The simple, square plan of the MJ House, designed by architects from the Kruk Rasztawicki studio, can be misleading. Well, just a two-story single-family house divided into a common living area on one floor and a night area - with bedrooms and bathrooms - on the next floor. However, it's far from the classic forms of the surrounding houses - the monolithic, minimalist and thoroughly modern body similar to a parallelogram is adapted to a steep, narrow plot with a spectacular view of the city and the bay.
The elongated plot on which the MJ House was designed is characterized by large terrain differences of several meters. The architects, starting from the cube form in the process of shaping the body, adapted the building to the relief of the slope, significantly lowering the part on the garden side.
solid shapingscheme
© Kruk Rasztawicki Architects
As a result, from the side of the road the building looks like a minimalist, single-story house with a single, large storefront window illuminating the living area. On the other side, where both floors are visible thanks to the unevenness of the plot, the architects planned horizontal cut-aways and glazing allowing residents to enjoy the views from both the bedrooms located on the -1 level and the living room and kitchen on the first floor. The large glazing illuminating the interior from the street is repeated in the rear elevation, bringing natural light to the high living room with mezzanine for most of the day. The parallelogram-shaped side elevations are devoid of windows.
Left: front elevation; right: windowless side elevation
vision: Wydmy Studio © Kruk Rasztawicki Architects
Blended into the steep slope, the white, geometric block with a little more than 200 meters of usable space, as specified in the local zoning plan, is covered by a (also white!) gabled roof.
As the mass of the building, due to the terrain, is surprising, its sculptural form represents pure monolithic minimalism: white plaster on the facades, white membrane on the roof, simple detailing kept to a minimum, the designers from Kruk Rasztawicki Architects add.
rear elevation
vision: Wydmy Studio © Kruk Rasztawicki Architects
The functions in the monochromatic block have been arranged logically to its layout, but inversely to the usual - the upper floor houses the living room, kitchen, dining room and terrace, while the lower floor has bedrooms. In the rear elevation, in addition to large glazing, the architects also placed a narrow rectangular opening with a staircase leading directly to the upper floor.
