who will: Gila Babich, 32, furniture designer and carpenter
Luna, 11, angry cat
where: The industrial side of the Montefiore neighborhood
seniority: two years
Meterage: 60 square meters
Instagram: Sure, here it is
“I was born in Ukraine and at the age of 4 we moved to Mitzpe Ramon,” Babich says. “When I was in high school we left for the United States and I stayed there to study journalism in college. At the age of 24 I felt lost and bored so I decided to move to Tel Aviv. I thought I would live here for a year and return to the United States, but when I arrived everything fell into place. I found myself surrounded by friends and a good job so I decided to stay. Since then I’ve lived here for 12 years, the longest time I’ve lived in one place. I’ve moved over five apartments in that time. My previous apartment was in the Hatikva neighborhood. It was a cute apartment but located next to the market and on the ground floor, so all day long I would hear people’s conversations. During Due to the corona virus, I decided to look for a new apartment in a quiet place with good light, so that I can also use it as a photography studio and document the furniture I build.”
(Photo: Ariel Arbel)
How did you become a furniture designer?
“I was born to Soviet parents in a family with many children, so I would see my parents do everything themselves – if a sofa is torn, they reupholster it, and if one of the children needs new clothes, they sew it. I believe that I was very influenced by this. Ever since then, I have always had an attraction to furniture, but my parents preferred that I I will deal with something practical (it is not clear how they thought that journalism is practical). After working for many years in the media 5 years ago, I decided to go for it and signed up for an upholstery course. In the course, you first build the models and then upholster them. Pretty quickly I realized that I wanted to build the furniture and not upholster it. I finished the course and signed up for the Ministry of Labor’s course, which is an intensive ten-month full-time carpentry course. The craziest year of my life. Then I did an internship in carpentry and in 2018 I opened my own studio.”
What’s it like to live among all your furniture?
“Wood is a living material and it twists and expands and contracts with the seasons and the weather changes. When I live among my furniture I experience all these changes. I see the space between the doors of the dresser grow and shrink and how the plate of the table enclosed within the legs moves closer and further away from them. The color also of the wood changes all the time, so I can see where the furniture started two years ago and how its color has browned over time. It’s also an opportunity to experience how different finishes behave and how the same wood looks in a different shade with each varnish you put on it.”
Photo: Gila Beach
“As a furniture designer, I tried to find my own language. For people to look at a piece of furniture and say, ‘It’s Galia’s,’ I noticed that I was interested in layers and decided to place two plates with holes in abstract shapes that I would manually cut on top of each other to create interest in the furniture and a sense of lightness and transparency that usually isn’t there In wooden furniture. When the sun shines on the furniture, they influence each other and it creates another dimension, like a new work of art.”
Bed
Photo: Ariel Arbel
When I entered the apartment my bed was too big to pass in a stairwell. I realized that this is a good opportunity for me to build a bed that breaks down and can be easily moved from place to place. I have another small room in the apartment that I thought could be used as a bedroom, but when I assembled it in this space to take pictures, I enjoyed the light and the space so much that I decided to leave it here.”
vintage furniture
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“From a distance it might look like a night lamp, but it’s actually a loom – a tool that hatters would stretch the fabric over to make a custom hat. I bought it from a vintage dealer who posted it on a vintage collectors Facebook community called “The Friends of VintageJulie”. I Addicted to these groups and always follows the objects that come up.”
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“My parents have a huge collection of vintage items. They live in the United States and there is a crazy abundance of old things because there are estate sales of people who pass away who sell all the contents of their house down to the level of the buttons, so they have a basement full of vintage items arranged in boxes Sorted by type. One of the last times I traveled, my mother gave me these binoculars.”
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“The plate is by Yara Oren, a painter I really like, she has abstract works that move me. For a long time I wanted to buy a piece from her, so I went to her studio and bought it directly from her. It’s nice that Tel Aviv has a community of talented artists and you can buy directly from the creator , there is something much more satisfying about it.”
the kitchen
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“The furniture that the previous tenant left behind was heavy and strange. The only thing I decided to keep was this industrial table that I felt suited the space.”
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“What’s hanging on the wall is a skeleton of a cactus. Probably a saber. A friend from the carpentry course once came back from a trip and brought it to me.”
the living room
Photo: Ariel Arbel
Photo: Ariel Arbel
Photo: Ariel Arbel
Photo: Ariel Arbel
“A dresser that I designed especially for the design week in Milan. The flower pot hanging on the side is by a ceramicist named Noa Razer. I feel that the two items are meant for each other because you can hang the flower pot inside the hole. I have a dream to collaborate with a floral designer who will make me a piece of furniture inside holes . On the middle shelf there is a thick book in Russian by Chekhov that we brought from Ukraine in the 90s, I always say I will read it and I get stuck on the first page.”
Photo: Ariel Arbel
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