Work submitted for the competition
"Best Diploma Architecture".
In old Poland, manors were considered a symbol of the family nest. Defined as the center of national, social and economic life, they nurtured traditions. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the manor house became the inspiration for the creation of a national style called manor style. The apparent ease of shaping houses along the lines of the Polish manor still takes its toll today. Today, the Polish landscape is full of pseudo manor houses widely regarded as evidence of bad taste. As a result, the subject of the landed manor has never been taken seriously in considering how to build Polish houses in the 21st century.
typology of manor houses, scheme
© Aleksandra Rusin
Reaching back to traditional forms of habitation is a search for original values not only in terms of architecture, but also a way of building familiarity. In addition, the problem of climate change forces us to reflect on a way of building with a reduced carbon footprint. Turning to indigenous architecture is therefore justified. Vernacular architecture was oriented towards simple and economical solutions for pragmatic reasons. There are many examples of regional architecture in Mazovia, while manors are such a developed form in terms of program that they have the potential to adapt these solutions to modern requirements.
elevations
© Aleksandra Rusin
The return to the form of manor assumptions is a controversial topic. On the one hand, it can be seen as an attempt to restore the economic model and the social group, on the other hand, the current chaos of the Mazovian countryside all the more begs for ambiguous solutions. The pondered situation requires the initiation of a discussion in the architectural community, which has so far overlooked rural areas.
projection
© Aleksandra Rusin
Due to the assumption that this will be a model house, a specific location was not chosen. The building was designed taking into account the context of the Mazovian countryside, it is intended to be a model example of the way of shaping architecture functioning as a rural farm in this region. It is a proposal for a country house responding to today's needs of a rural resident, a person who, living in harmony with nature, would like to run a contemporary small farm. The model country house was designed to achieve climate neutrality, which translates into a low carbon footprint over the building's life cycle. To achieve this goal, solutions were adopted not only in terms of materials and installations, but above all, methods of forming the body, layout of rooms or heating system were used, which were taken from traditional landed manors.
cross-sections A-A and B-B
© Aleksandra Rusin
The aim of the project was to obtain a model country house, which is based on the methods and principles of shaping landed manors. The whole project was designed based on the interpretation of traditional solutions, translated into contemporary language. The priority was to create an atmospherically neutral house, which at the same time meets the needs of today's family living in rural areas, maintaining cultural continuity in the way architecture is shaped.
view from the vegetable garden
© Aleksandra Rusin
Aleksandra Rusin
Illustrations: © Author
