The glass walls and grid steel frame define the Avala House, which was created by architectural studio No. 10 in the sloping orchard on the Avala hill in Belgrade, Serbia.
The residence was commissioned by local craftsmen and decorators who wanted to challenge themselves and his skills by building a house with local resources and a limited budget.
According to the Ten company in Belgrade and Zurich, the project conducted collaborative experiments with the client to understand what can be achieved within the budget.
It is built with local craftsmen, construction techniques and materials, and the length is all standard lengths, which will ensure that the project can be easily repaired or updated in the future.
The studio said: “The central premise of the project is to include future owners in the production process by specifying only available local materials and architectural knowledge.”
“This challenges the architecture specification as a complete conceptual product, which is delivered to the site by the customer, but instead, the process begins as a real dialogue on the construction process, future use, and actual and necessary maintenance.”
Avala House plans to revolve around a 16 x 16 meter steel grating, which is divided into 3.2 x 3.2 meter modules. A large courtyard pierced its center.
The enclosed living space is placed along one side of the grid, while the other three sides remain open for use as terraces.
The grid only touches the ground at three points. One is where the grid intersects the slope of the landscape, and the other is where the frame is located on two concrete structures.
The design of these concrete structures resembles boulders in the landscape. The largest one contains a bathroom, while the other serves as a staircase leading to the house.
Inside, Avala House is designed as a long open space with a sleeping area, a kitchen and dining area, as well as a lounge area and bathroom.
One side of the living space is a glass-lined wall, and the other side is a wall of ten large rotatable steel doors, which are completely open to the terrace.
The architect believes that the decision of such an open design is “completely logical”, because it can maximize the appreciation of the surrounding landscape and the large trees on the site.
The studio told Dezeen: “We are sure that nature must enter and you must be able to shower next to the fig tree.”
The structure and details of Avala House are exposed throughout the process, aiming to showcase the materials and details that artisans sourced locally.
Each terrace has a different but variable surface, including hammock-like mosquito nets, wooden planks and concrete slabs positioned around existing trees that extend through the frame.
Dezeen’s other houses built with glass and steel include Penelas Architects’ retreat in a clearing near Madrid, and Aretz Dürr Architektur’s double-height expansion of the pitch-roofed house in Germany.
Michael and Patty Hopkins used lightweight steel and glass to build their own high-tech residence Hopkins House in Hampstead, a northern suburb of London. .
Architect: TEN Project leader: Nemanja Zimonjic, Ognjen Krašna, Jana Kulić and MiodragGrbić Engineering: TEN, MiodragGrbić Tools and workshop: TRI MB Univerzal
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