The Yokneam cultural hall and the Ron Center in Rishon LeZion

In a residential building the specification is measured in square metres, wall thicknesses and finishes. These two buildings carry a further measure that no drawing shows, and it is the one that decides whether the building works: how it behaves with sound.

Two public buildings completed by Tawfik Zidan Ltd:

A cultural hall: long span, acoustics, and an audience

The Yokneam cultural hall is an auditorium. An auditorium is not a large room — it is a different building type:

• Span — a hall needs a structure that bridges a long distance with no columns in the middle, and that governs the whole frame.
• Acoustics — the shape of the walls, the materials and the ceiling are part of the engineering design rather than decoration, because they decide how the hall sounds.
• Occupancy — the number of seats fixes the width of the exits, how many there are, and the evacuation routes.
• Stage and systems — lighting, amplification, rigging and air-conditioning infrastructure that exists in no residential building.

A learning centre: the same problem, reversed

The Ron Center for the Gifted in Rishon LeZion is a teaching building. Here acoustics work the other way: small study rooms have to be isolated from one another, so that one group does not hear the next.

A new education building is also built with protected spaces, under the Civil Defence (Shelter Construction Specifications) Regulations and Home Front Command guidance. The company's other education projects — the Gliliot campus in Nesher and the Ma'agan Michael school — are covered in the article on the campus and the article on Ma'agan Michael and Tardion.

What these two add to the picture

The company's nine public buildings cover five distinct categories: education (Nesher, Ma'agan Michael), academia (Ruppin, Jezreel Valley), public administration (Sha'ar HaIr in Afula), commerce and offices (Tardion), and culture and learning (Yokneam, the Ron Center). That is range, not repetition — and range is a figure that can be read without relying on a description.

Rishon LeZion also adds a point in the coastal plain, alongside Psagot Modi'in (120 housing units) and Ma'arava in Gan Yavne. Details in the article on Psagot Modi'in and the article on Ma'arava.

The full list of public buildings is in the article on them, and all the projects on the projects page.