The place where the new wooden house now stands with a wide terrace and open glass facades has always been called "the tenth hole" by avid golfers. This area, which has a small relief, is bounded on the one side by the forest, and on the other - by the green blanket of golf courses, and all the balls knocked out of the field by the players were collected here. It is not surprising that when the customer turned to Totan Kuzembaev with a request to build a residential building here, he decided to beat the theme of the “tenth hole” not only in the name, but also in the architecture of the new object.
The original design involved a sloping green roof that mimics the slope of a golf course. In the center of this roof, the architect even planned to make a real hole - so that the ball sent here by an unlucky golfer would not get lost in the vastness of the home, but would slide down a specially designed pipe straight into the hands of the future owners of the house. However, this beautiful idea remained on paper, but the name "House at the Tenth Hole" was firmly entrenched behind the house.
Although the hole itself was ultimately not included in the project, the close proximity of the golf course played a decisive role in its fate. In particular, it predetermined the orientation of the building on the site - in order to protect the house from possible accidental ball hits, the architect pulled an openwork steel mesh along its southern border, and turned the main facade to the west, away from the fields, but facing the golf building. club, immersed in the greenery of the forest. Thanks to this configuration of the volume, it was also possible to create a cozy courtyard next to it, preserving all the existing trees in it.
The building itself, which is almost a square in plan, is an example of clean and laconic architecture. By the way, a compact rectangular volume with a pitched roof also appeared here not by chance - according to Totan Kuzembaev's plan, this is a reminder of a cafe that was located here in Soviet times. The new house repeats both the proportions of the once existing building, and its dimensions, and even partly the architectural solution - for example, it "borrows" a fully glazed facade hidden under the canopy of a sloping roof - but at the same time it is made of much higher quality and environmentally friendly materials.
In the House at the Tenth Hole, a canopy is organized over the open terrace, which serves as a recreation area with a barbecue. Slender columns lined up along the edge of the wooden deck flooring draw a conventional boundary between the building and the natural environment. A small partition made of wooden slats, located in the center, makes this border more tangible - and at the same time it is the only screen that hides the privacy of the inhabitants of the house from prying eyes, since the panoramic glazing of the facade trustingly reveals the living space to the picturesque forest-park area.
Immediately behind the string of columns, the relief slopes steeply downward, which makes the house seem taller and slimmer, although in fact it has only one full-fledged ground floor (one more basement and one more mezzanine). The facades are decorated with veneered and tinted wood panels produced by the Italian company Pagano, which has long and closely cooperated with the Pirogovo resort. Talking about the advantages of this type of finish, Totan Kuzembaev notes the extraordinary warm texture that Italians give to wood and its highest consumer properties.
On the left side of the main facade, there is an entrance ramp to the basement, where the garage, gym and sauna are located. The first floor is occupied by spacious guest bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen and a large living room with a second light. On the mezzanine, where a compact flight staircase leads, a library or study can be arranged. I must say that the authors tried to develop the most free and flexible planning solution that can be easily changed depending on the needs of the residents. This house was originally built for sale, so the architects were not dominated by the client with specific planning requirements - according to Totan Kuzembaev, the designers got untold pleasure from the freedom given to them, but they strove to use the space as efficiently as possible. Hence, for example, such large nurseries and bedrooms (more than 30 square meters each), an integral and light space of the living room, combined with the dining room, and huge spans of windows instead of blank walls.
The same desire to leave the future owners room for creative thought explains the almost Japanese minimalism of interiors. Mostly these are white walls and plasterboard ceilings lined with dark wood beams. But the more clearly the main features of the interior space, which have not yet been clouded by the decor, appear - its fullness with light and harmony of proportions. The furniture and design items that currently shape the interior are provided by the manufacturing firms and, like the house, are sold. The future owner himself will be able to decide what will be the content of his house, and for some reason it seems that he will certainly give preference to the restrained and stylish simplicity of the environment, ideally combined with the architecture of Totan Kuzembaev.
