Commissioned to design a small suite of offices in a noisy cardboard factory near Ben Gurion Airport, in Israel, architect Irit Axelrod decided to create an interior that asserts a sense of 'quiet power.' So she used materials like concrete, glass, and stainless steel in ways that emphasize both their industrial roots and their sophisticated finishes.

Visitors enter the new offices of the Cargal Group from an indoor walkway above the factory floor, where enormous machines crank out cardboard packaging and forklifts scurry from one place to another. To separate the 2,000-square-foot office space from the racket of the manufacturing facility, Axelrod erected a concrete-block wall that provides acoustical privacy and a rugged sense of enclosure.