From The Garden House
How to fully enjoy your garden? Simply by building your house around it, making it the ultimate element of your landscaping project.
"From The Garden House" project was an unusual experience for KWK Promes Architects. The owner had a finished project of the garden, in advanced stages of implementation. And only the house was missing.
He wanted to be able to enjoy the garden to its full extent after the completion of the construction and moving in. Plants need much more time to reach their target size than it takes to build even such a large house. You might plant big trees, after all, however, it is costly and not environmentally friendly.
In Southeastern Poland, exactly in the vllage of Łąka, the nature lover turned idle land into a beautiful green oasis with a lake and a smooth road to the place where the house was meant to be located, also assumed as an art gallery. The curves, which he enjoyed moving around on, inspired Robert Konieczny and his team.
The ground floor of the house with the daytime part forms a continuation of these curves and fits in softly with the surroundings. This impression is complemented by the grey concrete used on the facades, which refers to the colour of the existing, stone road, being the starting point of the project.
The rounded form clearly separates the driveway from the rest of the garden, providing the residents with intimacy and silence.
The ground floor is contrasted with the white minimalist body of the floor. Two different geometries clash and a softly cut atrium is a link between both floors. The garden surrounding the house from almost all sides flows into its interior through the semi-atrium at ground floor level. KWK had only a minimal influence on the garden, so they treated it as a natural element that cannot be chosen. Hence the name of the project.
Another important aspect was the investor's wish to expose his rich art collections. Therefore, on the ground floor and the first floor, the architects created additional, large-size spaces designed exclusively for art exhibitions. The host can organise vernissages for a large number of people. Moreover, the most important functions of the house are in close proximity to each other to make it user-friendly.
The large shutters on the south and west elevations are not only of formal importance - finished with the same plaster as the walls, but they also close up the building in a uniform shape and, above all, protect valuable art collections from harmful sunlight.
The aim to improve the quality of the surrounding space is non-standard and surprising. Due to the chaos of buildings and lack of vegetation, he regreens the vast areas of idle land surrounding him. He is creating gardens, and then the construction of houses of different sizes follows up. KWK supported him in creating green urban planning and providing friendly, sustainable space to live in, with plenty of greenery for free, thus improving the quality of urban air.
The entire housing estate, just like his house, use alternative sources of energy.
Photographs: Jakub Certowicz.