Residential House in Kaunas / Architectural Bureau G.Natkevicius & Partners
Residential House in Kaunas / Architectural Bureau G.Natkevicius & Partners
Text description provided by the architects. The expressive building, designed from separate interconnected modules, is located on the picturesque slope of the historic Zaliakalnis site, which offers a panoramic view of the city center. The plot is surrounded on two sides by trees growing on the slope, right here – Kaukas stairs to the city center. The art gymnasium, located in the villa of the former Prime Minister of independent interwar Lithuania Juozas Tubelis is nearby.
Very dense urban architectural situation. Strong natural influence, as the plot is on a slope, at the very top of it, which offers a panoramic view of the city. That thickness is due not only to the natural, and cultural but also the emotional aspect, as once the villa was designed as a finished composition, the side house and another house did not have to be here. Over time the situation changed, a separate plot was formed and the architects were entrusted with creating a different approach – respecting this environment, creating a modern building without imitating that it is part of this villa, but creating a new building without obscuring the historic ones.
It is not only a historical place, but also a changing one, as in autumn the leaf curtain captures the panorama and then you feel like living in the woods. Assessing the extremely dynamic profile of the terrain, the architects sought to design a structure that would organically flow into the plot, built from small modular elements, as if those individual elements were sprinkled on the slope. The walls of the building were doubled and thinned so that it looked like each volume of the building was a separate element placed next to it. A single volume is built of four separate volumes, inside which the spaces overlap, interlock, and become dynamic.
The emotional aspect of the complex architectural situation is compounded by the fact that it is difficult for people to go down the house because it is associated with basements, cold, and uncomfortably. In this case, we have a situation where we see the roof of our own house and all life goes on like a terrace below. It is a house with a low floor, a house with one wall underground, and a house with concrete walls. These are really psychologically big challenges. This is a house that doesn’t actually have a plot. There is only a narrow section, but the area of that plot is not lacking, everything is here.
In order not to falsify history, the residential house was designed in a contrasting way – to make it clear that it is a building of this time. Therefore, the building of exceptional architecture welcomes with the concrete façade, expressing its natural beauty, whose rough industrial texture is softened by the glass, contrasting with its lightness and fragility.
And concrete, though a natural, neutral material, contrasts sharply with the interwar architecture nearby such as Juozas Tubelis’ villa, which is stuccoed and colorful. It is a very electrified place, both naturally and culturally, so our team of architects had the task of designing a house that would create a mood so that the house would have a certain spirit of its own, to appear as if it were a fifth dimension. The challenge was by lowering the house to the low terrace to make sure there is no feeling that there is earth behind you. Aim to create a feeling of coziness, and security while being at home and that the whole view of the city – nature, relief, city, center is in front of your eyes.
The idea of the volume of the building was also programmed in the scenario of the interior space of the house. Those different levels, that dynamic repeats both outside and inside the house. We see the external volumes passing from the outside to the inside. It is as if we fall into a certain hierarchy of premises: there is a low space, then a high vertical, that space changes, it rises, it lowers, it compresses. The way the building was designed allowed it to be created. Opening that view, which is very important here.
