The house for a craftsman. Avala House by TEN Studio

28/07/2021. [Belgrade] Serbia
metalocus, ANNA CLARA BARROS

Architecture studio TEN Studio has designed a residence located in a pasture landscape on the Avala mountain near Belgrade, Serbia. Avala House raises a reflection on how design effort can turn sufficiency into a desirable form for living.

The main objective was to include the future owner in the process of making the house, a local craftsman who works in interior renovations and domestic maintenance. The result was a genuine conversation about the construction process, future use, and practical maintenance.

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Maxime Delvaux

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Maxime Delvaux

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Miloš Martinović

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Maxime Delvaux

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Relja Ivanic

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Miloš Martinović

Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography by Relja Ivanic

Site plan. Avala House by TEN Studio

Ground floor. Avala House by TEN Studio

First floor. Avala House by TEN Studio

Section. Avala House by TEN Studio

Facade. Avala House by TEN Studio

Construction plan. Avala House by TEN Studio

Model. Avala House by TEN Studio

Construction. Avala House by TEN Studio

Client and builder. Avala House by TEN Studio. Photography courtesy of TEN Studio

TEN Studio's project is a single-story space built on an existing south-sloping orchard. It is organized by a 3.2-meter grid frame, measuring 16 by 16 square meters, with an interior cutout of 9.6 by 9.6 meters revealing the terrain below. The sloping terrain offers shaded outdoor living space and introduces the landscape into the central space of the building.

The open steel frame structure embraces the landscape while establishing a new clear geometry and strong architectural contour. The house reverses the priority of building a traditional protected refuge in nature, by allowing various nature exposure scenarios within the building.

The plan unfolds on the outer grid as a sequence of four terraces that intertwine at the corners to offer a new horizon for the home. Each terrace has a different surface material, which provides possibilities for a variety of uses. Casa Avala uses everyday materials, personally shaped by the skills of local manufacturers to create a product of regional importance.

Description of project by TEN Studio

The Avala House is a residence situated in a pastural landscape on Avala mountain near Belgrade in Serbia. The house is a case study on how design effort can turn sufficiency into a desirable form for living.

The open frame

The house is a single-story space built over an existing southward inclining orchard garden. It is organised by a 3.2 metre grid frame, measuring 16 by 16 metre square, with an interior cut out of 9.6 by 9.6 metres revealing the terrain below. The surrounding surface forms both the inhabited area of the house and delimits the building perimeter. The frame utilises 80 millimetre square steel tube profiles welded in place and fixed to the structural minimum of three foundation points on the terrain. These points define the arrival area on the ground plane, and the positioning of two large concrete forms –like boulders in the landscape – dedicated to both an outside garden staircase and a storage space with a garden bathroom. The sloping terrain continues between and underneath the house, offering a shaded outdoor living space, and introduces the landscape, trees and natural ground cover into the central space of the building. The main floor above sets a new datum within the topography of the existing slope overlooking the surrounding forest. The open structure embraces the immediate landscape while setting a new clear geometry and strong architectural outline.

“… there is something brutal about having the outside on the inside”.

Eli Farnsworth.

The plan is developed on the outer grid as a sequence of four terraces interlocking at corners to offer a new horizon for dwelling. Each terrace holds a different surface material, providing possibilities for a variety of use. The boundaries of the steel frame are constantly challenged by these alterations in material (a hanging net, sheet steel, pre-cast concrete, the open frame) or through the performance of its movable elements. These allow the house to undergo a total transformation of scale and atmosphere. The opaque wall facing the central interior space is made of 10 large pivoting steel doors, allowing the living area to shift from a singular indoor space of 50 square metres to embrace the 156 square metre volumes of the four outdoor terraces. The large stretch of glass on the southern facade of the frame extends the living space to the rise of the distant hills. The customised sun shading closes this expanse, giving a singular interior space, discretely partitioned by a series of floor to ceiling full-length curtains defining the sleeping area from the kitchen, dining, sitting, and bathroom. In its open state, the main living is one in plan, dedicating the entire space to a single program if desired. The house inverts the priority of building a traditional protected shelter in nature, by allowing various scenarios of exposure to nature within the building.

Every element of the house emphasises the performance of structure and space, providing either weight or lightness at specific points, expanse or contraction at others. This is exemplified in the visible joints of the main steel frame, the connections to the bearing points, the exposed bracing and raw material finish. All details are revealed. There is a kind of directness that makes the house accessible to all.

The means of making

The owner – a local craftsman working on interior refurbishments and domestic maintenance – invited TEN to design, develop and build the house. The central premise of the project was to include the future owner in the process of making by specifying only available local material and construction knowledge, with design decisions on durable structures and surfaces to be repaired. This challenged the norm of architecture being a complete conceptual product, delivered to the site via the client, but instead opened the process as a genuine conversation on the process of construction, the future use and practical and necessary maintenance.

The conversation identified material resources, workshop skill and capacities within the range of the immediate region. It also brought about novel solutions like the in-situ casting of the exposed concrete foundations with recycled steel sheets. The accuracy of the formwork was determined by interior joiners, the casting with a self-compacting concrete mixture developed in dialogue with local subsidiaries and contractors. This not only contributed to the local economy but through experimentation in the procedure of construction, offered new applications for local construction skills. Left exposed, this reveals the proof of labour and skill in the forces driving construction, while the formal expression demonstrates the human factor in the production of dwelling. This extends the dialogue originating from the pioneers of Yugoslavian Modernism – a movement instrumental in the transformation of society through the local adaptation of progressive technologies and self-determination in design and construction. In the same way, the making of Avala House in the form of the ideal contemporary home uses everyday materials, formed personally by the skills of local makers to create a product of regional significance.

More information

Architects

TEN Studio.

Project team

Project leaders.- Nemanja Zimonjić MSc ETH Arch, Ognjen Krašna. Project authors.- Nemanja Zimonjić MSc ETH Arch, Ognjen Krašna, Jana Kulić, Dr. Miodrag Grbić. Tools & Workshop.- TRI MB Univerzal, Belgrade. Special Thanks.- Dr. Neven Kostić GmbH, Lafarge Holcim Serbia.

Collaborators

Ingeniero.- X = (T = E = N), Dr. Miodrag Grbić. Paisajista.- Ganz Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Zurich.

Builder

Client.

Area

156 sqm.

Dates

2020.

Location

Belgrade, Serbia.

Photography

Maxime Delvaux, Miloš Martinović, Relja Ivanic.

TEN Studio. TEN Studio

TEN is a Zurich and Belgrade based architecture studio formed in 2018 by founders and core members of TEN association. Studio works on the principle that value is an outcome of design effort, and aims to conceive, explore and produce ideas that both state and expand upon emerging practices in the built environment. Focus is on producing new realities, by means of buildings, urban proposals, algorithmic design, materials research and prototypes with a range of collaborators, institutional partners and private clients. TEN is composed as a record label; providing possibilities for forming interdependent work constellations for each project.

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The house for a craftsman. Avala House by TEN Studio

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