aatrium house

The residence ''aatrial house'', situated in Opole of Poland, is designed by the polish architectural studio ''kwkpromes'' . Majority of low density settlement in the surroundings is formed of "cube - houses", buildings typical for the 1970's. Following the cubic plan, the architects designed a residence with atrium. 

The main entrance is from the atrium and the rooms are visible from it. Despite the introspection of the atrium, the placement of extend openings in the outer contour allows the outside to enter the building.

One hectare site near the forest, where the building is designed has only one weak point: south-western access. An obvious conflict develops between the driveway and the garden. The main initiative was to smooth this difference and to maintain the residence's privacy.

Thus, the architects decided to lower the driveway in order to separate it from the garden. The 10m wide driveway slopes to the atrium on ground floor level, from underneath the building. The residence has two levels, ground floor and first floor. The garden, which is the extension of the building, is protected by a 2.5m high retaining wall.

The structure of the residence results from various transformations of a cube, , typical characteristic of 1970' s polish architecture. The building is a reinforced concrete monolith, and concrete is at the same time the finishing material of the transformed cube, while all additional elements are finished with dark ebony. The driveway and retaining walls were made out of quarried granite blocks, the material characteristic for the surroundings.

As a result of stretching and bending particular surfaces of the cube, all the walls, floors and ceilings were defined, together with inner aatrium and terraces. This principle of formation has not only created the structure of the house, but also defined interior and exterior architecture, including use of materials.

Flexible to the regulations that the region sets, the residence has simple lines and clear spaces. The introspection resulting from the creation of the atrium is simultaneously "affected" by the high transparency of the facades and the almost direct relationship with the outer space.

Editing : Economou Emmanouel, interior designer 

Project Details
Architect: : Robert Konieczny
Collaborators: Marlena Wolnik, Łukasz Prażuch
usable floor area  : 659,57m²
Design : 2002-2003
Construction : 2003-2006

Images: Juliusz Sokołowski, Aleksander Rutkowski 
First page image: Aleksander Rutkowski 
Material courtesy : kwkpromes