A private eco-house, reclining on the Carmel Mountain facing the mediterranean sea and blending with the beauty of its natural surroundings, enveloping a south facing courtyard. The house is made of local, natural, environmentally friendly materials, notably stone collected in-situ and cannabis based walls. It is designed to passively offer optimal spacial and climatic conditions year round, featurung ecological infrastucture systems, including greywater purifying and reuse, roof rainwater gathering into an underground cistern, compost toilets, rooftop solar panels and passive air conditioning

Tav Group is a framework for individual and joint creation as well as an intimate social community. The long lasting acquaintance produces a natural blend of professional, social and domestic activities which is reflected in the resulting work. Working together is for the group memgers a never ending challenge, always having to keep an open mind to other perspectives, willing to be surprised and criticized. This makes the work more complicated and time consuming, but at the same time less ego centered and more exciting. The outcome, so they believe, is thus made richer, more precise, more conscious and more communicative. The variety of activities is for them an opportunity to review existing boundaries and to create works that are interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature. Nourishing on the different artistic languages, these stand a chance to become more than the sum of their familiar parts. Tav's work is an open process, the product being a temporary manifestation of it. There is no end product. The end is not the product. Rather, the way is an end in itself. Interaction with the audience plays an important role. The spectators, users, passers-by or whatever you might call those who happen to be around the work, are an integral part of the work, they are actors as well as co-directors who take a part in shaping it. Indeed, the group members hold that what the audience says and does is much more relevant to the experience than their own preliminary input, which is but an excuse to stir up a happening. Tav's work usually involves concept, design and execution as a whole, continuous and reflective process. The design is not an applied theory nor is the execution an applied design. The work is usually done on site, evolving from and responding to its unique context. In their rather naive way,Tav group tries to indulge in such activities that promote the sustainability of our surrounding. This disturbed environment of ours, if in any need for more human action, asks for reconciling acts, that might bring about peace between its conflicting components, nature and man, nations and individuals. In their choice of what to do and how to do whatever they do, they adhere to this commandment.

The clients are a family of environmental and social activists and entrepreneurs. In profession they are designers and manufacturers of travelers’ gear, so they have a good eye for the aesthetic and hand for the handy. They asked for a house that would be an archetype of sustainable building, which would fit harmoniously into its natural surroundings, to be their home and also offer additional spaces for workshops and a private wing for guests. Having a lifelong close friendship relations with them, the design process took the form of a mutual effort, with a considerable contribution on their part in crystalizing and realizing the design ideas.