VÁCEGRES, RESIDENTIAL HOUSE 2006
The site is located on a hill on the outskirt of Vácegres, facing southwest. The hilltop is one of the highest geographical points of the region, offering an extraordinary view of the sorrounding countryside. The placement and shaping of the building was determined by our intention to make the best out of this potential, while keeping the building as hidden as possible, blended into the landscape.
Because of the deliberate placement, the house is in almost perfect harmony with its surroundings: the fine silhouette of the two-story structure rises barely above the ridge of the hill. The huge windows of the building scan the panorama of the valley.
On the town-side of the site, wide stairs pass through the garden and lead to the entrance of the upper floor. This is the main floor of the house, with private rooms of the family on the right side of the lobby and shared areas – kitchen, living room, library – on the left. On the lower floor, there is a separate residential unit with direct access to the garden; a spa; a gym with belowground additional rooms (sauna, shower, and changing room); a wine-cellar; and the garage with storage areas. The two floors are connected by an internal stair in the lobby.
As the original topographic character of the surrounding areas has been almost completely preserved, the garden smoothly unfolds from the landscape, with a fine transition perceivable only through the more and more articulate shaping of the elements. Around the house – placed on top of the hill -functionality and shaping of the outdoor spaces and different garden elements are characterised by the interior functions and design; with the growing distance they follow more and more the undulating forms and oval terrain lines of the hillside. There’s a kitchen garden serving the family-needs on the town-side of the plot, while the many-acred hillside in the direction of the main view - under the building - has been preserved in its natural state.
Several subtle solutions incorporated in the design of the garden offer the opportunity to experience the different aspects of time - moment and eternity, cycles, passing and rebirth - through the rhythm of nature.
Péter Kis, Ákos Dobrányi, Gábor Balázsa, Bea Molnár
Photo by: Zsolt Batár
In 2004, our studio won a design competition announced by a private client to find complex architectural solutions for the modern equivalent of the traditional Hungarian gentry lifestyle.
As in so many cases, it turned out during the process of creating the final plans that the real priorities of the client are not in line with the basic idea of the winning competition design he originally favoured. Therefore, the design of the realized building was based on a new, alternative concept.
