Catch all- seize all / An interview with Noon Himmelmen. An architect and personal coach.
This is what Noon’s life looks like: yoga three times a week, work out three times a week, pilatis once a week and when Noon really needs to relax she goes for an ocean swim. Here and there she’s also a very wanted architect and a personal coach which uses Buddhist principals for her work.
And if that’s not enough the opening for her fourth exhibition will be held at the Jaffa port gallery on august the 18th.
“Do you think its too much?” Noon askes me
“Too much isn’t the term I’m thinking of” I answer.
Noon pauses for a moment and say “Well, I guess you could say I have a lot of spare time nowadays. My oldest son is 24 years old and he’s not around that much. My two younger sons are in the army and the youngest one spends a lot of his time out so I have a lot of spare time to myself.”
Noon, 56, didn’t always have a lot of spare time to herself. As a young girl with a future of endless opportunities she had to grow up suddenly.
“My father was a very talented architect. He always wanted us to work together but I didn’t want to because thought I could never be as talented as he was. He passed away suddenly when I was 18 years old and I had to grew up and help supporting my family financially”.
“So what did you do?”
“I bought pieces of cloth and fabrics at the old Jaffa market and made pillows, table mats, yoga pants and other items. During that time I decided to go in my father’s footsteps and study architecture in ‘Betzalel’ and the studied for my masters degree at the ‘Technion’. I worked during the years I was a student and even managed to save some money when I graduated.”
After graduation, Noon has decided to invest all her savings to buying and re-modifying an old factory in Jaffa. “It was a total dump” she tells me, “it had no roof and was in very poor condition. The property was in the heart of old Jaffa before its ‘magic’ became well known”
“How long did this process take?”
“About two years. It was very hard but it changed my life. My architecture was forged there. Not in Betzalel or the Technion. It was there that I met the challenges and limits of architecture and most importantly, it was there that I experienced with Muslim architecture that I adore to this day. It was also where I learned to ask the right questions about space, man and nature and to me this is what architecture is all about. I had two young boys at the time and I worked all the time, almost never having time to do art and when I look back at that time I feel it was a dark time for me. You could say I wasn’t breathing.”
“Is there a conflict the rational mindset of architecture to that of an artistic mindset?”
“For me its almost the same because I believe that architecture is a form of practical art, meaning that there are rules to follow- specs, civil engineering, bureaucracy and other nasty things. When you’re past that all that is left is the art itself.
My clients are looking for an architect, not an artist. Today architecture is ‘post journalist’ and clients will show you a magazine and say that this is what they want and I can see how confused they are. They want it to have beauty and I want them to first understand what beauty is to them.
What I do is I ask a lot of questions to figure out what they really have in mind and finally I design their home to suite their needs and wishes.”
“Would you say that art is more like a hobby to you?”
“I don’t think so because art comes to me in strong pulses. My art comes from true distress. My third exhibition ‘full belly’ was born after a crisis I had when I got divorced and the present one deals with questions that trouble me.”
“What sort of questions?”
“The new family I have, The global crisis, the phenomenon of globalization that effects us all. One of my work is called ‘globalization’, it’s a mosaic piece made of chine with blue decorations, these pieces of china were once very expensive but to day everything is mass-produced and you can get the same pieces of china on your local flee market. I can break them for mosaic pieces without thinking twice. It’s nice but it also trouble me because the borders aren’t as clear as they used to be. Its hard for me to live in an unclear world so I’m always looking for answers.”
“So do you have patience for your costumers when you’re busy with art?”
“Not as much, so I don’t take big projects when I’m on a creativity burst but I always have patience for coaching.”
“When did you learn to coach?”
“When my marriage was over I had a big crisis. I stumbled upon a seminar about Buddhism and got carried away into this fascinating world.”
Today, after a rough start, it seems like Noon had found her balance and happiness (even when she’s amazingly busy). Noon lives in a beautiful home, her new relationship is flourishing and she is doing the three things she loves: architecture, art and coaching. Not necessarily in that order.
Sometimes even the universe itself comes to Noon’s aid.
“I was walking on the street one day and found a garbage bin full of old skateboards. Who finds 13 skateboards in one place? I stopped walking, took the skateboards and that’s how a few of my sculptures were born. When I was looking for new ideas for my work my spouse, Sam, had called to ask me if I want 17 stares he had found while moving and so another idea was born.”
“So what is in your new exhibition?”
“I’m presenting pieces of furniture, ‘Totem’ masks, made of a verity of materials such as wood, iron and coconut shells. I’m also presenting pieces of mosaic and of course, new paintings.”
Noon says that she cooks when she’s happy and creates art when she’s scared or troubled. She says she’s not a happy person generally but in my interview with her I had found a happy, energy-filled woman who just wants to keep on enjoying life.
You too could get to know Noon and visit her fourth exhibition at the Jaffa port gallery, starting from august the 18th at 8 pm and ending at august the 30th.
From the book “Spring in Tel Aviv”
Noon Himmelman is a ‘Betzalel’ and ‘Technion’ graduate who is working with Israeli authorities on housing projects in Jaffa and Tel aviv.
When it comes to interior design Noon pays great attention to the use of spaces , natural light entry and to the constant dialog between spaces. She decided to re-build her home in Jaffa to achieve her dream of a stone home “with a window facing the Mediterranean sea”.
The planning for the re-modification was done in two parts: surround an interior while keeping the dialog between the two.
The surround has been cleaned and rebuilt as well as building two terraces facing the sea. Wood and iron bars and windows with different size and rhythm were also placed.
The interior was designed to maintain its original character.
The continuum of spaces was created by natural light penetration from the outside. The bars and cables create a transparent barrier.
Noon wanted as much natural light as possible to enter the interior, but not on the expense of the sense of privacy. A ‘skylight’ window proved to be the best solution. At the center of the apartment, the original old stone wall acts as a natural décor item.
The opposite is true / Marmelada site
Noon Himmelman’s exhibition is presented at her home, in the most natural surrounding you could find, and deals with complex conflicts. Don’t miss it!
When we were kids I remember that one of my friends’ mother, as part of her mid-life crisis, decided that she is a painter.
She would isolate herself from the outside world, working in her basement, throwing cans of paint on misfortunate canvases.
Every now and then she would host an exhibition at their home, invite all the mothers of our neighborhood friends and VOILA! She was an artist who’s works are presented in exhibitions. Since then I do whatever I can to avoid home exhibitions BUT-
Noon Himmelman’s new exhibition, presented in her home in Ramat Hasharon had set us free from that old feelings.
Her works, deeply influenced by the kabala deal with the conflict between the basic, cold iron and the beauty and happiness presented in the complex mosaic works.
Noons inspiration come from our freedom of choice, from the burden of balancing material balance as well as materialistic balance and from the balance between the tides and the lows.
These descriptions might sound vague but her works, like always, speak for themselves. Noon chose to present her works at her home in order to keep them in their natural environment, with her family, where things happen.
There’s no place like home.
“A patio between two squares” / binyan vediur. Nitza Sade
A long, rectangular house has been divided into two square parts separated by an entrance to a Middle-Eastern looking patio, the architect also used ‘cool’ materials like Formica.
With a blue wall, this is the home of Noon Himmelman. An architect which used aluminum to balance the warm materials.
On these pages: the patio at the center of the house with a blue niche towering two stories high. The glass floor of the patio allows natural light to enter the office at the basement floor. The patio is open from three sides and you can see other parts of the house through the openings.
The home of architect Noon Himmelman sits on a long, narrow lot.
By dividing the space wisely and placing the entrance at the middle of the lot she has overcome the sense of narrowness and created a Middle Eastern looking home comprised of two squares and painted in peach and blue.
“I have decided to place to entrance in the middle to avoid a long, narrow corridor” Noon explains.
“I placed a blue facing the entrance instead of a window to allow a sense of relief and to pause for a moment before turning to the left or to the right to the two square spaces: left to the living room and right to the shared family space.”
This house is constructed using a technique of using barriers, through which one can see other parts of the house and the eye isn’t blocked by walls.
This also allows natural to enter throughout the day.
We encounter a low niche wall immediately as we enter that stand along the ground floor. The ceiling does not sit on this wall bit instead it is supported by other support beams. Some of the niches are open while other are closed. The opening lead to the spaces and the closed niches act as a frame for pieces of art, book shelves or they might conceal service room or washrooms. This wall is peach colored, unlike the rest of the walls.
Garden space:
The blue wall facing the entrance is part of a patio surrounded by open walls. This wall, which ends with a curved skylight window, is two stories high and acts as a vertical contradiction to the house’s many horizontal lines.
The skylight is like a tube trough which light can enter the house and it also serves as a ventilation shaft – the windows are opened in the summer, allowing hot air to rise and escape thus eliminating the need for artificial air conditioning.
Up:
A low niche wall entering the kitchen and blending with an open counter in the dining room. The floor is lilac colored stone.
To the left:
View from the living room through two of the open walls that surround the patio. We can see the stairs going up to the bedroom floor and the back yard. All pieces of furniture were personally imported from Thailand.
The furniture and décor items were personally imported from Thailand. A door from Indonesia acts as a set for the dining room. This room communicates with the kitchen using an open counter.
On this page:
An item placed on the outside wall of the property.
To the left:
The entrance the property goes through a ‘terrace’ of some sort with bourdeaux colored doors.
The patio floor is paneled with decorative slabs of thick glass supported by steel frames allowing light to enter the office at the basement floor where Noon and her husband work. Another source of light that feeds the basement is a wall of windows right above ground level. Workers enter the dug office via a set of outer stairs while the owners can enter the office from within their home.
The two main squares from both sides of the patio are the living room-to the left and the kitchen, dining room and family area- to the right.
The living room is facing the street and at its edge lays a small garden. The bigger yard lays behind what Noon calls “the eternal trinity”- the kitchen, family room and dining room.
“ I believe that these three spaces, which are not dedicated to hosting guests, should be closest to the yard , where my children and their friends play.”
Up:
The back of the house is facing the big yard where the children and their friends play.
To the right:
A pergola connecting the dining room to the back yard.
An Indonesian door:
In order to go upstairs to the bedroom floor you need to climb the stairs from one side of the patio. The open patio space is closed with decorative iron strips for safety. The master bedroom is facing the back garden, to the quite area while the children’s bedrooms face the street so their friends could call them without disturbing the adults.
The floor tiles around the house are made of old lilac colored stone, creating a pleasant feeling throughout the house.
An outer door from an Indonesian house serves as a special background for the dining room. This room interacts with the kitchen via an open counter. The kitchen cabinets are coated with plain olive colored Formica and are decorated with mailbox handles and metal decorations.
“we decided to build our kitchen with formica because that is what we could afford but that has inspired me to prove that you can create a beautiful kitchen using formica.
To the right: the dining room with the Indonesian door serving as the background for the table and chairs.
Warm materials:
The way to the back yard goes through a paved balcony shielded by a pergola and in the future, vines will grow on the blue columns, which resemble the blue patio.
Bamboo sheets are spread on top of the pergola, giving it a Mediterranean style. The balconies on the second floor are panted in “rare earth” color and have grey rails.
The long openings were designed with Mediterranean proportions that the architect says are an attempt to “transform the arch shape of Mediterranean structures to a rectangular shaped one.”
Instead of choosing Belgian profiles and wood, which typically connect to this style, Noon chose to use ‘cold’ materials such as formica and aluminum combined with ‘warm’ materials.
“I have found that with the right context, colors and decorative items, ‘cold’ materials can indeed feel ‘warm”
Exhibition by Nun Himmelman “Search – Identity” / Curator of the exhibition, Kobi Carmi writes about Nun
Galerina Art / Artist Page