Mountain House - OPENSTUDIO
Mountain House

Near the equator in Tanzania there are very few reliable building materials. Bricks are too soft, timber is untreated and not properly cured and traditional building techniques require too much maintenance for a home that is not permanently lived in.

This house is therefore based on the dimensions of a concrete block and curving black dry-stone walling. It is designed to fracture into the dense surrounding trees, so that the architecture feels the pressure of the landscape and responds to it.

The sinuous lines of the surrounding mountains are the origins of the undulating roof, but it is cut into and sliced to form an ambiguous architectural form.

Drawings