52 DIGS.NET
| 5.20.2022
P R O F I L E | T E N S T U D I O
a shaded outdoor area, also offers storage space with a garden
bathroom. Furthermore, it introduces the natural surround into
the central space of the building, while the house's main floor
overlooks the forest. "Every element of the house emphasizes
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."
Accessible to all, but inhabited by one—the owner, a local crafts-
man who specializes in interior refurbishment and domestic
maintenance. Fueled by the project's central premise to include
the owner in the process of making the house, TEN fostered
a dialogue that was key to identifying material resources and
local skill within the region. It also went a long way in mani-
festing innovative solutions, such as the in-situ casting of the
exposed concrete foundations with recycled steel sheets and
accurate formwork by interior joiners. The result of this meeting
of minds "not only contributed to the local economy, but through
experimentation in the procedure of construction, offered new
applications for local construction skills," the studio notes. "Left
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exposed, this reveals the proof of labor and skill in the forces
driving construction, while the formal expression demonstrates
the human factor in the production of dwelling."
The project is as much a house as it is an idea—a continua-
tion of Yugoslavian Modernism, a movement that sought to
transform society via the local reworking of progressive tech-
nologies and self-determination in design and construction. In
that tradition, and with its use of everyday materials and local
makers (including a metal workshop close to the site), Avala
House was, in the words of the studio, created "in the form of
the ideal contemporary home" in order "to create a product of
regional significance." And of spectacle besides, with its open
steel frame, extravagant glass and four terraces that connect
at corners to offer "a new horizon for dwelling."
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