The levitating home: a Serbian mountain house stands metres above the ground

Made of local materials and inspired by contemporary, socialist modernist, and traditional architecture, a sleek glass cubicle home rises on the Avala mountain near Belgrade.

Designed by architectural practice TEN, which has offices in Belgrade and Zurich, the Avala house, completed in 2020, was built over two years on an existing inclining orchard garden. The glass cubicle covers an area of 256 square metres, and it has four additional terraces, spreading over 156 square metres.

The project, designed as the home of a local craftsman, was made in collaboration with a neighbouring metal workshop, and involved several innovations, such as casting exposed concrete foundations with recycled steel sheets, carried out in-situ rather than in a workshop.

The architects drew inspiration from local influences, such as wooden houses on pillars which are traditional in rural areas, and Belgrade’s Avala Tower, a concrete telecommunications structure built in 1966, destroyed during the NATO bombings in 1999, and then reopened in 2010.