tetris house

1. Location
The house is located in beautiful surroundings - set within a wooded area, quite close to the little river, at the outskirts of Bukowno – small town in Malopolska region, Poland
2. Plot
The Site is very long and narrow with the road access from the shorter (southern) side , this has determined the shape of the footprint of the house.
3. Clients and their demands.
According to the clients the primary objective was to provide a living space in the ground floor which will be open towards west, and towards the garden in the northern part of the site, and in the same to let in maximum sunlight from the south and south-west , open and transparent as possible
On the first floor clients requested to divide the space in two separate zones (for house owners and their guests) and a big terrace in the middle, sunlit from the south-west.
These primary demands and a few additional ones have created quite interesting puzzle to solve.
4. Solution (Response)
Architects have divided the whole program of the house into blocks with particular functions like: garage zone, hall and utility, kitchen and dinning room, living room,studio - on the ground floor, and a few blocks on the first floor -like master bedroom, guest rooms, hall, etc..
The spatial response to all of the client`s demands was a set of different size “cubes” located on two levels, with opportunities for varying connections between spaces, placed in a clearing among the trees. Playing with the juxtaposition of volumes, each containing different functions, designers created final shape of the house , which reminds Tetris blocks.
Organized along eastern boundary, the building has been situated so that all windows and terraces are connected with the garden and open to the sunlight. On contrary eastern and south-eastern elevations are very minimalistic, simple planes only with entrance and garage doors.

5. Skin
One of the initial intentions of the clients and the architects, was not to make a bold statement but to make this house submerge with the landscape.
The plot and the surroundings are densely wooded.
The material palette for the exterior is very simple - the black painted wood for the cladding, and large glazed openings in a dark aluminium frames. The result was more then expected- the house perfectly fits in the surrounding space and on the first glimpse almost melts into tree lines.

Area: 280 m2
construction method : traditional
facade cladding : painted wooden planks (pine) mounted on wooden frame