It is no coincidence that the architect Roman Leonidov calls his houses estates. This word reminds of the reliance on traditions and reflects the processes of the formation of the way of life in the country and the development of the typology of a country house that have taken place in Russia in recent decades.
The wooden estate in Antonovka is intended for weekend recreation, so it is relatively small (324 m2) and is a set of necessary premises: a living room, a dining room-kitchen, a parents' bedroom, two children's rooms, a guest room and a bathhouse. The house is located on a tranquil plot, although its shape in plan is somewhat more complicated than the letter "P". For the most part, the building is one-story, only in the most important rooms, the living room and the master's bedroom, it takes off with a lean-to canopy and forms a second light in the interiors. The third, lower, slope covers the bath.
The owner of the house asked the architect to design a space that would remind him of his time in Bali. Therefore, the center of the composition was a patio, surrounded by a glass gallery from the side of the house and open on one side to a garden with large trees that were preserved during construction. It is this, garden and park, part of the house that is its front facade, and the entrance and entrance are carried out from the side, on the right side, if you stand facing the front facade. The entrance facade is also very interesting, but more on that later.
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zooming 1/6 House plan. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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zooming 2/6 Facade 1-12. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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zooming 3/6 Facade 12-1. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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zooming 4/6 Facade-1-6, -E-I, -6-1. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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zooming 5/6 Facade-A-P. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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zooming 6/6 Facade-P-A. Manor in Antonovka © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
Roman Leonidov used his favorite half-timbered technology for his estate in Antonovka. Moreover, the wooden frame of the house is deliberately displayed and emphasized. It's always a pity when an expressive frame starts to be covered with filling. For the house in Antonovka, the architect figured out how to make this "backbone" visible. Firstly, there are a lot of glazed surfaces here. Glass gallery around the patio, glass double doors of the bedroom and nursery, glass walls of the living room and kitchen-dining room.
Almost everything that looks into the garden and patio is transparent. Accordingly, the wooden structures are exposed. There are only small brick inserts - stiffening ribs and screens at the same time - where necessary. The chimney is made of the same dark facing brick.
In addition, with a very interesting technique, the architect, as it were, tears off the roof slope from the first, wooden, tier and lifts it up, like a springboard, over the second glass tier. In general, Roman Leonidov loves this avant-garde form of a flying roof, which came to us from the twentieth century, something similar exists in his other buildings, for example, in a house
Cool House. This technique is especially expressively applied on the entrance facade. Before us is a solid wooden diagonal of the roof - a plane that starts low from the ground and gradually gains height. On the right side it serves as a carport, on the left side it passes a generalized wooden portico over the main entrance and soars up over the glass second tier.
According to Roman Leonidov, the main entrance to the house is from under the shed, while the entrance with a portico is an element of status; the portico is vaguely reminiscent of the classics, although instead of columns there are five asymmetrically placed wooden supports, with an even number of axes atypical for the classics. And the portico is not located in the center, but the entrance, also offset from the center, is accentuated by the portico with an extended intercolumnium.
The block of the master bedroom is solved in a similar way. The roof also “breaks off” from the closed wooden first tier and tends upward. Only this movement is directed not parallel to the public building, but perpendicularly and to the side, which gives the composition additional dynamics. The roof of the bath is also directed upwards and rotated perpendicular to the master block. Thus, three “springboards” are formed in the volumetric composition of the house, directed to three of the four cardinal points.
Wooden roof structures effectively shine through the glass, especially in the evening, when the house shines with all the lights.
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zooming 1/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
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zooming 2/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
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zooming 3/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
The nude effect is also present on the patio. This space is also "lined" with wooden beams and steel supports, which makes it perceived as more complex and structured and visually appears larger. Particularly emphasized is the continuous horizontal, the beam stretching across the entire front front on the border with the garden. In addition, these are not just structures, but partly pergolas, which traditionally create shade, coolness, comfort and can be entwined with grapes over time. (Another pergola complements the portico on the entrance facade). The patio consists of several parts: a podium separating it from the garden, a partially covered terrace bordering the living room, and a green lawn with a paved path in the center.
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zooming 1/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
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zooming 2/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
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zooming 3/3 Manor in Antonovka Photo © Roman Leonidov, Sofia Leonidova, Vladimir Gramadskikh
The patio is a bit like a stage with complex decorations, especially since the doors of absolutely all rooms open onto it and onto the podium. This was done so that all family members could retire without attracting attention to themselves - the rooms are completely autonomous, they also have duplicate doors inside the house. The patio space with pergolas really becomes the center of home life; visible from everywhere - from the garden and from the interior - it attracts to itself. The open-air wooden architecture sets you up for relaxation. And the built-in patio into the overall half-timbered structure gives rise to a new artistic technique that can be used in other works as well.
