A HOUSE IN ŽVERYNAS
This project is a dialogue between architecture, family history, landscape, workmanship traditions and innovations. It is a system of values based on a sense of belonging, nostalgia and memory.
BACKGROUND
The house was built in Žvėrynas, Vilnius, behind one of the 20th century wooden modernist villas. In 1935, a two-storey wooden villa was built in the middle of the site, while the back of the site had servants’ quarters. Throughout its lifespan, the villa has remained almost unchanged, but the house in the depth of the site has undergone at least several transformations after its purpose was changed to residential. This place is the client’s childhood home, so it has a special meaning for the family. Undertaking the last reconstruction, the clients decided to adapt the house to the new needs as well as to create an architecture that would have lasting value not only for themselves, but also in the context of the urban fabric and be environmentally friendly.
CONCEPT AND TECHNOLOGY
Following the intense and multi-layered urban context and local history, the core idea of the project is to present a modern interpretation of a villa characteristic of the wooden architecture in Žverynas, exhibiting and emphasizing natural wood structural elements both outside and inside the house, where these materials are also used as a final finishing surfaces. To realize the concept to the best, the CLT wooden structures technology made it possible to design the house with such care and precision as if it were a piece of furniture. The interior and the exterior in this project are visually, structurally and materially inseparable – they are a continuation of each other. The house was designed and built from one material, that is, from glued pinewood. Through this project, we subconsciously return to traditions of wooden architectural craftsmanship.
At the same time, considering the context and following the ideas of sustainability, the chosen CLT technology enabled faster, cleaner and quieter waste-free construction processes, respecting not only human but also other important needs, and radically reducing the noise produced by usual construction processes.
SPACES
The living spaces are oriented to the courtyard. The northern wall is a firewall bordering the neighbouring plots. As the courtyard is on the scale of a room, it naturally becomes a continuation of interior spaces. In order to include the closest architectural context and the chamber outdoor spaces in the scenario of the interior spaces, the large showcase sliding windows, both on the ground and the first floors, are designed. The ground level floors and those of the outdoor terrace are concrete. The boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces is blurred.
The architecture of this project is best understood through interior spaces. Each window of the house makes a frame for and is in dialogue with various environments: the living room and the kitchen with the wooden villa, whose walls seem to form a background and decoration of the dining area, the bedroom with a panorama of a pine forest, the children's rooms with historical layers of the neighbourhood’s architecture. These environments are best ‘framed’ by means of the modest and quiet mono-material interior architecture, where the walls, ceilings and furniture are homogeneous. To achieve refined aesthetics, the interior doors look as if they were wall extensions. To highlight the character of the wooden architecture, the interior shows the uncovered edges of the wooden ceiling. The skylights are not cut into the roof, but fill the spaces between the walls. All the house engineering is hidden in the furniture behind wooden and steel gratings. Thus, the spaces are not loaded with ducts, and the wooden structures remain open.
VOLUME
The composite structure of the facades is horizontal and vertical lines, which divide the facades into planes, filling them with windows or blind walls. The created composition also proceeds from the building structure and the system of internal spaces. In order to visually thin the overlay of the first floor, the projected facade system is connected to the overlay through an intermediate element. With the help of this element, not only in the exterior, but also in the interior, an authentic detail is created - the deepening of the floor at the windows. The facades and the interior are finished with the same pinewood. The facade roller blinds and lighting are precisely integrated into the partitions. Anodized aluminium windows are ‘sunk’ in the house structure. The facade protective railings are included inside the rooms on the first floor in order not to divide and preserve the possibility of having the same showcase windows and visual connections on both floors. A bush hammered (a technology that roughens and exposes the structure of cast concrete) concrete terrace is a platform that frames the outline of the house, the thinned edge of which seems to levitate, uplifting the house from the lawn and daily routine. The wooden truss columns are part of the building's identity, adding to stability and expression. They are designed to be visually more massive. They are also visible on the exterior, thus becoming part of the facade.
ENVIRONMENT
The outdoor spaces were designed to preserve the earlier environment and feel of the house without replacing the existing green areas. The fruit trees in the garden grew together with the owner of the house; some were planted with his own hands, others by his parents or grandparents. That is why they deserved special attention. The granite tiles in the courtyard were removed during construction for their protection and later put in place with a few changes in the paving composition. The green islet in front of the study window retained its place as before in order to recreate the bio-world that existed here.
FINAL
The greatest luxury in this house comes from sensible, unassuming solutions and spatial quality. The calm background created by the building elevates not only the household of the residents, but also leaves room for contextual images coming from the environment through the huge windows. The smell of wood used in the interior gives a sense of cleanliness as if you were in the fresh air, so it becomes a multi-sensory experience.
Recently we were awarded at the biennial Lithuanian Architecture Exhibition-Competition "Žvilgsnis į save". Our project, the House in Žvėrynas, has been recognised as one of the five best architectural projects in Lithuania. The prestigious event is organised by Architects Association of Lithuania.
