Eran Zilberman - Regavim + Architects אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #142 August 2025 | 38 | profile of the season Eran Zilberman - Regavim + Architects Dr. Hillit Mazor “One of the most important lessons I learned at the Technion was that talent alone is not sufficient in this demanding profession. One must know how to deliver a project and seek the underlying concept in everything you create.” His firm, Regavim + Architects was established in 2011, after he had worked for over a decade at Mann Shinar Architects. In the early days of his own practice he designed almost everything - interior design, private villas, multi-story housing, commercial buildings, offices, and urban planning schemes. The firm’s professional redirection came following the recommendations of the Trachtenberg Committee in 2011, which concluded that hundreds of kindergartens were urgently needed across Israeli cities. As many architecture firms declined the small-scale commissions, Zilberman seized the opportunity, and as a young architect, he eagerly took on the challenge and began to plan modest, small scale buildings requiring an architectural perspective at a child’s eye level. After completing several such projects, he began to enlarge the scale, specializing in the design of educational and community buildings. These days his architectural style is recognizable thanks to its rectangular, white buildings with large recessed windows, often incorporating wood-toned cladding and colorful glass. His projects typically display visual depth achieved through thick walls that enhance thermal insulation and cladding at varying angles, producing a dynamic aesthetic that shifts with the light and changing points of view. To him, stucco is not a "real" finishing material. In a country with a minimal maintenance culture, especially in educational buildings, there’s no place for stucco "since It looks bad from the outset". Rather, he insists on using lowmaintenance materials that preserve the building’s dignity for years. Often situated on zero-lot lines, his buildings allow for fence-free designs. "The proliferation of fences is one of the great afflictions of educational institutions, as they evoke a prison-like atmosphere. And since both police and Ministry of Education standards permit construction without them, for Eran they are the starting point for designing any public building." Accordingly, his buildings' interiors are designed with minimal boundaries. And in contrast to traditional schools with narrow corridors that lead to enclosed classrooms, Zilberman's approach is based on broad transitional spaces that invite activity and casual gathering outside the classroom. "In an age where every child holds a smartphone, learning happens through different channels - random experiences as well as self-exploration." Aspiring to maximum flexibility, all furniture is modular and adaptable to various learning formats and group sizes with the advantage of efficient compactness and optimal comfort. What do you believe in? "I believe that designing educational buildings is, above all, a mission. I have the hope that thousands of students will pass through the spaces we design and build for them. That truly moves me." Although Zilberman does not invest much effort in competitions, though a relatively young architect, he has already earned numerous prestigious awards: The David Reznick Prize for Architectural Excellence for Young Architects; The Rechter Prize for his design of the "Yoram Taharlev" Middle School in Kfar Saba, and recently, he was honoured with the Israeli Architecture Award issued by the Association of Architects in the Educational Buildings category for his design of the middle and high school on the Galil Yam education campus. And following the trend of "sustainability" (how could one ignore it), Zilberman was also the first architect in Israel to receive a four-star green building certification for the design of the Galil Yam Primary School. A simple "Akko kid", architect Eran Zilberman grew up in the Krayot. While not a member of an architectural dynasty, he is undoubtedly one of the most optimistic architects who still believes that architecture has the ability to repair reality. Gifted with a natural talent for drawing, he got to the field of architecture almost by chance. Holding a drawing pencil obsessively, Zilberman was certain his path lay in the arts or graphic design. But reality had other plans and after twice being rejected by the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture at the Technion in 1996 and graduated with distinction.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=