MEDITERRANEAN LOOK-OUT.

A house built on the precipitous slope of an olive grove in Turkey celebrates tradition and a remarkable site.

In 1972 Walter Stelzhammer paid a visit to Turkey and by degrees to Fethiye, on the south-west coast opposite the island of Rhodes. Confrontation with the Bay of OluDeniz nearby was for him a moment of epiphany. One of the Mediterranean's most beautiful natural bays, it is surrounded by mountains and scattered olive groves and embraces a peaceful reed-fringed lagoon, a nature reserve and habitat of rare birds. At that time, there were no tourists, just a remote unspoiled landscape traversed by sandy roads and donkey tracks.

Some 10 years and many visits later, and by now eager to build a house, Stelzhammer acquired a plot of mountain land from a local farmer. Foreseeing that altitude might mitigate the fierce summer heat he chose the steepest, most inaccessible corner of an olive grove. With no electricity, no machines and no water, he acquired some hand tools with which to break the rock and dig out the site.

Over the following three years, retaining walls were built from stones taken from the hillside. A spring was tapped 200m up the slope and water channelled down to the building site; a shelter was constructed against wind and rain and a kitchen built at right angles to the uppermost retaining wall.

Set upon stony foundations, the house was to be wooden; considered a temporary structure in Turkey, it was exempt from planning consent. Over a period of 10 years it was built at various times by Stelzhammer, his uncle (a retired engine-driver), a young Austrian carpenter and two young sons (of pre-military service age) of a Turkish farmer. Wood, sawn and prepared, was successfully imported from Austria, together with machinery for dressing and assembling it. In 1987, importation was not without difficulties because of the necessity of passing through what were still eastern bloc countries.

A more magnificent site is hard to imagine and Stelzhammer has made the most of it. Backing north-west against the mountain and elevated above the olive grove, the house overlooks the bay and wild encircling landscape. Its design is more sophisticated than the simple structure conjured up by the idea of a timber frame. On plan the building describes a shallow articulated arc which follows the curve of the terrace on which it stands, and is linked back to the hillside by the stone structure providing kitchen and caretaker's quarters, and from which a flight of steps leads towards the road. Space between the outer convex curve and the concave one of the retaining wall has created an almond shaped courtyard, an inner sanctuary shaded by two ancient baobabs. It is ventilated by the open wooden staircase which connects wooden with stone structure and, overlooked by verandahs, is paved with coloured stones found by family and friends in the sea. In the rain, the close-textured composition has the colours of a keli m.

Set about by shady overhangs, the wooden house stands two storeys high and one room deep, broad when seen head-on and slender from the side. Its north-east corner is punctuated by a kind of tower formed by a pavilion (for a studio) perched on the roof. Bedrooms on the first floor are skewed away from the thrust of the arc so that they look back towards the east and their balconies, projecting from the main body of the building, create intriguing asymmetries.

Like all good architects, Stelzhammer works with the climate making use of convection to draw air through the building. High-ceilinged rooms give onto shady verandahs and covered terraces and are further ventilated by slots, cut between ceiling joists and closed by sliding shutters. Louvred shutters over doors and windows protect interiors from the heat and allow air to circulate; they can be hinged up from the middle adding another layer of animation to the building's exterior.

Architect

This house has of course much in common with buildings found on mountains elsewhere: the inherently sturdy structure built of few materials, the oversailing roofs. But the indefinable delicacy of the wooden composition with its shady overhangs and balconies, upper lights and arrangement of windows in series, is reminiscent of Turkish tradition, and the romance of old Turkish houses. P.M.

Walter Stelzhammer, Vienna

Planning assistant

Ahmet Igdirligil

Construction

Franz Schneeflock, Josef Reiter, Johann Reiter, Emin usta, Mustafa Cardas

Photographs

Rupert Steiner