Conservatory House

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Conservatory House

Firm

Ignatov Architects

Type

Residential › Private House

YEAR

2010

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

The Conservatory House near Varna
is a place for recreation, relaxed chat with friends and fellow musicians, and contemplation
with nature. Local residential building code for rural areas required
collateral agricultural use which was in line with the owner’s desire for
having a large conservatory for growing flowers and hosting small life music
events. Steep, picturesque, but compromised site initially used as local sand
quarry and illegal waste dump later presented a good design challenge. It
pushed us to think about how to restore the original slope and rehabilitate the
local ecology. Naturally the waste was cleaned up, the house was fit into the existing
quarry pit and the conservatory was put on top of the living spaces for
catching maximum sunlight and minimizing footprint. This approach allowed us to
use the house as a retaining wall itself and restore the terrain around and
even inside it. The typical for every glazed garden heat gains and losses were
addressed carefully throughout the design. As a result the conservatory became
the main functional, aesthetic and environmental feature of the house. It allows
daylight to reach all levels of the house, balances the indoor climate by the
thermal mass of its soil, freshens the air with flower aromas and is a favorite
place for relaxation. In summer the house benefits from the conservatory’s
natural cross ventilation, while in the winter the residents enjoy its
greenhouse effect. Opaque insulated walls to West and North avoid summer
overheating and winter overcooling. Cooling and heating losses in extreme
conditions are compensated by a clean exchange with earth via six closed loop geothermal
probes connected to a heat pump and radiant floors. The glazed roof collects
all rainwater for irrigation and features integrated solar collector for domestic
hot water. Living spaces under the conservatory have minimal heat losses due to
its insulating effect. Reinforced concrete structure is chosen because of its
local popularity and affordability. It is designed with a central core and load-bearing
facade frames without internal columns and shear walls. Diagonal, vertical and
horizontal structural elements on the Southern and Eastern facades follow the
stress lines and reveal the building’s tectonics. Organized in this way, the
house resembles a tree with a green crown (conservatory), trunk and branches
(structure) and roots (geothermal probes) with the residence accommodated in
symbiosis within it. Natural landscaping promotes local plant species and
preserves local microclimate. Bio-active wastewater treatment unit turns waste into
bio-compost and irrigation water. Clean agricultural produce grown on-site
adds to the experience of the
Conservatory House.