[Telluride] Telluride Residence- John Pawson

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John Pawson

Telluride House
Telluride, Colorado United States, 2001
Altitude:8725 ft (2661 m)

Central to the design of this house in the ski resort town of Telluride is its context of powerfully direct vernacular building forms. From the outside, the scale of the house is deceptively modest: with windows only on the flank wall on the ground floor, the existence of the second floor is hidden. By keeping to the east side of the building plot, the house maintains and enhances existing views. Public rooms are on the upper floor, to take advantage of the mountain views through glazed gable ends, while bedrooms and bathrooms are on the ground floor. The choice of materials reflects the local palette, with flank walls of stone laid in random courses, a weathered timber upper structure and metal pitched roof.


Images were taken with

KODAK DX6340 Digital Camera
Tv(Shutter Speed) 1/250
Av(Aperture Value)3.4
Exposure Compensation 0
Color Space sRGB

This somewhat unassuming structure is a fine distillation of its neighborly context while still maintaining its individuality and dignity. One might get the impression from the high rear wall, the extended rear gable beyond its neighbors and the screened and occluded windows that the house is attempting to shelter its inhabitants from its neighbors. The large tree at the street corner intersection also hides the front from prying eyes. The exterior siding is a pickled wood which seems to be an attempt to make the modern addition fit in with it older (styled ) neighbors. I am not fond of this choice nor the plain aluminum of the fascia. I would have hoped for Zinc and a Natural wood finish.

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The scale and proportions are quite magnificent. The shapes iconic without becoming Post Modern Michael Graves renditions. I have to say though i find very little about the Telluride of the new Millennium to be 'modest' as Pawson describes .. understated, humble unassuming but modest would be quite the stretch.

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You can see from the images ( particularly looking up the side street) there is a 'rich' context of styles, sizes and unique characters. I cant comment on the specifics of the interiors since I was not inside the residence nor do I have much documentation other than the attached imagery. This interior looks very typical of Pawson's materialistic reductions. Pawson interiors ( those that I have seen and inhabited ) seem to be a half monastic cell and art gallery. The openness of the spaces is always immediately apparent, not just for lack of ornament and furnishing but more in the feeling of the space coupled with the memory of the business of outside and the quiet of within. I think these images although carefully scripted and composed ( theirs not mine) speak to this internal quiet. There is as always a simultaneous refinement and accumulation of simplistic detail.

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more context

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These spaces are not for everyone .. but neither are most peoples unique creations. Even though you hide it all away in cupboards and closets there (thankfully )seems to be no space for porcelain figurines nor 20 years of National Geographic nor that cozy chair from your college dorm, although it still looks a lot cozier than any Zaha Hadid or Peter Eisenman creation.

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Telluride is about 75 miles from Four Corners Monument ( where four states intersect at one point:* Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado)N 36° 59.938 W 109° 02.710* (NAD 83)
Altitude: 4862 ft

Four Corners USGS Bench mark

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, 150 miles of wonderful twisty single mountain roads from Moab, UT
(Arches National Park)
N 38° 27.560 W 109° 27.530* (NAD 83)
Altitude:6365 ft

Rocks Bench mark, Arches National Park

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, 300 miles from Denver, Colorado on mostly windy 3 lane highway. 5- 8 hours depending on what you are driving...