Can the fanciful, 19th-century patterns of Alpine architecture be combined with the cold logic of a cubic module? The 77 STUDIO architektury led by Pavel Naduk shows that it most certainly can, and an example of this is the Swidernojer, a house inspired by Świdermajer architecture.
It is said that the only typically Polish way of building is the Witkiewiczian Zakopane style. This statement is too vague, as many local varieties of European architectural movements (such as a specific redaction of mountainous, interwar modernism with stations of the railroad to theKasprowy Wierch or the presidential palace in Wisla), there were also numerous efforts to develop a national style, which was seen in the notion of familiarity, medieval heritage or noble manors.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
swidermajer style
Michal Elwiro Andriolli, a draughtsman and painter, illustrator and, finally, the author of designs for more than a dozen villas he built in the 1880s in his two-hundred-acre "Brzegi" manor, located on the Swider River, was devoid of such ambitions. It gave its name to a style that was very quickly adopted in the region - Świdermajer, as Konstantyn Ildefons Gałczyński jokingly called it, took over the architecture of villas, summer houses and sanatoriums on the so-called Otwock Line, running along a section of the Vistula Railway, southeast of the borders of Warsaw. Decorated with wood carving, the wooden buildings with a large number of glazing are today a testimony to the imagination of Andriolli, who in his designs combined features of the Alpine style and functional solutions of Russian dachas with his own inventiveness, expressed in the way he modified the Mazovian houses presented at the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition in 1885. Many of the buildings constructed in the Świdermajer style (and there were more than 500 of them) have not survived to the present day due to the flammability of the construction material and the lack of conservation protection. However, the Swidermajer villas still spark the imagination of architects, the best expression of which is the latest realization of 77 STUDIO ARCHITECTURE.
Świdernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Studio of Architecture
swidermoderna
This is not a secondary neo-Swidermajer, but a contemporary reinterpretation of the style from the end of the 19th century. In Falenica, formerly a village and now part of Warsaw's Wawer district, a single-family house was built to house a couple from Zakopane. Not surprisingly, they opted for a design that harkened back to architecture as distinctive as the wooden buildings in their hometown. The proportions of the plot, which was too narrow and did not allow for a functional building in this style, stood in the way of erecting a classic Świdermajer. So the architects of 77 STUDIO ARCHITEKURY used their experience from earlier projects in similar surroundings, including the House on the Edge and the Light House, deftly combining the body of the house with the existing terrain.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
house of cubes
Swidernojer is a single-family house designed for four people, to whom it offers 324 square meters of usable space. This fit on two floors, laid out within two adjacent rectangular wings. The dimensions of the building are based on a cube-shaped module. This one is subject to numerous modifications in the suburban realization, which allowed the building to merge with its surroundings. The architects managed to do this in two aspects of the surrounding landscape - architectural and natural.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
swidermajer anew
The first, refers to the Swidermajer style mentioned many times before. The architects have dispensed with the traditional massing of the Świdermajer villa - there is no gabled roof, veranda or blue shutters. Instead, there is what is most characteristic of the Świdermajers, namely detail. This one manifests itself primarily in perforations and openwork structures that obscure the facades. The architects used rather minimalist motifs - rhombuses, bracing, trusses and vertical laths. Despite the simplicity, this was enough to evoke associations with the traditional architecture of the region.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
In keeping with the spirit of Swidernojer architecture, wood became the leading motif in 77 STUDIO's new project. The fence, facade covering, as well as garden furniture and numerous pergolas are made of wood. Spruce wood was used in the construction - unlike the pine wood traditionally used in Świdermajerow, spruce is somewhat easier to work with and impregnate. However, it is similarly characterized by its beautiful light color and intense smell.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
landscape in a cubic frame
Swidernojer was built on a small but beautiful plot of land overgrown with an old stand of trees - mainly pines and birches. The architects faced the task of making optimal use of the space, while saving as many trees as possible. This was helped by the modular structure of the house, thanks to which the projection of the building could be adapted to the specimens growing here. Some of them are located right next to the walls and windows of the building:
The view from the house to the garden is extraordinary. Sitting on the sofa in the living room, we have the impression that the branches of the trees hang over our heads and are at our fingertips
- claims the owner of Swidernojer.
Swidernojera's tree-lined design is not the only feature that helps it merge with its immediate surroundings. The cubic modules served not only to define the dimensions of the volume, but also to create a kind of buffer zones between nature and the built space. These zones are the terraces surrounding the house , which were "crammed" into cubic wooden frames. Some of the sides of the openwork cubes were filled with the aforementioned ornaments.
Swidernojer in Falenica
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © 77 Architecture Studio
swidernojer puzzle
From the side of the street, the Swidernojer presents itself similarly to the earlier realization in Jablonna. In both cases, the buildings take care of the privacy of the householders, hiding the interiors of the house from the eyes of passersby. In Dom na Skraju, the designers decided to move the villa back into the plot and to solve the elevation in the form of a homogeneous plane without window openings. In Falenica, on the other hand, the house is hidden behind a high, opaque fence made of wood. From behind its upper edge emerge the outlines of the second story of the house. One of its fragments is obscured by a Swidernojer openwork, reminding us that the Swidernojer is not only a contemporary villa, but also part of the region's architectural identity.
