An international architecture studio
based in Basel and Tel-Aviv

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News High School & Junior high, Mikve Israel Campus, Tel Aviv

PEZ together with Zarhy Architects win 1st prize in an invited competition for a new innovative agricultural high school and junior high on the Mikve Israel Campus, a unique Agricultural Youth Village dating from 1870, located outside Tel Aviv.

In our winning proposal, we re-imagine the future of education by offering new kind of learning and experimentation spaces. The building is composed of three distinct, interconnected volumes – one for the high-school, another for the junior high and a third connecting the two and housing the communal programs. The composition creates a series of informal learning spaces can support innovative education endeavors while the accessible roofs of the staggered volume house community gardens and allow outdoor educational activity.

1st prize (Invited competition) | Team: Sharona Cramer, Danielle Alon.

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News Engineering building at Tel Aviv University

We are happy to announce that the Tel Aviv Municipality has approved the design plan of the new Engineering building on Tel Aviv University Campus! The new Building (our 2nd on campus) forms part of the cluster of Engineering buildings. The ten-story building will house state of the art ‘wet’ laboratories and ‘dry’ research office space custom made for each and every researcher. Flexibility, thus is the name of the game. Therefore, the concept of the building consists of an exoskeleton, a structural envelope that reflects the building’s forces diagrams, freeing the interior spaces from structural elements and creates the building’s architectural identity. The building’s ground floor is an open, sloped, following and continuing the campus’ landscape and creating a new kind of working and meeting space where researchers, students and industry professionals can meet and interact.

Team: Yahel Balisiano (Project Architect), Tal Yaniv.

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News Renovation and extension of the St.Gallen Vocational and Continuing Education Center

We see the extension as a continuation of the existing system – featuring a clear articulation of plinth/terraces and freestanding volumes. The new volume’s clearly differs from the existing ones in terms of both scale as well as materiality. It is conceived as a 33×33 meters square. The composition of old and new creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts and gives meaning to the entire campus, including the existing sports hall. Both the extension as well as the renovation of the existing buildings uses the same strategy – concentrating all fixed elements in the perimeter, notion of a flexible buildings and aims at maximizing pedagogical potential and possibilities.

 

4th Prize (Invited competition) | Team: Marcos Brugarolas, Nicola Gianonni, Wojciech Motyka, Omar Gonzalez, Esther Herman.

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News V ZUG Zephyr West HQ

We are happy to share our contribution to the high profile invited competition for V-Zug HQ. We imagine the building as a pristine box, hovering above an open and inviting ground level. It is simple, yet intricate, featuring precise gestures that transform it to a bespoke, custom-made building fitting V-Zug needs and aspirations. Similar to the integrity and honesty of the V-Zug products, we believe that the new building should practice the same approach, it is therefore stripped to its essential ingredients. The building’s wooden-concrete structure is not only efficient and sustainable, but also creates its identity and sense of place.

The structure is conceived as a lattice of diagonal wooden members, freeing the interiors from columns, and ensuring the building’s resistance to lateral forces. This wooden gem hovers above an open ground level using a series of sculptural concrete V and X form columns, creating a sense of lightness, transparency and openness. We are honored to be among only four renowned offices and congrats to Diener & Diener for their winning proposal!

Finalist (Invited competition) | Team: Marcos Brugarolas, Nicola Gianonni, Wojciech Motyka, Omar Gonzalez.

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News PLATEFORME 10 museum complex in Lausanne

How can one design an entrance to a new museum complex without neither building above ground nor compromising the Plateforme 10 cultural landscape? Rather than adding additional construction, we propose to use the existing Poste Directeur in a new way. It is a reminder for the site’s industrial history and as the new entrance gateway for the new museum. Its vertical volume on the eastern side is emptied, serving as the museum’s main entrance hall as well as a contemporary exhibition space, leading to vast underground exhibition spaces surrounding the turn table ‘patio’.

 

Honorable mention (International Ideas Competition) | Collaboration with Cristina Moldes | Team: Nicolas Mor, Wojciech Motyka.

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News New Medical Center for Stans Hospital, Nidwalden

How can we create a healing environment? Both new buildings share a distinct formal strategy: a combination of a rational geometry juxtaposed with a curvilinear substruction that is used in order to overcome the site’s anomalies and to define the building’s entrances and their public heart. Within this communal formal language, each of the buildings is articulated differently:

The Ambulatory building is located on the north-eastern part, forming the campus’ edge to the east. Its form is derived both from the necessary urban setbacks from the plot line, as well as from the hospitals’ grid, resulting in a staggered form that defines the campus’ entrance plaza. The Hospital Oasis is created as a distinct building located on the southern part of the campus, accessible from the north and open to the landscape, facing the formidable views of the mountains on its south.

2nd prize (Invited competition) | Team: Marcos Brugarolas, Carolina DeMoura, Maxim Goetschi, Alma Kishon.

 

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News JVA Bostadel

PEZ wins 2nd prize together with WSP Switzerland for the extension and renovation of JVA Bostadel in Mezingen. Our proposal generates a new ensemble with high quality architecture for the prison facility blending seamlessly on the existing complex.

 

2nd prize (Invited competition) | Team: Marcos Brugarolas, Omar Gonzalez, Maxim Goetschi.

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News Tel Hai College & Migal Galilee inaugurate «The helmsley science building»

We are happy to share images of our recently completed `Helmsley Science Building` at the Tel Hai Academic College. The building is a unique synergetic hub between academia and industry partners in the Galilee region, promoting interaction and creativity among life science researchers and students who benefit from a shared working environment that takes advantage of the natural surroundings.  With 15 life science research groups, bioinformatics laboratories, researchers’ offices, and public areas, the building spans 3,765m2, offering generous spaces for collaboration and innovation. It provides a welcoming and inviting working environment for both researchers and students, fostering a sense of community and encouraging knowledge exchange.

The Helmsley Science Building is composed as an elegant composition of three overlapping volumes. The northern and southern volumes house flexible and modular open-space laboratories, while the central volume functions as a connector, containing the vertical circulation, communal functions, and social spaces. Communication spaces are essential for the building’s users to meet, discuss and interact with each other. These spaces culminate with an open roof terrace that offers breathtaking views of the Galilee and Mount Hermon. Sustainability formed an important part of the design, with a focus on creating a compact, efficient insulated envelope in which openings were carefully carved, while protected from heat and sun gain using a dynamic shading system. The building was the winner of an invited competition in 2016 and completed in 2023.

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News School, Kindergarten and Community Center

The project presents two key challenges: firstly, the need to establish a sense of unity among buildings situated across various plots, and secondly, the imperative to prioritize sustainability while preserving existing structures and architectural integrity. Our concept revolves around achieving unity while embracing diversity. We employ a singular building typology and construction approach, adapting them to varying scales and functions. This approach fosters a distinctive communal identity and tailored solutions for each context and program. Our project draws inspiration from its surroundings, seeking to reinterpret local and contemporary constructions through a deep understanding of the environment. This strategy not only harmonizes with the materials in the vicinity but also promotes consensus in construction methods across different buildings. Regardless of program scale, we implement a streamlined, adaptable wooden construction process capable of integrating existing structures and accommodating diverse topographies. Each building’s placement, sun orientation, and topographic considerations result from a meticulous analysis, ensuring an optimal fit within its specific context.

. 5th prize (Open competition) | Collaboration with : Kollektiv B | Team: Marcos Brugarolas, Carolina DeMoura, Maxim Goetschi.

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News Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University

Excited to announce that the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University (completed 2021) has won the Rechter Architecture Prize for young architects! The enclosed campus paradigm of the Tel Aviv University is challenged for the first time in 34 years as a new building re-connects the city and the campus. The building houses both R&D Center for a worldwide leading semiconductor company together with the Tel Aviv University Engineering Faculty, creating a unique meeting point for academia and industry.

Located on a prominent site on the hillside, The building changes the landscape of Tel Aviv’s main highway. It takes advantage of the site’s height elevation difference in order to create a diverse, accessible and animated urban façade. Its open ground floor showcases learning spaces, lobby and cafeteria and allows direct entrance to the building from the city streets. The building re-invents the idea of architectural flexibility by creating an exoskeleton, liberating the interior spaces from structural elements, enabling endless layout possibilities. This exoskeleton consists of structural elements and an innovative sun-shading system, which re-interprets the brutalist brise-soleil tradition on campus in a contemporary manner, creating a striking architectural identity. Inside the flexible framework, a series of social spaces are created to encourage informal meetings, collaborations and ultimately innovation. It is a new model of a research building – simple, efficient on one hand and iconic on the other hand.

 

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News «NAN architecture» Interview

En el apasionante mundo de la arquitectura, donde la creatividad y la innovación son fundamentales, STUDIOPEZ se destaca como un estudio internacional con una filosofía clara: «Dramatizar, nunca. Simplificar, siempre». Fundado en 2011 por Pedro Peña Jurado y Daniel Zarhy, STUDIOPEZ tiene su sede en Basilea (Suiza) y Tel Aviv (Israel).

Los socios arquitectos de STUDIOPEZ son dos profesionales con una trayectoria impresionante. Peña, arquitecto por la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla, ha colaborado en proyectos emblemáticos como el Complejo Cultural Luz en São Paulo. Por su parte, Zarhy, licenciado con honores por la Universidad de Tel-Aviv, ha trabajado con figuras de renombre como Rem Koolhaas en Rotterdam y ha contribuido al proyecto de la sede central de Roche Pharmaceuticals en Basilea. (Read interview)

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Team People

Pedro Peña & Daniel Zarhy

 

Isabela Ávila, Yahel Balisiano, Marcos Brugarolas, Roi Dwek, Yuval Even, Esther Herman, Guy Kerem, Alma Kishon, Eliana Oliveira, Diego Peña, Amit Rivlin, Roni Schanin, Tal Yaniv and Eedo Zigelboim.

Previous collaborators: ?

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Team Meet the team

PEZ is an international architecture studio based in Basel, Switzerland and Tel-Aviv, Israel. It was established in 2012 by Pedro Peña Jurado and Daniel Zarhy as a continuation to their ongoing collaboration while working at Herzog & De Meuron. The young architectural duo PEZ embarked on their journey by diving into the deep end. Witnessing the world moving way faster than the way architecture is able to adapt itself, they successfully took on complex, large-scale projects and paved their way to solving major architectural challenges. They were motivated to develop a new form of architectural practice that is driven by shaping solutions to pressing challenges. Opting for simplicity over complexity, in each project they aim to create flexible and human centric driven spaces that benefit communities and cities in years to come.

They were motivated to develop a new form of architectural practice that is driven by shaping solutions to pressing challenges. Opting for simplicity over complexity, in each project they aim to create flexible and human centric driven spaces that benefit communities and cities in years to come.

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Awards Prizes & Awards

2024
– Recther Prize for Young Architects – Broadcom HQ & Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, IL
2023
-Invited Competition for the renovation and extension of Bostadel prison, Zug, CH (2nd prize).
-School & Kindergarten, Biel Benken CH (5th prize).
-Hospital Extension SING, Stans CH (2nd prize).
2022
-Invited Competition for a new Innovative Agricultural Highschool, Tel Aviv, IL (1st prize).
-International Selected Competition for the renovation and extension of the St.Gallen Vocational and Continuing Education Center (GBS) (4th prize).
2021
-International Competition for the Antropocene Museum, Bad Muskau, DE (2nd prize).
-International Competition for P10 Museum Complex, Lausanne, CH (mention).
2020
-International Competition for a prison and traffic center, Appenzell, CH (3rd prize).
-International Competition for the Extension of St. Gallen Textile Museum, St. Gallen, CH (Finalist).
2019
-Invited Competition for the Inselareal Laboratory Building, Bern, CH (5th prize).
-Invited Competition for the Reconstruction of Beit Joseph Study House, Jerusalem, IL (1st prize).
2018
-International Competition for Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, Bern, CH (1st prize).
-International Selected Competition Police Headquarters, Bern, CH (5th prize).
2017
-Invited Competition for Broadcom HQ & Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, IL (1st prize).
-International Selected Competition Steinel Solutions,Einsiedeln, CH (4th prize).
2016
-Invited Competition for Laboratory Complex, Tel-Hai College, IL (1st prize).
-International Competition for the Innovation Campus Biel/Bienne, CH (2nd prize).
-International Competition University Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Centre, IL (finalist).
2015
-International Competition BBZ, Wollerau, CH (4th prize).
-International Competition ‘Those Saved to Their Rescuers’ memorial, Warsaw, PL (finalist).
2014
-International Competition for the Jerusalem Courthouse Complex, Jerusalem, IL (1st prize).
2013
-International Open Ideas Competition “Europan 12”, Heildelberg, DE (shortlisted).
-Invited Competition for the Ben Gurion University Masterplan in Beer, Sheva, IL (Finalist).
-Open Competition for Israeli Pavillion at the 14th Venice Bienalle , IT (2nd prize)
2012 
-Invited International Competition for the Busan Opera House, Busan, S. Korea (Finalist).
-International Competition for the National Library, Jerusalem, IL (Finalist).
2011 
-International Open Ideas Competition “Europan 11” Eindhoven, NL (1st prize).
-International Open Ideas Competition for the Busan Opera House, S. Korea (1st prize).
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About us We are studio pez

PEZ is an international architecture studio based in Basel, Switzerland and Tel-Aviv, Israel. It was established in 2011 by Pedro Peña Jurado and Daniel Zarhy as a continuation to their ongoing collaboration while working at Herzog & De Meuron.

The young architectural duo PEZ embarked on their journey by diving into the deep end. Witnessing the world moving way faster than the way architecture is able to adapt itself, they successfully took on complex, large-scale projects and paved their way to solving major architectural challenges. They were motivated to develop a new form of architectural practice that is driven by shaping solutions to pressing challenges. Opting for simplicity over complexity, in each project they aim to create flexible and human centric driven spaces that benefit communities and cities in years to come. Within PEZ’s ever developing architectural language, innovation is manifested as a significant twist to each building’s typology, thus challenging architecture’s basic paradigms. Although young, PEZ has been able to showcase this philosophy in a significant number of successfully built projects and award-winning competitions.

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