Article taken from A&B issue 7-8|23
Beauty, goodness, sustainability - are these values still relevant?
What are the biggest design challenges of single-family house architecture today?
The house was designed in wood construction, the prefabricated assembly took about 2 weeks
Photo: © HausWerk
Creating single-family homes for their future owners is governed by different rules than designing developer housing. For an architect, it is a pleasure to build trust and a relationship with an investor who entrusts the comfort and often the quality of his future life into his hands. Our role as designers is, at the outset, first of all, to understand the investor's needs. Each house in this case is like a tailor-made suit. At the same time, the conversation between the architect and the investor is not only about functional issues, but also about matters related to light, spatial and view relations between different parts of the house, connection with the environment, healthy materials, and in recent years also ecology or low energy consumption. We all know that a good home space can inspire, build human relationships and allow for relaxation. These are the kind of homes we strive to design.
House in Wola Justowska Kraków | design: HORIZONE Studio
photo: © HausWerk
Investors who build houses for themselves are dream partners for architects, as they care about quality. On the other hand, an architect should not abuse trust - restraint in form, materials and functional rationality is a virtue. We managed to create such a relationship in the case of a house project recently completed in one of Krakow' s districts - Wola Justowska. The plot was thoroughly unfriendly, relatively small, with a large neighbor's house on the south side, which took away light and an attractive view from the access side. We were also troubled by the chaos of the forms of the neighboring buildings, created by their different sizes and roof shapes. We decided to move the center of life of the designed house to its central part, composed around a small atrium. The house is reasonably sized - the living area is about 180 square meters, plus a garage and an underground section housing a gym, laundry and technical room. The individual floors are connected by a simple openwork staircase. Adequate light is provided by large glazing, directed in such a direction that you don't have to worry about overheating the house. An attractive accent that lets sunlight deep into the central part is a skylight located above the staircase. The house was made of wooden prefabricated modular elements, which, after being made in the factory, were assembled on site in a relatively short time. Wood is a graceful material that is increasingly being considered as an appropriate, healthy and ecological solution for house construction, which we try to use in the projects of our office.
House on Wola Justowska Krakow | proj.: HORIZONE Studio
photo: © HausWerk
House in Wola Justowska district Cracow | project: HORIZONE Studio
project: © HausWerk
