Private house Vaskmaja -Copper House

Private House VASKMAJA ,Tabasalu ,Estonia The house is situated on a limestone plateau near Tallinn, close to the sea in a small rapidly developing residential area which was formerly occupied by a Soviet army base. The location is open to winds blowing in from the sea with a nearby forest park including a limestone cliff which has been placed under state protection due to the uniqueness of this coastal feature in this area as well as its size and the spectacular view it offers. The client is a young family with two children. The clients wish was to get an atypical house. Since the family originates from a South- Estonian village the architectural solution combines hints from the Piusa natural sandstone caves in South-Estonia and the so called proto-house as a spatial conception of the primitive mother.

Historically Estonian wooden houses are unfinished and naked before nature thus the building material is continuously changing during the course of time. The special structure of the Copper House was designed to resemble a cave in its complexity and reflective of change suggesting the rotation of seasons. The materials used inside are monolithic concrete, natural birch plywood, birch parquet. From the outside the house is covered with copper sheet. The structure is surrounded by slightly billowy lawn. The bordering fence is transparent, made of perforated and folded zinc sheet. The effect created by this is a misty horizontal 'cloud' which conceals the yard from the outside world .

The reason for proposing: The house is under process of permanent change, it continues self-construction according to the parameters architect has directed: Being opened from all directions, it reflects every change of light. The circulation of day and night, light and darkness, time - is supported by the round shape of the building. The same can be stated about the outside characteristics. Due to the chemical reactions of copper, the active changing never stops. In such context ROOM TIME and LIGHT are in natural interactive co-existence. Urmas Muru Peeter Pere Tallinn nov.2004