Small Family Home With A Roof That Splits Into Two Sections
Every house has its own way of adapting to the topography of the site, to its location and what’s expected of it by the inhabitants. The FIL House, for instance, sits on a pretty small site with an irregular shape. It’s wider to the West and narrower to the East. The design that the architects of Beczak came up with deals with the asymmetry in a way that’s both practical and aesthetically pleasing.
The house as a whole is a one and a half storey structure, the half level being the mezzanine area which is also a part of one of the volume. This single-family home is structured into two zones, each with its own height. As a result, the roof has different heights as well, being divided along its length. The interior spaces are organized into two blocks, each with its own characteristics and design particularities.
The small dimensions of the site and the proximity to the road raised a series of concerns and challenges for the architects. The clients wanted the house to feel open and connected to its surroundings but at the same time to be enclosed and protected as not to sacrifice privacy. To make that happen, the architects designed a closed block to the South with a dark color facade and a second bloth to the North with a light grey exterior. The main openings were placed in areas where these two blocks intersect.
The Northern block is 4.6 meters high and contains the living room and three bedrooms. The bedrooms have lower ceilings and allowed room for mezzanine spaces to also be added. The roof extends to also cover a terrace oriented towards East. The Southern block includes the kitchen, the bathrooms, the laundry room and a guest room. It has long and narrow windows designed to offer privacy from the road. A freestanding privacy wall blocks the view towards the street and shelters a small second terrace adjacent to the kitchen.
The interior design is simple. In the living room, an unfinished concrete wall serves as an eye-catching backdrop for the fireplace and modern wall art. The wall continues outside, ensuring a seamless connection between the internal spaces and the outdoors. The dialogue with the exterior is smooth and beautiful despite the lack of glazed facades or huge openings. Since the site was wider towards West, the architects turned that area into a garden and made sure to place a terrace there as well. To the East, a gate built into the fence allows direct access to the garage from the road.