Disguise For The Sphinx

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

The house is located near the Moscow Ring Road, in the Saltykovka microdistrict, which is formally part of Balashikha near Moscow, but is an enclave of the private sector, and now more cottage development, between the Pekhorka and Chechera rivers, with forest blotches. The house is built on a "forest" site, around - with about dreams, including those of neighbors, whose houses are visible behind the trunks, but not too much - for the very near Moscow region, such an environment is now surprising in its own way.

The house uses the natural merits of the context to the maximum: it is close to the shadow end of a relatively small rectangular area and is facing it with its “back” - two floors, the outer walls are covered with ebony, there are not very many windows, although there are light-bearing corner windows among them. To the right of the side entrance to the niche is a charming woodpile, the entrance is marked with an illuminated visor and a corner of glass blocks: they are beautiful, they illuminate the hallway during the day, and in the evening they make it clear if the light is on inside. And yet from these three sides the house is rather a "fortress", strictly black and rather austere.

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1/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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2/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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3/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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4/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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5/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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6/6 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects

The most interesting is on the fourth side, facing the site and on the sunny south side. Thus, it was possible to leave the area bright and maximally "catch" the sun's rays and heat.

On this side, the volume of the house is "cut" - from the roof to the ground, a "slide" is formed, one-piece at the top, two-part at the level of the lower floor, since the wings (or legs?) Part, leaving room for a cut-out of a spacious terrace, raised 50 centimeters above the ground level., with large glass panes of a bunk living room behind it. In the slopes, passages have been made for easy movement between the terrace and the plot.

The sloped part of the roof is completely greened, its "pie", - say the authors - "cleverly composed on the basis of the flat green roofs of TechnoNIKOL", and planted with unpretentious stonecrop. As if the lawn at some point starts to rise and turns into a lawn. The slope of the roof, of course, has no purpose to deceive the eye and pretend to be a natural slope, for this it is too straight, but from a distance the house is perfectly “camouflaged” in a green environment.

On the south side, facing larch generally ceases to be black, a yellowish natural color appears, which echoes the wood in the interior - the house not only becomes warmer, but also "opens" to the lawn.

In winter, however, the house, it must be admitted, becomes like a "roller coaster" of Catherine II in Oranienbaum - you just want to betray yourself that you can ride here. But no, you can't.

The green natural component is more important. Moreover, the terrace is receding for a reason, but leaving room for a pair of pine trees, which the architect and the customer decided to keep. That is, the form is motivated and inscribed in the environment - although it cannot be said that it is subordinated: the house is quite noticeable, soon we are faced with the union of the human ratio with natural materials, including land and plants, and favorable conditions.

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1/3 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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2/3 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects
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3/3 Gorka House © Snegiri Architects

No matter how neatly everything is done and no matter how beautiful sedum is, at some point you will still say - dugout. Around the forest, a metal pipe protrudes from the green slope, well, just a dugout. There is something serf in him. So the tower of the master bedroom, towering on the right, is a kind of micro-donjon, which supports a certain amount of defensive associations: three rather closed black walls, bevel-buttresses … In the end, the castle house, the house with the tower has become to some extent a pattern of the cottage suburbs. But this is not the case. Any similarity, as they say, is accidental. Rather, it is a sphinx with triangular paws, lying down to watch the birches on its lawn.

Inside, the house is arranged logically: the double-height kitchen-living room behind the terrace is completely placed under the slope, at the bottom its space is illuminated by floor-to-ceiling windows, at the top - by two dormer windows in a green bevel. Above the kitchen there is a balcony on the second floor, a fireplace to the side, and its chimney rises above the green roof.

Inside, as well as outside, the house is laconic and tends to natural materials, white is combined with black, “concrete” gray and wood in a natural shade. Remarkable staircase without railings and black retro bathtub with wood ceiling.

However, structurally, the house consists of a monolithic concrete frame and is sheathed with larch, impregnated, as the author emphasizes, with natural linseed oil. So the tree here is in decoration, but there is a lot of it both inside and outside.

In addition to the "green" appearance, the house strives for passivity and energy efficiency: "it is equipped with energy-saving windows, a ventilation system with air recovery and is fully insulated around the perimeter, and a multi-stage water purification system is provided." The customer is passionate about innovation, so a smart home system is installed inside, which includes a security system, and a charger for Tesla is planned to be installed in the parking lot next to the house.