Two years of hard work came to an end this week with the approval of the mockup we carried out on the flagship project of Israel: Jerusalem Gateway. The project is the result of a fruitful collaboration between Shahaf, the German architectural firm - Topotek1 and the Israeli architectural firm Miller-Blum.
The Jerusalem Gateway project is a unique and advanced district, which is a meeting point between business, economic, public, cultural and academic centers. The district will be built with 1.2 million square meters of mixed-use buildings interspersed with attractive, dynamic, public urban spaces featuring Israel’s largest integrated transport hub at its center.
To present the mockup for the project flooring, we visited TRACO's dolomite quarries in Germany, which supply various stones and aggregates and worked on developing stone blocks to find the winning combination and achieve a pattern with Topotek1 and Miller-Bloom architects. The work focused on sorting materials while conducting Sisyphean experiments to examine dosages in different material combinations in order to complete the desired combinations of colors and textures.
Dolomite stone is a carbonate sedimentary rock with an exceptional texture and color. The stone has pores of various sizes and its surface area is combined with crystal-like fragments that give the stone a spectacular sparkling look. The stone has good durability and is relatively easy to use and design.
In addition, Shahaf carried out in-depth engineering thinking in the field of maintaining accessibility and preventing slipping over time. For this purpose, we are currently developing a unique roughening system that renews the anti-slip mechanism and prevents abrasion. Upon completion of the development, the system will provide a solution for this project and many other projects around the world.
The mockup phase has been approved recently and Shahaf is currently in negotiations to supply the materials and carry out the project.