House in a House

The family house is located in a stabilized area of detached houses and garden plots. Set back from the street, it has the same position as a former garden house. This provides certain intimacy and isolation. The central situation of the house splits the plot into the front and rear garden. While the front garden is conceived as lush, informal vegetation, the rear garden hidden behind the house has a more formal character.

The house itself is divided into two concentric parts – the inner and the outer. The inner part is comprised of basic dwelling components and laid out on a Palladian 3x3 grid with a vertically accented dining room in its centre. The outer part consists of the additional programme – patios of different size and proportion, garage, pool and storages. It forms an in–between space, neither a house, nor a garden, it serves as a mediator between both of them.

The construction of the inner house is a combination of concrete blocks and reinforced concrete cast on site. The outer house is conceived as a steel frame clad with semi-transparent PVC sheets. The house takes advantage of a heat pump and has a controlled ventilation. There is a natural fresh water pool in the outer house.