FAMILY HOUSE, ÁRPÁDFÖLD

This average-size detached house with a garden was established on a narrow plot in the suburbs far from the city centre by partially demolishing and expanding a holiday house built in the 1930s, with the work mostly done by the owners on a very small budget. Keeping as much as possible of the rich orchard was a top priority when the building site was defined. The house was moved back to the border of the plot, thus making place for the “clearing”, which is the primary scene of life in the garden, both for the family and for their friends and guests. The garden is fully embraced and covered by the intense greenery around it, so it is not visible from the street, which results in such an intimate little world that offers a constant source of delightful experiences for the people living in the house. The building is a mass with an almost unified front, with most of the windows facing the garden and the main source of sunlight, thus inviting sunshine into the internal spaces in every hour. The long building is covered by an asymmetrical gable roof, the two slopes of which have different angles, thus the house makes the impression of a one-storey building on the neighbours’ side, whereas, from the courtyard, it looks like having an upper floor too. The ground floor contains the living rooms of the family as well as the main bedroom, while the half attic hosts the children’s bedrooms. The building has a visible wooden ceiling and deal floorboards without lengthening in the rooms. Second-hand tiles were used for the roof, and a second-hand tile stove was built in the living room to increase heating, when necessary. The former wooden terrace in front of the house was restored with better proportions. The wooden structure uses exclusively traditional wooden joints, also serving as a passive suntrap, which has a beneficial effect on the heat budget. The high-quality accomplishment of the work is the merit of Transylvanian people’s humble work.

A detailed article represents the building in the supplement of the 2005/1 issue of the magazine Új Magyar Építőművészet [New Hungarian Architecture], with the participation of István Janáky and Péter Janesch.

Family house, Árpádföld 
client: PRIVATE 
year of the design: 2001
volume: 180 m²