A House Without Context
Investors approached with the desire to create a house without context, a space for the younger generation and a growing family. Within the existing farmstead, the building was to be located a short walking distance from existing farm buildings, while providing a buffer from agricultural activities and the access road, ensuring comfort and privacy. The living room with a kitchenette and atrium was to become the key area for the entire household's activities. The starting point for the finishes was to be a "modern barn" combined with industrial and Moroccan accents.
LOCATION:
The "house without context" is situated in the open space of a farm, far from any neighbors, positioned on the edge of the existing farm buildings belonging to the investors while remaining comfortably distant from their influence. The planned investment site is undeveloped and exposed, requiring the creation of not only the enclosed volume of the residential building but also external spaces in the scale of the farmstead and the building itself.
CHARACTER OF THE BUILDING:
The vast open space, exposure to weather conditions (wind, sun), and lack of architectural and urban context led to designing the building based on the primary spatial form of a rural farmstead.
BARN > FARMSTEAD > SETTLEMENT
The composition of the building's volumes aims to create the impression of a complex group of structures, a settlement that obscures the actual size of the building. This form creates functional semi-open, covered, or terrace spaces outside, allowing for diverse activities within and around the house, resulting in a multidimensional space.
Individual segments of the building distinctly represent their internal functions, unfolding and exposing them outward. This principle also applies to the finishing materials, whose combination allows for the reading of function divisions and balanced scale of the building.
The glazed main entrance is located in the covered part of the north-west corner and leads directly to the multifunctional living space, open to the vast horizon. This spatial part of the house is open and accessible from all sides. The raised ceiling height, open space with large spans, large glazing, integration with a semi-open atrium, and mezzanine floor make it a place where all household activities, including those leading outside, will take place. The ground floor additionally includes a three-car garage with a small workshop corner, utility and technical rooms, and a mudroom between the dirty and clean living areas of the house. The guest bedroom and office space are located on the eastern side.
The upper floor is exclusively the private zone, divided into the parents' bedroom area and the children's room section, along with an open mezzanine providing flexible arrangement for shared activities. Each of these zones has access to small terraces allowing direct contact with the landscaped exterior greenery.
The proposed finishing materials such as concrete, glass, titanium-zinc sheet, aluminum, brick, and wood ensure durability and timelessness for the building. Comprehensive systems for energy production, recovery, and conservation will be implemented in the building, ensuring low costs and ease of use.
Location: Glogow County
Authors: arch. Bartłomiej Zabój
Area: 400 sqm