GD House

GD house is located in a prestigious neighborhood of single family houses near Skopje. Its concept was defined by the conditions of the site and the program, requested by a couple with two children. It was decided to place the volumes (built and vegetation), along the perimeter, creating a big courtyard in the middle, to which the main functions of the house open. As a sort of landscape, the architectural layout is generated by a serious of bands with east-west direction. We used row concrete as a reference to the Macedonian most brilliant period in modern architecture, made by Kenzo Tange and the architecture of its Macedonian followers.

GD house contains: a parking garage, a main house (with 3 bedrooms, a living room and a dining room, a studio, a closed kitchen and a big library), a swimming pool and a guest apartment. One of the main issues was organizing the plot in a way to form an introvert world secluded from the surroundings. It was decided to place the volumes (built and vegetation), along the perimeter, creating a big courtyard in the middle, to which the main functions of the house open. In the north and the west side it was positioned the house program; the south and east side become a mirror image of vegetation volumes enclosing the courtyard. Each side of the house offers a different level of privacy and relation to the outside space. As a sort of landscape, the architectural layout is generated by a serious of bands with eastwest direction. Different ceiling heights characterize the various ambients of the house.

The materials that are used are part of the Macedonian local culture and consolidated building techniques. It was decided to use row concrete as a reference to the Macedonian most brilliant period in modern architecture, made by Kenzo Tange (after the terrible earthquake in the 1963) and the architecture of its Macedonian followers. It s the material that distinguishes Skopje from other European capitals and still constitutes our urban landscape. The concrete has been cast on site, revealing a sedimental character of the material. The house's outside appearance is enigmatic, entirely different from the houses in the neighborhood. The closed cubic forms with a street facade made of row casted concrete reveal nothing of the luxurious world inside. Only by entering the house, through the heavy wooden gate, one gets into an entirely different inner world & an oasis of tranquility, a living space that is generous and open, where inside and outside merge into each other.