The German Colony holds some of the most carefully protected buildings in Jerusalem, from Templer houses with inscribed lintels to the apartment blocks that filled in around them. We renovate here in English, and we plan around conservation rules rather than discovering them late.
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Inside listed and unlisted buildings alike, planned around what the conservation file allows.
Modern kitchens fitted into protected shells without disturbing the protected fabric.
New bathrooms in buildings where service routes have to be found rather than cut.
Repointing, stone cleaning and pitched roof work to conservation standard.
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The original Templer houses along and around Emek Refaim date from the 1870s onward, with pitched tiled roofs, carved stone lintels, shuttered windows and walls that are often close to a metre thick. Many are formally listed for conservation, which shapes what can change on the outside and how the work has to be carried out.
Around and between them sit later apartment buildings from the middle of the last century, which carry no conservation status and offer far more freedom internally. The two sit a few doors apart, so the first question on any German Colony job is which of the two you actually own.
For a listed building, the permitted scope is decided by the conservation file, not by taste. We pull that file before design begins, so the drawings we put in front of you reflect what will be approved. It is slower at the start and considerably faster than redesigning after a refusal.
German Colony projects often have an approvals stage running before anything is built, and that part does not need you in the country. We pull the conservation file, prepare the submission and keep it moving while you are abroad, then start on site once the position is clear.
Throughout, one English speaking contact handles the project and the municipality between them. Updates come on a set schedule with photos and video, approvals for any cost change are taken in writing first, and payments follow completed and inspected stages.
Many of the Templer era buildings are, and plenty of later ones are not. The municipality holds a conservation file per address, and it is the only reliable answer. We check it for your property before any design work starts, at no cost, and tell you plainly what it allows.
Interiors are usually far more flexible than people expect. The protection normally concentrates on the facade, the roof form, the windows and any carved stonework. Kitchens, bathrooms, services and internal layout can often be modernised fully, as long as the protected fabric is left intact and the right approvals are in place.
It adds cost in specific places rather than across the whole job: specialist stone work, made to measure joinery to match originals, and a longer approvals stage. The internal work is priced much like any other renovation. We separate the two in the quote so you can see exactly what the conservation element is costing.
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