With its height of 158 meters and 38 floors of offices, the glass Amot Atrium skyscraper designed by Moshe Zur at the Diamond Exchange has gained LEED Platinum certification, having reached the highest possible level of sustainability.

 

At the entrance to the tower a sinuous sculptural staircase in AHEC  American tulipwood arches to create a sense of fluidity inside the imposing geometric skyscraper.

 

The name of the building comes from its impressive atrium, designed by Oded Halaf, who had the idea of building a staircase with the form of a tornado. A sculpture that brings movement to the orthogonal glass atrium on four levels. Halaf also wanted the staircase to be without any visible supports.

 

Given the complexity of the project, Halaf assigned the job to Tomer Gelfand, a master craftsman specializing in supplying architectural solutions for engineering problems.

 

The structure of the staircase is composed of two intertwining parts: the skeleton in metal, and the sculptural enclosure in wood.

American tulipwood, a relative light material with great strength in relation to weight, was selected because it matched the requirements of color, as well as cost, performance and workability. The project involves the use of a total of 120 cubic meters of tulipwood.

 

The dramatic staircase is not just a work of art due to its unusual form, but also an example of how high-tech design and traditional craftsmanship with wood can be combined in a modern project.