A House within a House

Located on the site of the original summer house, the house sits in a rather diverse development of one- and two-storey family residences and allotments. The construction is divided into two concentric parts: internal and external. This arrangement, together with the house’s distance from the street, ensures a certain intimacy and solitude. The house divides a long plot of land (14 x 54 m) into front and back gardens. The front garden, including a gravel access road, is characterised by lush, untamed vegetation, while the back garden, tucked away behind the house, is more residential in feel. Greenery plays an important role in the concept of the house, with climbing plants extending wildly over a translucent screen of corrugated PVC and creating an interesting play of shadows as night falls. In contrast, the atrium garden adjoining the bedroom has an atmosphere of zen-like tranquillity.

For the interior house, which includes the basic living spaces, the architect used a 3 x 3 grid with a dining room vertically inserted at its centre. A large skylight echoes the dimensions of the dining room, creating a sense of life in the open air and ensuring that enough light penetrates to the central part of the layout.

The house’s second, outer, layer extends across the entire width of the plot and creates an interstitial space between the inner house and the garden. It consists of a translucent PVC screen attached to a steel supporting structure and is used for functions and activities that don’t require year-round or permanent use. A garage, a pool and a covered storage space for sports and garden equipment are found here, along with wooden terraces of various sizes, sections of which are covered. A covered walkway of sorts, it is in direct contact with the natural world, but also protects the interior house from inclement weather, enhancing its feeling of intimacy and offering an ingenious link to the world outside. The inner house is made of reinforced concrete blocks, with monolithic ceilings. The space is further divided by wooden partitions with built-in shelving.