A small house, whose area is comparable to the Moscow "kopeck piece" - 45 m2- Roman Leonidov came up with one of the options for expanding his dacha near Moscow. A spacious house has already been built on the architect's site, and a small separate house was intended for a sunny lawn in front of it - the architect has been drawing various options for its development for some time. This one turned out to be one of the most unusual and, even without being built, managed to receive the third place in the Eco_tektonika award last September, the jury of which noted the use of natural materials in the project and especially the bold and practical solution of the green roof, whose sloping wing, smoothly rising from the ground covers the house almost completely. Sod roofing, on the other hand, is not only aesthetic: it keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer.
At first glance, the green roof of the house may seem to be dug into a natural hill like the famous house of Bilbo Baggins: there are already many such dwellings around the world that demonstrate the addiction of their owners and realtors to fantasy. The house in the project of Roman Leonidov, however, is not like that, or not quite like that. It looks even more like a high-tech dugout, whose immortal image on our plains is successfully supported by a stove-stove placed by the author in the interior with a pipe brought out; or a park hermitage, a haven for romantic reflections only reminiscent of hermits. The fact is that there is no hill on the territory - the area is completely flat and the “wing” of the sloping roof covered with grass, when viewed from the window of the main house, would play the role of geoplastic, enlivening the relief of the artificial hill. Two longitudinal side facades are cut vertically, in the wooden walls - large windows and sliding glass doors allow both ventilation and lighting of the house. The roof eaves protrude far out on both longitudinal sides, protecting the planked terraces from rain; and on one side the flooring is approximately at ground level, you can leave the living room here through a sliding door. And on the other, on the sides of the main entrance door leading to the hallway, there are two raised centimeters for fifty, either loungers or benches.
The thick "pie" of the green roof rests on a shallow vault made up of large curved beams of glued wood, and a frequent row of narrower cross beams laid on them. This ribbed structure looks especially impressive from the outside, on the canopy over the wide terrace, supported by two thin metal supports. Both outside and inside, dark wood trim is combined with light.
The interior is emphatically modest and practical: the vault is covered with plywood, there are partitions made of pressed wood; cables of assorted lamps suspended from the ceiling in loops, a refrigerator similar to the Soviet "ZIL" or "Saratov" and the already mentioned "potbelly stove" complete the dacha and backyard image. The emphatically aged surface of "grandma's dressers" in the bedrooms and armchairs with a seventies design in the living rooms work on the same idea. The “dacha” impression is rather an image, carefully staged and somewhat deceiving, because if you look closely, the stove is quite modern, economical, not a stove, with a glass door through which you can watch the fire. And the architect - for himself - did not choose luxury furniture, but of high quality. In other words, we have before us the image of a dacha from childhood memories, or even a dugout from films, and not at all they themselves with all the historical flaws. Rather, while designing a small and apparently not too expensive housing, the architect endowed it with recognizable images of such housing, modest and at the same time old-family, with memories, not too new.
Meanwhile, good equipment and comfort are expected. The interior, in addition, is rationally planned, the space is not wasted and at 45 meters there was a place for a 20-meter living room with the same fireplace, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a storage room. A family of three can live well. However, in the portfolio of Roman Leonidov there are more spacious versions of a similar house. The architect is not going to build it for himself yet, making the excuse that, perhaps, the project will wait for its time, or - the owner, who will appreciate the idea at its true worth.
