House of Unpolished wood / 2017

Only once in the over thirty-year history of the office, we have worked in Poland with a real budget for a building. I do not know if this is our national trait, but investors, even if they seem to be well off, assume the cost of implementation to be lower than the real one. Citing price research on the market is useless. They just believe it. Interestingly, not only private investors believe the same but also for example the organizers of architectural competitions. A concert hall with the highest acoustic, lighting and installation standards, with top-class finishing materials and full stage automation for 3.5 to 4 thousand per m2. – Sure why not. 

The basic parameter for purchasing an apartment from a developer is the low price per square meter. And yet such a price must result from something.

I usually ask the investor if he drives a car with the lowest price per m2. Oh no. Then why is he buying an expensive car that will sell in three years at half its value, while the house will live a lifetime and the quality of the materials has a major impact on the maintenance and repair costs over the years? I never got an answer to that question, but faith remains. It’s just in our blood. We know Tatars, Cossacks, Russians, Germans – Polish plains easily accessible from every direction. It wasn’t worth building permanently because war will destroy everything.

In the case of this house, a young couple who approached us did not have any excess cash. But a young marriage is a developmental marriage. There will be children, income levels will increase. Is there a way that will lead them to their dream home for the foreseeable future?

The solution is a house in itself inexpensive and achievable in stages. The stages of a single-family house are not separate parts. It would be technically unjustified, but the finishing of the children’s rooms (which are not there yet), the additional bathroom and the office (the owner is a hairdresser) can be postponed for later.

The house is a one-story house, built of Silka blocks insulated with mineral wool. The structure of the roof and the ceiling above the ground floor is made of prefabricated wooden trusses. Corrugated sheet roof. However, in order for the house to be not only inexpensive but also nice, we had to come up with something.

The most difficult thing was to convince the client to use unplaned boards with an uncut outer edge. You couldn’t blame them as only smooth and polished wood is considered beautiful. But finally, we got along with the decision of using the unplaned wood for the facade. The garage block was cladded with horizontally arranged wooden boards, and this is the only difference that will differ from the main house facade, the corners were decided to be accentuated with flat metal bars. 

In the main building, the boards are to be arranged alternately flat and edgewise, with the edgewise boards left natural and unbrushed. The boards are to be impregnated and left in their natural colour to slowly turn grey over the years. The play of light on the highly tectonic surface of the façade adds to the beauty of the building.