A beautiful house
Design a Beautiful House - International Design Competition
Location: London’s metropolitan green belt
Year: 2015
Team: arch. Dana Tudor, arch. Dragos Nastase, arch. Ileana Balan
The whole process was a quest for integrity, a search to reconcile the ideal of a family with the absolute independence of the individual, so that every space inhabited becomes one to own: private, permanent - yet free.
We began with an intense study of the site, drawing geometries and vistas through the house and beyond it, explaining the inhabitant’s desires, moods, physical and professional need, until the natural setting, the people’s character and the design becomes a single idea.
The general concept of our intervention is to create a home that is bound to place and is born out of the natural context. A home that reflects in its approach both the diverse personalities of its family and the natural surroundings, that is open, adaptive and fits the personalities of its users in the best possible way. Each room gives it’s occupant a unique space, an individual view, a private conversation with nature, yet unity with the whole by means of a common architectural language, materials, pathways and vegetation.
The areas are conceived to be completely fluid, either permanent or to be arranged for future use. The non structural walls can serve as anything from screen cabinets to curtains. As much or as little of the house may be enclosed as desired, extending the inside of the house to the outside.
In order to achieve this, part of the living room windows can tilt, transforming the room in a amphitheatre in the summer and a solar house in the winter. The same goes for most of the spaces found on the ground floor.
Having this type of dynamic circulation the functions inside are now bound to general areas rather than rooms acting either as public or private spaces. This way, the general function plan was thought having in the center the 2 story open living room. The living room creates access towards the public areas such as the kitchen, dining, pool and cinema while still shading the private functions [bedrooms, office and study]. The link between the floors of the home is done by using the three different set of stairs or with the help of the home’s elevator.
From the exterior the house itself seems to dissolve in the landscape, only showing glimpses and fragments of itself according to its viewer. To a guest the home creates a warm private living space while to the members of the family it’s not as shy .It frames the exterior landscape in views destined for contemplation and awe.
This way, the home has a very distinct architectural discourse, it is more reserved at the main entrance while opening up towards the lake. Using pivoting walls towards the exterior the circulatory routs become dynamic, driving the family users to create their own personal path of exploration rather than a predetermined one. Interaction inside the house is ultimately up to the user.
They can either pass through the public areas or choose for a more discreet access from the secondary main entrance.
Our intervention represents a poetic and complex dialog between the enclosure and it’s surroundings , a proud air of isolation folded one into the other, but both allowed to breathe the rhythms of seasons.