Leitersdorf & Belsitzman Architects
Building in Israel 1946-1971
Background
This project was initiated by the son of Andre Leitersdorf, Thomas, a known and respected architect on his own.
It started with a research by two young architects that collected all documents and classified them by different categories.
I've joined the project when they decided to put it all together in a website.
Andre Leitersdorf and Iliya Belzitsman partnership lasted from 1946 until Andre’s passing in 1970. During this period they planned hundreds of buildings throughout the country of young Israel, especially for the Worker’s Council (Histadrut).
Research: Architect Yishai Lehavi, Architect Adi Gilad
Coding: Dafna Kotzer
The Challenge
-The site should address both very professional historians and architects, and casual visitors who seek some information. Everything should be very comprehensive, yet supply deep and detailed information.
-We expected some young visitors will not have much background about the site topics, so there was a question how to add explanations and to what amount.
-Each building has many attributes and we needed to create a system to filter and sort them in an easy and meaningful way.
-Because the site is about local architecture we thought a map would be useful, and for the historical perspective we wanted to add a timeline, to show when and what was built each year.
Icons &
Colors
All buildings are categorized by their use.
I've designed an icon for each category, and with a pinned side menu you can navigate to a list of corresponding buildings.
Community & Administration, Culture & Leisure, Education, Health, Services & Welfare, Industry & Commerce, Residential
Buildings are devided into two sections, illustrated by two colors - Red for those built for the 'Histadrut' and Blue for others.
These icons and colors function throughout the whole site.
Graphics
The original stamps on the building plans inspired the design of the site's headers
The font that was picked for the site titles is simple and bold.
It is a variation of "Haim", the first modern sans serif Hebrew font, inspired by Bauhaus spirit of the early 20th century.
Information
Under the 'Histadrut' list, sorted by categories, short texts pops up to give information about historic terms and names.
The list of buildings can be sorted and filtered in several ways.
