by carpentry workshops, studios and design stores, interior designer Yael Shavit has created a 90 square metre urban penthouse that embraces rather than disguises the industrial character outside its windows.

With a 47 square metre terrace almost half the size of the apartment itself, the project was conceived for a single man in his late thirties whose demanding routine made coming home less about retreating indoors and more about finding a place to slow down.

His family has a different way of describing it.

“They joke that he bought a balcony with an apartment, rather than an apartment with a balcony,” says Shavit.

Ofri Paz | STANNEL

It is an amusing observation, but also the key to understanding the project.

Shavit received the contractor apartment during the final stages of construction, but unusually, the design process began outside. The owner had one non negotiable requirement before purchasing the property: the terrace had to accommodate a specific Jacuzzi.

By the time Shavit entered the project, the Jacuzzi had already been chosen.

Instead of treating it as something to fit into the remaining space, she allowed it to determine the architecture of the terrace. Measuring 220 by 300 centimetres, it became the focal point around which the outdoor life of the apartment was organised.

A generous lounging area sits alongside it, together with a fully equipped outdoor kitchen and dining area. Each function has its own place, yet the terrace reads as one continuous living space designed as much for quiet evenings alone as for entertaining friends.

Privacy presented another challenge. A neighbouring high rise overlooks the apartment, making a conventional open terrace feel unexpectedly exposed.

Shavit’s answer was landscape rather than architecture.

A green wall composed of custom made concrete planters was introduced along the terrace, planted with tall vegetation selected to grow quickly and gradually form a natural screen.

“We wanted the planting to create a soft barrier,” Shavit explains, “but also to introduce a tropical, intimate atmosphere that strengthens the feeling of escape, particularly against the urban landscape beyond.”

That contrast is what gives the project its character.

The industrial city remains visible. Workshops, rooftops and the dense fabric of South Tel Aviv have not been edited out of the experience. Instead, layers of vegetation, water and outdoor living create a private world within it.

The result is neither a conventional city apartment nor an attempt to recreate a suburban garden several floors above ground. It is something more specific to the person who lives here: an urban home designed around the moment the working day ends.

Inside, the challenge was geometric: a multi-angled central space and a contractor’s plan that could have created a living room with its back to the view and a sofa that was too small for entertaining. Yael turned the living room toward the main display window to draw the eye outward, and also planned additional viewing solutions, including from the kitchen island that was added as part of the project, for added storage, work surfaces, and a place for daily meals. She based the design language on what was already in the apartment: light gray flooring, dark aluminum, parquet in the bedroom, dark gray and black bathrooms, and wood trim outside. “I chose to stay with this color scheme and even emphasize it, in order to create a space that stands out and makes a statement, and at the same time is youthful in character through the use of textures, color, and art with a wink.”

In the public space, the designer created a sense of continuity that connects all the functions through the carpentry. She designed a long unit that starts at the entrance and continues throughout the house, concealing infrastructure and utility cabinets, creating precise storage for coats, bags, and everyday equipment, while also integrating doors at the zero line and maintaining a clean and quiet appearance. The unit is covered in oven-painted MDF, with grooves of varying widths that provide depth and three-dimensionality, and also incorporates a display cabinet with a gray glass front. On the two side walls in the living room, Yael incorporated works of art, framed by wall-mounted lighting fixtures: “The inverse playfulness of the power points created a designed and interesting element for the walls. Between each pair of fixtures, I placed a work of art by Itay Magen, which was adapted to the proportions of the space.”

The bedroom stands at the end of the hallway, wrapped in grooved woodwork. When the door to the room is open, a piece of wall protrudes, which is also exposed from the far end of the apartment, and was therefore also chosen for a colorful work of art. The room is narrow and long, and the designer wanted to create an enveloping feeling in it that separates it from the rest of the house. Therefore, the entire space, walls and ceiling, was painted a uniform gray. In this monochromatic space, where every line and every centimeter work for the sake of a sense of calm, practical thinking was also required that respects the constraints of dimensions.

The television, for example, was designed on a ceiling column at the end of the bed, so that it would not take up valuable storage space and at the same time allow for comfortable viewing. A minimally lowered ceiling hides the column’s construction and incorporates geometric lighting profiles to create different light scenarios. A delicate body that descends from the magnetic profile is placed above the side table, and on the other side of the bed, a red light fixture was chosen that adds a touch of color.

In a room with such a structure, the bed is the point of balance: it needs to be present and luxurious, but leave room to breathe. “Since I design a lot of apartments in the center, where the bedrooms are not large, I usually look for beds that will allow me the maximum sense of size in the space, without compromising on beauty, comfort and design,” explains Yael, who chose In the AUPING Essential bed from Hollandia, An award-winning model, designed by the Berlin designer duo Köhler & Wilms.The bed has clean, rounded lines, a thin headboard that doesn’t “take up” space, and a frame that only adds about 2 cm to the width of the mattress, a solution that allows for comfortable movement even when space is limited

The shade chosen is slightly darker than the walls of the room, so that the bed is present but not overpowering, and at its foot a footstool was fitted that continues the same functional elegance: a convenient place to place clothes, and at the same time an element that protects against an unplanned encounter with the TV stand. Along with all of this, the designer also notes the choice of biodegradable and recyclable materials – a small detail that adds a layer of thought within precise minimalism.

Planning and design |Yael Shavit DesignersPhotography| Karin RavanaStyling for photos| Mirit Fish

About the firm | Yael Shavit Designers

Yael Shavit has been behind an active office for over a decade, born from a career change she made from the field of finance to the world of interior design. Today, she specializes in large-scale projects, from private construction, through the planning and renovation of luxury apartments and penthouses, to commercial spaces, and brings with her a combination of precision and planning that looks several steps ahead.

She defines her style as “clean modern,” but emphasizes that the real signature is created precisely from the ability to see the client and their personal taste in her mind’s eye, and weave it into the restrained language she brings with her. For her, a successful process begins with a deep familiarity with the lifestyle, needs, and desires, and translates into practical and maximum utilization of each space, alongside a design that allows the home to change along with the residents over the years. To these she adds an “enabling” budget framework (including room for whims and desires that arise along the way), an emphasis on openness and transparency with the client, and most importantly, an uncompromising choice of excellent professionals and suppliers, so that the dream does not remain on paper, but comes true without compromising on the potential.

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