Home tour: a light-filled penthouse in Tel Aviv with sweeping city and Mediterranean views

Against a backdrop of architectural influences from Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, rises the White City Tower, where a young family with two children has made its home on the 29th floor, returning for extended stays between their travels around the world.

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It is easy to understand the appeal: the 4,850-sq-ft penthouse opens out to the city in every direction, taking in the old rooftops of Neve Tzedek on one side, the towers of the business district on another, and the Mediterranean along its entire western edge.

Once comprising three separate apartments, the residence now accommodates five large rooms, alongside a separate guest unit, a rooftop terrace and a private lift lobby.

“They keep several homes around the world, and this is the one they return to,” recalls Bella Simon of Bella Simon Design. “They wanted it to be the one place that remains constant while everything else is in motion.”

“That is why we spoke very little about style, choosing instead to plan around ordinary days rather than special occasions,” she adds. “Where you put down your bag and exhale as you walk through the door, where you eat when the morning is short, where you sit once the children are asleep; the hour before dinner, or the evening when everyone is finally in the same room.”

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The aesthetic emerged naturally from these conversations. The homeowners sought “a comfortable home, one that is generous and easy to live in, with intelligent technology and a few unexpected twists and gestures to make it personal,” Simon shares.

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Upon entering the penthouse, the living room immediately to the right draws the eye towards unimpeded views through its vast floor-to-ceiling windows, with the city on one side and the sea on the other.

Taking its cues from the surrounding landscape, the sea informs the overarching colour palette, while Simon incorporates the clients’ affinity for darker tones through grey plaster, black, pale oak and deep brown.

In the living room, sculptural tables by Gal Gaon Studio serve as artworks in their own right. The black-painted ceiling is slightly lowered to accommodate the air-conditioning ducts and a concealed projector, with a large projection screen serving in place of a television.

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“The reason is the light,” Simon shares. “On this floor, it moves all day, shifting from white and hard at noon to gold at five, then blue for a long time after sunset.”

“A quiet palette lets those hours do the work, and the rooms change colour by themselves, which is a better effect than anything I could paint,” she continues.

At the heart of the dining area is a custom-designed table, although the homeowners initially needed some convincing about its colour. When the day came for it to be hoisted by crane to the 29th floor, its bright red-orange finish stood out conspicuously against the otherwise restrained open-plan interior.

“We sent the table to the best artisan I work with, and chose a deep, glossy bottle green instead,” Simon says. “It came back looking like a rare and precious stone, and it is now the piece that everyone stops in front of.”

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Tucked into one corner of the open-plan living and dining area is a compact kitchen, designed around the family’s everyday cooking habits. In place of a kitchen island, a wooden table serves as a spot for a quick meal or morning coffee, while an integrated refrigerator is concealed within the wood cabinetry, which also forms the backdrop to the dining area.

“Most of it came from subtraction,” Simon says. “Hardware concealed within the joinery, storage integrated into the wall planes, full-height curtains that give the glazing a sense of depth, and low, layered lighting—all so the evening stays soft, and the eye can travel uninterrupted towards the horizon.”

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Underfoot, pale natural oak flooring balances the darker palette and lends continuity to the residence. It extends through the living areas and onto the terraces, where the outdoor spaces draw on the Mediterranean setting, with shade and ventilation allowing residents to spend hours outdoors.

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Across the hallway from the living area lie the private quarters, comprising the parents’ suite, the children’s bedroom and a guest bedroom.

The parents’ suite begins with a dressing room defined by curved, dark-stained timber walls. A large circular mirror anchors the space, while a blackened oak vanity provides concealed storage for everyday essentials.

Beyond it, the bathroom features flooring and one wall finished in honed porcelain with a sawn travertine texture, complemented by a black-and-white stone basin.

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A curved frosted-glass wall encloses the adjoining area, which, according to Simon, is “the one piece of soft geometry in a building constructed entirely of straight lines, and which I would build again tomorrow.”

The bedroom itself forms a calm, secluded retreat. “It is a small apartment inside the apartment, and it is the only place where I allowed the geometry to go soft,” she says.

With the frosted-glass wall doubling as a headboard, the bed sits in the middle of the room, complemented by a work corner and a sitting area overlooking the city.

The suite also extends onto a private terrace, where a jacuzzi sits atop a timber deck alongside a lounge seating area, both enjoying uninterrupted views.

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Elsewhere, the children’s bedroom is finished in birch veneer and generously proportioned to accommodate a bed, a sofa that also pulls out into a bed, a library and wooden furniture shaped like small elephants.

Its adjoining bathroom is fitted with a bathtub, set against large honed porcelain surfaces, while the guest bathroom is similarly finished in grey marble.

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Finally, the penthouse also accommodates a small guest studio, separate from the main residence.

Spanning approximately 516 sq ft, it comprises sleeping, sitting and kitchen areas, all enjoying uninterrupted views. Its self-contained layout makes it suitable for visiting guests, an au pair or even the children themselves.

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