Moving to a new apartment? The project that will tell you if the building is slated for demolition
AI researcher Ido Nitzan Hidkel was forced to move apartments in Tel Aviv twice in less than a year and a half due to hazards and construction work he was unaware of. Consequently, he launched a project that centralizes information scattered across municipal websites and official documents. Here is how you can check your intended address.
Moving to a new apartment is usually accompanied by familiar checks: you inspect the apartment itself, examine the price, take a look at the neighbors, check the utility bills, and talk to the landlord. But how many of us really know what is going to happen in the building's surroundings a few months later?
Ido Nitzan Hidkel, an AI researcher at the Israeli artificial intelligence company dtectvision, experienced this problem firsthand — and not just once — and decided to find a solution: a website that would centralize all information about residential areas slated for demolition or renovation in Tel Aviv.
In a post on Tuesday on the X network, the researcher shared that just half a year after moving into an apartment in Tel Aviv, he and his partners were forced to vacate it after cracks were discovered in the building and it was defined as unsafe for living. Following the situation, they moved to another apartment, but only eight months later they discovered that the building opposite their new apartment was also about to undergo demolition as part of a 'pinui-binui' (evacuation and construction) project — and they had to move again. As a curiosity, he also attached a picture of the wall in his previous apartment, which, in his words, 'decided to relax' after six months of renting.
'After this happened to us twice, I started thinking about how little we really know about what is happening around an apartment before renting it,' he noted.
According to him, almost no one checks if construction work will begin in the building opposite in half a year, if there is a permit application for the building itself, or if significant development is planned in the area.
With the click of a button — this is how you will know if the apartment is slated for demolition
The information in question (whether a building is on its way to demolition or renovation) does exist, but it is scattered among municipal websites, protocols, permit applications, and various documents — the kind that no person usually tends to read before signing a lease agreement.
Following this insight, Nitzan Hidkel decided to take a break from research and work, and built a small side project called 'Lama? Tama!' (Why? TAMA!).
The system works simply: users enter an address (as of today, only in Tel Aviv), and the site attempts to locate relevant projects in the building and its surroundings. The goal is to understand at what stage of the process they are — from planning and approvals, through permits, to the stages of demolition and work on the ground.
'The idea is simply to know, before renting an apartment: is there something about to happen here that I should know about?' he explained. The project is available at lama-tama.com. The researcher emphasized that the site is still in its early stages and there is more to develop, but it can already be tested.
