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Studio Shai Gil Blog

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Bilateral House by Audax

One of the nicest projects shot in 2016 was the Bilateral House, designed by the Toronto based firm Audax
From the Architect:  "The homeowners of Bilateral House purchased a lot with a 116-year-old Period Revival home in a mature picturesque neighbourhood in Toronto. As avid collectors of contemporary art and vintage furniture, they wanted to build a modern gallery-inspired home with high ceilings to artfully display their collections. Responding to the homeowners’ vision and the City’s requirement to keep the front half of the original house, Audax sensitively restored and rebuilt the heritage façade, and designed a modern addition in the rear. "

Accademia di Brera

In April 2016 I had the opportunity to shoot at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. I documented the Cosentino booth, designed by Cecconi Simone. It was my first time in Milan during design week, and I was realy amazed by the scale of the show and the amount of effort and thought put into designing a booth that will be demolished in less than a week ( I will probably include photos in a future post ). After shooting the exhibit I had a free day before my flight back home. While wandering the streets of Milan I came across the Academia di Brera, an arts academy in the trendy design district of Brera. The Academy, unlike any arts school I've photographed in North America, is a historical building dated to 1776. It was built by Maria Teresa as part of the Enlightenment period in Europe. The classic architecture and the many sculptures around the building stood in sharp contrast to the needs of an academic building to grow and adapt to the modern age. While the entrance still represent the original classial design, as soon you enter the interior hallways and classrooms, you discover numerous juxtapositions of old and new, sometimes brutally forced to live together under the same roof. Below is a selection of photographs taken while visiting the academy.

  

Working in Israel

I am very excited for the recent opportunity to shoot in Israel. Even though I've been living in Canada since 1997, it has long been my dream to work in my home country . Shooting in a new place has its challenges. Coming from a country where I am already established, I pretty much had to start from scratch : locating potential clients, sending promotional material, printing and updating my portfolio and so forth. Surprisingly , one of the challenges I have not foreseen, was the ability to speak about my work - in hebrew. I guess I didn't realize that all of my knowledge about architecture and photography was acquired in english. After all, I left Israel when I was 21 with no background in architecture or photography.  I now became aware that phrases like : "elevation study" , "oblique view" or "one point perspective" that became part of my professional language, don't translate that well. But, at the end, I guess its not your words that get you the next job, but your work. Here is a collection of photographs from several projects shots for one of my first Israeli client - Gindi Studio