Interior Design Sense

Architects: KWK PROMES
Location: Opole, Poland
Project Architect: Robert Konieczny
Collaborators: Marlena Wolnik, Łukasz Prażuch
Design Year: 2002-2003
Construction Year: 2003-2006
Site Area: 10,057 sqm
Constructed Area: 660 sqm
Photographs: KWK PROMES

Location

The house is situated in Poland, close to Opole. Majority of low density settlement in the surroundings is formed of “cube – houses”, buildings typical for the 1970’s.

Idea

One hectare site near the forest, where the building is designed has only one weak point: south-western access. An obvious conflict develops between the driveway and the garden. The idea arose to lower the driveway in order to separate it from the garden. This prompted another idea – of a driveway leading inside to the ground floor level, from underneath the building, which became possible thanks to the creation of an inner atrium with the driveway in it.

New type of the house

As a result, the building opens up onto all sides with its terraces in an unrestricted manner, and the only way to get into the garden is through the atrium and the house.

This in turn has made it possible to obtain a new spatial model of the house, which is the reverse of an atrial building. The aatrial house is closed to the inside and opened to the surroundings.

Structure and materials

The gateway is situated in the highest point of the site sloping to the east side. The 10 metres wide driveway following slope’s declivity, was additionally lowered underneath the ground level, while the garden was partly raised above this level. As a result, the garden is separated from the driveway and the surroundings with a 2.5m high retaining wall. The building was situated on the garden level. For the sake of neighboring buildings, typical polish “cube – houses” arisen it 1970’s, the structure of the house results from various transformations of a cube.

As a result of stretching and bending particular surfaces of the cube, all the walls, floors and ceilings were defined, together with inner aatrium and terraces. This principle of formation has not only created the structure of the house, but also defined interior and exterior architecture, including use of materials. The building is a reinforced concrete monolith, and concrete is at the same time the finishing material of the transformed cube, while all additional elements are finished with dark ebony.

The driveway and retaining walls were made out of quarried granite blocks, the material characteristic for the surroundings.

Architects: Luca Selva Architects
Location: Witterswil near Basel, Switzerland
Project year: 2005-2006
Project Architect: David Gschwind
Copper Contractor: Leonhardt AG, Basel, Switzerland
Main Contractor: Risi Holzbau AG, Allschwil, Switzerland
Photographs: Ruedi Walti

The house is situated in Witterswil, a village in the agglomeration of Basel, approximately 15 minutes by tramway from the city center.

The already existing pavillon-like structure served as a doctor practice. The new owners (a pastor’s family with three children) acquired it in 2005 with the idea of expansion and turning it into their home. In order to leave the surrounding garden area untouched the architects proposed to extend the structure vertically rather than horizontally, thus respecting the building’s original footprint. A new ground floor as well as an upper floor were built onto the existing basement structure.

The floorplans display the architects’ research into the succinct division of spaces by minimal means. The ground floor plan is characterised by the generous hall, a space where family life takes place and where the children may play or do their homework.

The architectural ambition was to avoid a strict didactical extension in which the new part is dialectically opposed to the old, therefore accentuating their differences. The idea was to create one single new entity, a new house. After the demolition of the pavillon superstructure a new wooden framework was built onto the existing basement structure. The architects now had to find a suiting shell, one that is able to show that a new structure has been added to an existing one. The semitransparent copper cladding, with its dark brown colour against a black background evokes timelessness, preciosity and elegance. It gives the building a familiar air and it reminds the onlooker of something that seems to have always been there rather than emphasising on being new. The windows are set onto the facade like picture frames (also in copper) and depict its depth.