Surrounded by a pine forest, a single-family house with a slit body is being built near Wilga in Mazovia. The building, designed by architects from Bień Architekci Design Studio, is located on a peculiar, sloping plot of land that fits into the undulating terrain.
The area on which the house is located is a heavily wooded plot with clearances in the central part. Its characteristic depression, the entrance placed at the northern border and the terrain, which slopes in a southwesterly direction, directly influenced the design work. The authors also made decisions to interfere as little as possible with the existing tree stand.
The house fits into the undulating landform
© Pracownia Projektowa Bień Architekci
house open to the forest
The investor proposed to the architects to take advantage of the hollow of the land and inscribe the body of the house into the undulating terrain. He also took an unconventional approach to the function of the building, leaving open the topic of how the house will function in the future. The most essential element and the heart of the house was to be a partially sunken floor with a large opening to the south side of the forest.
In the words of the architects:
The aesthetics of the building are the result of joint discussions with the investor and the trust he placed in us, knowing our perception of architecture and the modern world. The house was to be austere, but at the same time warm in perception, elegant, but devoid of glitz and slightly roguish, contemporary, but aged in a noble way.
The cutting of the block affected the functional layout of the house's interior
© Pracownia Projektowa Bień Architekci
cut block
Thebasement and sunken floor were designed with architectural concrete, while the above-ground part is finished with wood, inscribing the building into the forest surroundings. The simple body of the house with a sloping roof has been slashed - the displacement of part of it created an arcade for the terrace on the sunken floor. On the other hand, the eastern side of the house was cut and shifted to create an entrance area.
The separation of the solid was accented with two shades of wood
© Pracownia Projektowa Bień Architekci
The procedure of spl itting the solid also shaped the functional layout inside the building. It divided the house into a residential part: bedrooms, living rooms and an auxiliary part: a staircase with technical rooms and bathrooms. To emphasize the intersection of the monolithic shape and the displacement of parts of the house, the architects used two shades of wood on the facade. A lighter one as the sheathing, the skin of the house, and a darker one used in the cut plane, as the "flesh" of the monolith.
The main elements shaping the house are:
- taking advantage of the non-standard terrain and orientation of the plot in relation to the sides of the world,
- leaving the existing stand of trees and taking advantage of the environmental qualities, blending in with the forest surroundings,
- opening of the living areas to the forest,
- unconventional, functional guidelines of investors,
- identity of the body with the interior layout, consistency and coherence of the adopted solutions,
- minimalist architecture and aesthetic assumptions.
