Transformation of a holiday house
The project involved transforming an existing three-storey holiday house on the Tihany Peninsula. The ground-floor and lower-ground level – which now opens fully tot he garden – were cleared along the load-bearing structure, resulting in generous, flowing spaces; the attic, by contrast, required a more substantial intervention. The main axes present in the original house were retained and - through subtraction and newly established sightlines - made more articular. The site’s exceptional position allowed us to capitalise on what the old house had somehow overlooked: in addition to opening the living room corner toward the garden, the kitchen and dining room - occupying half of the ground floor - was reoriented to address the protected natural area at the rear.
One of the main challenges lay in the change of use: turning a holiday house into a home. As the brief evolved, the formerly patchwork juxtaposition of materials gave way to a more composed palette; as a reduction of the original, materials are now articulated in a more tectonic manner. Stone, timber, plastered surfaces and openings appear in different proportions on the lower-ground floor, ground floor and attic levels, resulting in different qualities in the three types of living spaces.
Inside, stone and roughened, exposed concrete extend outdoors and – combined with steel - form a canopy, a storage and a summer kitchen. The shaping of the house’s immediate surroundings can be interpreted from the perspective of the adjacent nature reserve. Tree and wildflower species native to the Tihany hills are introduced around the house as a continuation of the meadow.
