Casa CR by Smiljan Radic
Right now, I’m working on a yoga studio near Zilker Park. We’ve been given a truly amazing site. We’re right next to Town Lake, or now Lady Bird Lake, in a heavily forested site that is surprisingly secluded considering its proximity to downtown.
While developing my yoga space, the climax of the entire building, I came across Smiljan Radic’s Casa CR. I was originally looking at one of his other works, Punta Pita, but Casa CR caught my eye. In this project, Radic wrapped the entire second floor in canvas. It creates this amazing lighting effect, while also keeping the space inside simple, perfect for yoga. I’ve since developed my project around a canvas light box that would appear to float among the trees.
The only problem is that I really can’t seem to find much about Smiljan Radic. Everything I find on him is in Spanish, and his project titles seem to have been translated into English differently. Thus, I don’t even know if Casa CR is this project’s real name. Nevertheless, I really like his use of canvas. It’s even inspired me to use it on my own studio window, since the university is too cheap to replace missing window blinds. It blocks out the harshness of the afternoon sun while still allowing light to enter. Now if I could only get this canvas all the way to the top of my window. I’m in need of a ladder.
This is actually Radic´s own house, it used to be an old house with a huge roof wich was removed to place this tent. The name CR HOUSE, is because Correa-Radic (his wife is Marcela Correa, a chilean sculptor), there´s no much info on this on the net, but there are a few books where you can find some more stuff.