'Things need to be ordinary and heroic at the same time,'
Alison Smithson
The side of the house
where the inside of the old cottage was left outside as a living area
photograph by Georg Aerni
One of the Precedent works for my little retreat is the Solar Pavilion Upper Lawn of 1956 in Wiltshire by Peter and Alison Smithson I did my dissertation about their Economist Building of 1964 and fall in love for their work. This was their own holiday home for 20 years. This little building describes their deep ideas of Brutalism despite this being very delicate. They applied the ideas for reusing and reinventing the existing, as described in their theory of “as found as” that basic needs of a house are a patio and a pavilion. That it only needs a ground, a view some privacy and nature to completes our physical and spiritual needs.
photograph by Georg Aerni
One of the Precedent works for my little retreat is the Solar Pavilion Upper Lawn of 1956 in Wiltshire by Peter and Alison Smithson I did my dissertation about their Economist Building of 1964 and fall in love for their work. This was their own holiday home for 20 years. This little building describes their deep ideas of Brutalism despite this being very delicate. They applied the ideas for reusing and reinventing the existing, as described in their theory of “as found as” that basic needs of a house are a patio and a pavilion. That it only needs a ground, a view some privacy and nature to completes our physical and spiritual needs.
The wooden frame,
cladding and glassing are very simple but it was very advanced for the time.
What interests me more about this house is the way it responds to its site and
to the people living there. For example the building never had heating so they
could experiment the weather as it was. The stair to the upper floor is like
climbing in a tree house. It was supposed to be like ‘camping in the landscape’
as they described it. The most fascinating space to me is the little terrace outside
where a window of the ancient cottage was left in place like an outside living
area. It is the most symbolic connection of the inside with the outside.
On the street side the Pavilion is all closed
to follow the ancient cottage wall, it reassembles a bird hide. On the other
side it is opened and invites the garden into the inside. Even the upper floor
reflects that because of the extensive use of glass. Inside, the house was very
modern and even minimalist because there they kept furniture to a minimal just
a table and shelves, there has never been even beds and they cooked on a stove
outside. The connection of the frame on the stone wall and the rooms to the
landscape and garden achieved something that is inspiring and transcendental
turning it more than a architectural piece but also a spiritual place.
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