The story is as follows: a recreational center was conceived in the village, namely a decorative pond with islets and a walking area around. However, after a while it was decided to allocate three more plots for sale almost on the very shore. And in order not to spoil the expensive image of the central part of the settlement with unpredictable ideas of buyers about how their dwelling should look like, the organizers of the settlement ordered the projects of three houses surrounding a common pond to the architects of the PANAKOM bureau. Their ensemble should form the center of the settlement, surrounding its “front square”, which in this case is replaced by water.
All three sections have plans of a complex outline, close to a triangle. Two of them are almost symmetrical and are located on the very shore of the pond, while the third turned out to be at some distance. Although the house farthest from the pond is not exactly in the center between the other two, the authors of the project preferred to play the symmetry card, since you can find an angle from which the third building will rise exactly in the middle. Based on this, the coastal houses were made mirror-symmetrical and horizontal, elongated along the coast, while the distant building is taller and more collected, with rigid vertical zoning. From the side of the pond, the ensemble reminds of Egyptian motives - sloping green roofs are associated with scarabs, each of which climbed its own mound in order to flank the third house for the viewer, who is near the pond, and the pond for the residents of the building. From other angles, it looks more like one house is looking over the shoulder of another, trying to look at the water. By the way, the last floor is really conceived as an observation deck with a fully glazed winter garden pavilion and a solarium.
Working on the projects of the coastal couple (the total area of each is 600 sq. M), the authors tried not to visually clutter the landscape, even persuaded the client to install a glass transparent fence. However, at the same time, it was important to create a private environment for future tenants: to make the figures of people walking in public space unobtrusive, better not visible from houses, while maintaining beautiful views of the water.
The decision was prompted by the construction site itself - heaps of earth left over from the pond were piled on it. The architects "dug in" the houses on one floor. That is, while exercising near the reservoir, the walker sees a two-story house on a hill, while on the opposite side it turns out to be three-story, revealing an additional tier deepened into the ground. In addition, the volumes of the houses hide their courtyard lawns from prying eyes. It turns out that the houses, standing in the middle of the main public space of the village, provide their residents with coziness and privacy without the help of deaf three-meter fences. And at the same time they allow you to enjoy the picturesque views as if the pond is their own.
It is difficult to talk about the number of storeys of houses partially buried in the ground - the concept of levels is more appropriate here. There are a total of 4 of them, separated by a half-floor difference, on the ground floor there is a garage and rooms for servants, 2 - an entrance group and bedrooms, 3 - a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a terrace, at the very top - a master bedroom and an upper terrace.
The two upper levels in each house are combined into an independent volume, the decoration of which should differ in both material and color. The outer surface of the gable roof-wall is finished with copper. Complementing this peculiar interpretation of tradition is a massive stone chimney attached to the outer wall.
The third house differs markedly from the ones described above. It is smaller in area and is a white, four-story, streamlined tower, similar to a slightly crumpled cylinder. The shape of the plan was inspired by the bottle of perfume "2" from Comme des Garcons. This is an interesting piece of industrial design, invented several years ago - at one time a special event was even dedicated to it, which took place in 10 cities of the world. The purity of the form, accentuated by the softness of the stucco finish, is enlivened by bay windows. They, like large square pipes, are directed with their glazed holes to the most interesting views and frame them, forming perspective pictures for the inhabitants of the house. Outside, these window ledges will be lined with different materials, wood and metal, each with its own texture and color. The flat roof of the house will have an open terrace, which will add a wide view of the area to the skillfully selected views.
So, three houses, lined up along a common beach, protect their residents from outside views, endow them with variously staged views of the water surface and surroundings, but at the same time subtly and unobtrusively decorate the front part of the village - the houses work for two audiences at once, for their own residents and on their neighbors walking around. A theatrical play with a thoughtfully broken rigidity of a symmetrical composition and with a different texture of materials is intended for those around it. The flanking houses are mirrored, but if you walk along the coast, a movement appears that receives unexpected support and development in the rhythm of the multi-colored protrusions of the third house, the center of the composition, the “navel of the earth”. On the other hand, from two horizontal houses, the metal contour is adjacent to the earthy brickwork of pipes and first floors, and in the central house, on the contrary, the plaster "earth" is the base through which rectangular projections of windows grow with iron rigidity. These compositional and textured comparisons, play with levels and directions can turn into a noticeable, plastically saturated architectural dominant of a suburban village.
