Hanging barn on a mountain plot in the Beskids by INOSTUDIO

The Beskydy area has always been close to us. Both in terms of recreation and design. Although the headquarters of our office is located in Gliwice, many of our single-family house projects are realized right there in the mountains. Beautiful landscapes, rich relief and also a bit of sentiment - one of the founders of our office, INOSTUDIO, comes from Ustroń and hometowns, as you know, attract. However, designing in the mountains, especially on inherited plots of land, is difficult, it requires a lot of effort, creativity, design gymnastics to come out with a decent architecture.

A "hanging barn" house on a mountain plot in the Beskids by INOSTUDIO.

Vision: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

How much easier it is to design on flat plots of land, where everything is obvious and much simpler... however, there is something about mountain locations that attracts us, perhaps it is the fact that when taking on a given subject, we never know what will surprise us and what the end result will be. This was also the case with the house in Ustron. The investors became the owners of a beautiful mountain plot of land. On one side surrounded by a valley on the other by mountains: Równica and Czantoria. The plot, or rather two large plots of land, divided by a line of trees, was in a slope and had access from both the north and south.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

Vision: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

The investors wanted a rather large house. Not only was it to include a standard home area, with living and sleeping areas, but an additional requirement was a spa area with saunas and an exercise room. During joint discussions it also turned out that two houses away live the parents of one of the Investors, and one of the requirements was independent access to the SPA zone just by the parents.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

Vision: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

Although an entrance from the north is theoretically better than an entrance from the south, after numerous attempts to arrange the building on the plot, we decided on the latter solution. As a result, both the access to the house and the longer side of the house are laid parallel to the contours of the land, and thus can be flat and on one level.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

Wiz.: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

The plot is quite large, so the house could boldly have been one-story. However, we decided that one part of it would be elevated to the second level. This procedure was dictated by two aspects. The first: views. From the first floor you can see the neighborhood from a different perspective, views that are inaccessible from the first floor appear. The second, typically practical, natural roofing of the entrance and part of the terrace.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

Vision: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

We decided to separate the SPA area from the house and locate it in the lower, northern part of the plot, that is, on the side from which visiting parents would come. Due to the slope of the land, it is sited slightly lower than the living area and is connected to the house by a light glass connector, which includes an independent entrance. And that's what we wanted - to enter the SPA, you don't have to go through the house.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO - landscaping

In the project we opted for a contemporary, minimalist architectural form. The house consists of three, clearly accentuated blocks - two on the first floor, on an "L" shape, in light gray colors, and one "hanging barn" on the first floor, in a brown color scheme of burnt wood and dark tile. By adding an upper, overhanging section, the horizontal mass of the first floor gained dynamism.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

Vision: studiotiimo © INOSTUDIO

It was also important for us to get the impression of clearly intersecting blocks of top and bottom, black and white, so the eave line of the lower part is in the same place where the bottom of the upper block of the building begins.

House "hanging barn" on a mountain plot in Beskidy by INOSTUDIO

The L-shaped first floor part creates a sheltered recreational space of the garden with two terraces at different levels. On the side of the recreational space, i.e. to the west, we designed a large amount of glazing that opens up the view of the valley at the same time. On the other side of the house, in the overhanging section, although it is located on the north side, a view of the mountains opens up through the huge glazing.