MAJA'S HOUSE
Ultra Architects
CATEGORY
Cabins
LOCATION
Poznan, Poland
PROJECT YEAR
2010
Text description provided by architect.
This project was a great experience. After the construction of a house, there were some wooden elevation boards left, so we were asked to design a so-called tree house for a little girl named Maja.
Unfortunately, none of the trees on the plot was suitable for this. The only place good enough for the small house was the top of an earth mound that appeared on the edge of the garden during the construction of the main house.
As architects, we obviously tried to educate our “developer” that a pretty house would be a one with a flat roof.
But Maja is only 6 years old and she thinks about a house archetypically: she always draws it with a chimney, a window and a huge gabled roof (as we know, only the architects’ children draw houses with flat roofs, which is merit, or maybe fault ;) of their parents).
We didn’t give up the education, but we agreed to do it in the other way.
After long discussions we decided to give her a copy of the best known contemporary house with an archetypical form, that is the Rudin House of Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron. We could say it is almost a plagiarism of that building.
Almost, because our house has not the exact, but a similar shape, similar proportions, and it is made with another materials.
The most important issue we focused on while designing was the houses ventilation. The floor is an open-work, the side walls can be completely opened and the chimneys are there not only for decoration, but also for ventilation.
