Villa Domes / Maxim Calujac
Villa Domes / Maxim Calujac
Text description provided by the architects. Villa Domes is located near Chisinau, Moldova. Designed for a family of 4 people, provides space for three functional areas: leisure, green and common area. The leisure area includes a terrace, a pool, and a fire pit. Due to the large glass walls, the outdoors is connected visually with the living room. The garden offers shade during summer time and it is transformed into a playground area for the kids. The greenery becomes a part of the bedroom which gives it the feeling of being closer to nature, as if it is a part of the interior, and keeps its intimacy far away from the neighbor’s eyes.
The entrance represents the main accent of the house. The plasticity of the volume of the concrete portal, in addition to its aesthetic appearance, has a constructive function – it provides extra rigidity to the whole structure, simplifying the metal framing of the house. The sculptural form of the concrete highlights its expressivity of the line, using the laconicism of the “Corten” facade. The great importance of the volumetric-spatial composition is given to the truncated pyramidal shape of the internal “Dome”. Used as skylights, these “Dome” are revealed as rhythmic outdoor structures with monolithic forms. In the interior, they create an aerial and plenty of light space.
The indoor walls are filled with wood panels. Besides the cozy atmosphere, the contrast between the coldness of glass walls and wood offers a feeling of massiveness to the whole internal space. As elaborated by the architect, all the furniture is “dissolving” throughout the interior due to the use of the same material as the wooden walls. The paintings and sculptures are the accents that are giving the dynamics and the contrasts of the house’s calmness. The house plan was organized in such a way that the corridors are totally avoided, and the living room is the interconnection of all other rooms.
The grid of metallic framed structure performs the right arrangement of the rooms, the technical area is separated from the main livable area such as the kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. The utility area is situated in the proximity of the main entrance into the house plot, the sleeping area is oriented into the garden to the southeast. Despite the small area of the site, the villa gives a sense of nature connection – like a “living” canvas framed into massive glazed windows.
This building contrasts with the surrounding area, and the materials such as – corten, wood, and concrete – are changing and maturing over time. The smooth lines of the architectural idea, the bond between laconic interior space and the easiness of the landscape, are organically integrating this villa into the natural environment and act as the basis of human interaction with the space and the building.
