Daylight
Capture
Project Name
The Oculus
Sector
Offices and Commerce
Location
Yokneam, Israel
Year
2024
Project Team
Project developed at
Auerbach Halevy Architects
Role
Computational Design
Concept Development
Oculus reimagines the contemporary workplace as a connected environment shaped around light, landscape, and collective experience. Rather than a conventional office block, the building is organized around a sculpted central void that brings daylight deep into the plan while creating a shared civic heart for the workplace community.
The project balances efficient commercial floorplates with a generous public realm, establishing a workplace that supports collaboration, wellbeing, and long-term adaptability. Through a combination of open circulation, integrated planting, and carefully framed views, the architecture encourages interaction while maintaining flexibility for future modes of work.
© Yonah Odendal
At the centre of the project, a circular atrium carved through the building mass creates a visual and social focus. The void establishes a continuous relationship between ground level activity and the upper floors, allowing daylight, vegetation, and movement to become visible throughout the building.
Rather than functioning as a conventional lobby,
the atrium operates as an internal landscape.
Terraced seating, informal meeting areas, and
shared amenities transform circulation into a place
of encounter, encouraging spontaneous interaction between occupants from different organisations
and departments.
The office floors are organised as flexible and highly adaptable work environments. Large, efficient floorplates support a variety of workplace configurations, from focused individual workspaces to collaborative project areas and shared social zones.
The ground floor extends the surrounding public realm into the heart of the project. Planting, seating, and informal gathering spaces blur the boundary between building and landscape, creating a welcoming environment for both occupants and visitors.
Visual connections to the atrium and surrounding landscape improve orientation and occupant wellbeing, while the stepped geometry introduces opportunities for terraces and outdoor working environments throughout
the building.
By concentrating activity around the atrium and public interfaces, the project transforms the workplace into an active social destination rather than an isolated commercial object, reinforcing the relationship between architecture, community, and nature.
A lightweight external veil wraps the building, providing solar moderation while maintaining a calm and unified architectural expression. The envelope filters daylight and reduces heat gain, improving environmental performance while preserving outward views across the surrounding landscape.
The building's layered façade creates depth and softness, allowing the building to respond to changing light conditions throughout the day. The result is an architecture that appears simultaneously robust and lightweight, balancing performance with a clear
visual identity.
Oculus is conceived as more than an office building. It is a workplace ecosystem where architecture, landscape, and environmental performance are brought together through a single spatial gesture. The central void becomes both the organisational and symbolic heart of the project, creating a building defined by openness, connection, and light.
Project developed at Auerbach Halevy Architects. Selected drawings and diagrams by Abigail Benouaich.
Some renders and schematic elements are based on original project materials.