Three forces shape every residential project we design in Israel: stone, light, and landscape.
Stone
In Jerusalem, stone cladding is required by planning law – a regulation dating to the British Mandate, when authorities required all construction to be faced with local limestone. Nearly a century later, it still holds.
What began as a constraint became a language. Jerusalem limestone turns gold at dusk. The city breathes differently in morning light. The question isn’t whether to use stone, but how – where the surface requires texture, where it should be smooth, how coursing aligns with proportion.
Light
Israel is not a dark country. The sun tracks high in summer, low across the south in winter. A house that ignores this gets hot interiors and glare where you don’t want it. A house that works with it is transformed.
We orient living spaces to catch morning light from the east. Deep overhangs shade south-facing glass in summer without blocking the low winter sun. Small windows punched high in walls bring in diffused northern light – steady, even, the best light for how a room feels and how art looks on a wall.
Landscape
Israel’s topography is dramatic. Most sites are steep. The temptation is to flatten the land to suit the building. We rarely do this.
The SCH House, on a steeply sloping plot in the Jerusalem Hills, steps down the hillside in three volumes. The pool sits at the lowest terrace as if it always belonged there. Stone retaining walls become garden walls. Nothing was imposed on the site – the building earned its position.
When it works like this, the house doesn’t just look better. It performs better. The rooms have views. The terraces catch the breeze. The stone that holds the slope defines the garden.
Ollech+Tol is an architecture, landscape and design studio working across Israel and internationally — from design through permitting and construction management.