PROJECT YEAR: 2020
LOCATION: MAGDALENKA NEAR WARSAW
AREA: 270 M2
DESIGN TEAM: PAULINA JANUSZ, MATEUSZ ZAJKOWSKI, MICHAŁ CYCHOL
The landscape in which the newly designed house of the Z3Z ARCHITEKCI studio is to be built is so strong and uncompromising that it dictated the next steps to the architects during the design process from the very beginning. The brick house near Warsaw is located on a plot in the middle of a dense pine forest. The austerity and consistency that the architects strived for is visible both in the form of the designed building and its finishing material.
The house consists of two main blocks connected by a connector with a communication zone and a garage. Day and night shapes are analogous. Both have the same width, roof pitch and finishing material. The element that distinguishes these two blocks is their spatial layout and designed window openings. The night structure was founded on a strong base in the form of a communication link and an economic zone. The whole composition is balanced and creates a clear, simple form. The ascetic character of the solids has been broken with the use of protruding, horizontal glazing above the kitchen cabinets.
A clinker brick with a rough texture and unusual length has become an ideal material that reflects the raw context of the surroundings. The gable roofs were covered with flat ceramic tiles in a shade of graphite. The façade of the economic zone has been finished with fiber-cement boards in a shade of dark gray, which emphasizes its cold, technical character, but at the same time, in opposition to the naturalistic brick, adds an elegant overtone to the block. In addition, in order to insulate the entire layout, in the area of the terraces, boarding in the natural color of wood was used in the undercuts of the body. The roof over the entrance, which naturally goes to the interior with the same finishing material, on the other side of the building also creates a roof over the leisure area on the terrace. Thanks to the axial location of the connector glazing, future visitors will be surprised to see what is happening on the other side of the building when they stand in front of the entrance to the building.
The main glazing of the building is directed towards the plot and the forest located on it. The daily zone with communication has been almost completely glazed. Thanks to this procedure and the smooth transition of external finishing materials to the interior, the boundary between the interior of the house and its surroundings is blurred.
On the ground floor, in addition to an extensive day zone with a living room and dining room with a ceiling up to the roof, there is also a guest room and a bathroom with a sauna. A private terrace is directly adjacent to the bathroom, where there will be a relaxation area with a jacuzzi. On the first floor, all auxiliary rooms are located along the northern border of the plot. These rooms have relatively standard windows. The master bedroom and an additional room have been located in the extreme parts of the night block with the possibility of opening to the south-east and south-west sun.
The building, through the applied solutions, both functional and compositional and material, tries to blend in with the surrounding forest landscape. It aspires to become one of its natural elements.