Braided house project

Location

The house was designed on a plot located on the edge of an intimate estate of residential single-family houses in the immediate vicinity of terraced housing. The idea behind the project was to design a building that would be a kind of transition from the intensive scale of terraced housing to the intimate forms of villas and create an urban link between spaces of a different character.

Braided house design

Plot

The picturesque narrow plot, accessible from the west side from Taneczna Street, is less than 16m wide and has an irregular longitudinal shape close to a rectangular trapezoid. The plot has wild vegetation with numerous self-sown trees and shrubs. Although there are slight differences in elevation due to previous use, the plot is basically flat.

Braided house project

Location on the plot

In order to make the best use of such a narrow plot and the existing urban conditions, the single-family 2 unit building was designed to use the entire width of the plot. On the eastern side it approaches the impassable building line of Taneczna Street, while on the western side it uses the existing irregular geometry of the plot with its faults.

The design of the braided house

Communication layout

In terms of communication, the plot will be served from the east. Access and access for each of the 2 units will be provided
from the public road through individual exits from Taneczna Street - one for each of the units. For each of the 2 units of the single-family residential building, 2 parking spaces will be provided, one of them as built-in in the body of the building and the other on the plot.

The design of the braided house

Body of the building

The building was designed as a 3-story massive mass more compact on the eastern intensively urbanized side, and cascading/flexing to the south and west, from which sides it took on a pavilion-like form. Adopted
shaping of the mass is to give the impression that the building, in a way, "blurs" in a south-western direction towards the afternoon exposure of sunlight and the intimate development of a colony of residential single-family houses. The form shaped in this way
allowed a controlled play of natural light in the interiors, and numerous faults and patios created many intimate spaces of the garden with arranged high low vegetation. The interior spaces were separated from the exterior only by large-size glazing, eliminating visual limitations and "leading" what is inside to the arranged gardens, thereby visually filling the interiors with natural light and vegetation. The backyard gardens have been filled with openwork forms of light pergolas screening intimate/private zones from view from the streets.

Braided house design

Functional layout

The functional program of each of the 2 units of the building is identical. However, due to the directions of the world and the body of the building, they were organized differently. On the first floor of each unit, all daily functions have been organized: an entrance area with a dressing room, a living room with a dining room, a kitchen and a public toilet, along with a technical and utility room and a 1-car garage built into the body of the building.

On the first floor 3 bedrooms have been located, one of which, facing the street, has been provided as a workspace. The master bedroom is provided with a spacious dressing room and an en suite bathroom. This bedroom is most exposed on the south and west sides.

The other bedrooms are provided with one shared bathroom and a spacious dressing room accessible from the circulation corridor. On the top floor for each unit, single-space meeting and relaxation rooms have been located. Thanks to the glazing of both the east and west facades, the possibility of separating 2 independent rooms and a bathroom has been provided. All floors have been connected by a single flight, in its form a light openwork staircase with cantilevered steps. The central location of the staircase and its form give the interiors plasticity and individual character. The building with its glazing "opens" mainly in the eastern and south-western direction, towards the sun. However, due to the location of the building in the sharp boundaries of the southern and northern borders of the plot, through the shaped intimate patios in the body of the building, natural lighting and a view of the arranged greenery in almost all rooms, including bathrooms, is provided. Due to the high water level and the provisions of the Local Development Plan, the building has no basement.

Facades

The layout of the facades is a dynamic interplay between what is full and transparent, what is light and heavy, massive / monolithic and cascadingly sculpted, full planes and glazing framed and what is light monochromatic and naturally wooden, openwork. The full facades obscure the interior where there is a need to limit the view due to the proximity of neighboring lots, and the glazing brings in the most beautiful southern and western light and natural vegetation. The massive body contrasts with framed glazing and park-like forms of canopies - pergolas. On the north and east sides it is compact, on the south and west sides it forms cascading forms. Full planes of smooth walls are adjacent to framed glazing, which gives the building dynamics. The whiteness of the plaster and noble light gray became the background for the dynamic arrangement of glazing, and numerous pergolas made of natural okume wood. Thanks to natural materials, the whole took on a friendly idyllic character. Thus, the idea of creating private enclaves on an intimate scale, where nature fully coexists with what is internal, was realized.