Tel Aviv-based interior and furniture designer Sarit Shani Hay says her award-winning design concept is ‘a project with a lot of value to society.’

“Inclusion” and “mainstreaming” aren’t just educational buzzwords for Tel Aviv-based interior and furniture designer Sarit Shani Hay.

Hay breathed life into those words at Bikurim, the first inclusive school in Tel Aviv. In this new model elementary school, one-quarter of the pupils have physical disabilities or are on the autistic spectrum.

The municipality and the Inclu Foundation commissioned Hay to design a flexible pluralistic learning environment. It had to be comfortable for the children with special needs while encouraging creativity, collaboration and interaction among everyone.

Her work at Bikurim won the 2020 social design award from Frame, an Amsterdam-based design and architecture media company. Within a week, Hay’s accomplishment was reported in places such as India, Dubai and New York.

“The idea of inclusion in education has existed almost 50 years but that doesn’t mean it’s well organized in terms of design. This is a way to make design for change from our small country. I think it will make a lot of noise.”

It’s not the first time Hay’s work has been featured in Frame nor the first time she’s won an international prize.

In 2018, she won an A’ Design Award – the world’s largest design competition – for her preschool complex in Tel Aviv incorporating themes of vegetables, fruits, market stalls, crates and delivery trucks inspired by the history of the site as a former produce market. This was also named a favorite by Archilovers social network for architects and designers.

“I’ve been working for almost three decades, the last 11 years in school and preschool environments for many municipalities,” Hay says. “My main expertise is design for children and public spaces.”

Last year, Hay’s studio voluntarily designed a school for children of refugees in Tel Aviv. Archilovers chose it as “Best Project for 2019.”

Sarit Shani Hay’s studio designed the interior of a Tel Aviv school for refugee children, pro bono. Photo by Itay Benit
Hay worked with the principal of the Al Razi School in the Israeli Arab village of Tamra to design classrooms that soften the hard transition from kindergarten to first grade.

Every piece of furniture is custom made in Israel by craftspeople handpicked to translate Hay’s vision into reality.

She and her staff played with geometric shapes that could be molded to support group activities for all children regardless of their physical or mental abilities. This flexible furniture, alongside intimate soft nooks, features calming colors and wooden materials to prevent sensory overload.

“Last year I was invited by the Jewish Agency to do three talks around America about pedagogical design,” she said.

She also gave a public lecture in Jerusalem, “Thinking Out of the Box,” with Lior Ben-Shitrit, (lbsarchitects.com) the Israeli architect/urban planner who designed the unique “Yes I Can!” ADHD classroom at Darca High School in Kiryat Malachi.

Ben-Shitrit recently designed an experimental space for younger kids with ADHD, including a chair with a special movement mechanism.

With creative minds such as Hay and Ben-Shitrit, Israel is leading the way toward a new age of classroom design where no child is left behind.