House of Wawes

AuthorPáricsy Zoltán
PublicationArchDaily

Living somewhere. Living in a space where everything originates in nature, where change is constant, but where we always feel safe. We want to hide and at the same time want to see everything, so we close in and open up in the same moment. Simultaneously we want to exist on our own and float away to infinity. 

The house is situated on the top of the hills surrounding Budapest. For centuries this area was covered with fruit-trees, but thanks to the wonderful view, it has become a popular residential area. The site declines evenly to the southwest. The waves of the roof slide from the street to the garden offering a gorgeous panorama at the end as people walk down along the site.

The shape of the house is a quite low-key part of the street-view. The unique form of the house is defined by two intersecting cuboids that lie on top of each other. The social spaces can be found in the cuboid parallel to the street, while the private areas are located in the orthogonal one. Where the cuboids intersect each other, you can find the supplementary rooms and the stairs. If approaching from the street you can enter the upper floor and from the bottom floor you can have access to the big terrace connected to the garden that has already the natural topography of the site. As the upper cuboid stretches over the terrace it provides a special outer space (covered but at the same time open) for a summer-kitchen with grill and an open fireplace. The design of the façade was defined by the shape of the house. The two main units were treated as an organic block, the exterior surface is plastered, the roof is covered with an extensive green-roof. 

Sustainability has been one of the main organising ideas for the design. The monolith concrete structure contains pre-tempered air-pipes supporting the low-energy consumption of the building. The house uses special engineering solutions such as air-heating, air-cooling, renewable (wind and solar) energy systems and reclaimed water technologies with the aim to create an environmentally friendly and low-energy house.

Further to the project …