54 DIGS.NET
| 5.20.2022
P R O F I L E | T E N S T U D I O
So long as that perspective can shift. The different surface
material of each terrace expands 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," TEN points out. "These allow the house
to undergo a total transformation of scale and atmosphere."
Among these components is one wall of 10 large pivoting steel
doors that allow the living area to swing from a single indoor
space to an open embrace of the external.
Inside is a space of necessity—a soothing view and little else.
A house such as this poses the obvious question: What else is
needed? Order is implemented by floor-to-ceiling curtains that
partition off the sleeping area from the kitchen, dining, sitting,
and bathroom, but the house is assertive in its essentialist
feeling. This is also true of Modernist glass houses by the likes
of Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe—compositions not
without complications, but sanctified fascinations to this day.
It's tempting to see Avala House as another flirtation with the
radically transparent, but not entirely fair—or accurate. "The
house inverts the priority of building a traditional protected
shelter in nature, by allowing various scenarios of exposure to
nature within the building," TEN explains.
Is that not the point of indoor/outdoor living? To not just to
expand one's space, but to expand within one's space? A
space where to view nature is to also live among it. This is Avala
House—a reminder that the element of all the great architecture
is indeed the elemental. ten.studio
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"The house inverts the priority of building
a traditional protected shelter in nature, by
allowing various scenarios of exposure to
nature within the building," TEN explains.
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