11.8.2020
Winter architecture project by Sergey Makhno Architects – Father’s House
There’s a place we will always remember. A place where the best childhood memories come from. It’s your first nest – your father’s home.
In Ukraine, we call it a “batkivska hata” which is more than a place, it’s a feeling of primary safety and comfort. Here it is, minimalistic and honest to the bones – “Father’s House”.
Father of the house
Father of three sons. This man lives his ideology and has his style. The original task for the building sounded as “I want a house of lines”.
Wife fully trusts her husband. They think and speak in unison, feel and see their family nest just like this. Despite the fact that the house seems pale, cold and inconspicuous, the parents of the family know that their sons will bring their feelings and “colors”.
Inside out
Bedroom + guest bedroom + 2 children’s bedroom + wine room. All that the client wants.
The space facilitates the design of a sufficient number of bedrooms, a wine room, a family breakfast area (kitchen), a family dining area (living room), and a gallery along the entire home. To emphasize the features of a gallery, architects built it on a pedestal – they did the ceiling in the room higher than in the main building. This design solution is also due to the fact that the collection of treasured paintings is suspended closer to the lighting. It is embodied by a ribbon window, which has a width of 450 cm, and stretches along the whole gallery. It faithfully serves each exhibit. Like a father, who faithfully serves his family.
Oleksandr Kovpak, the chief architect of the “Father’s House” adds:
«We gave a ribbon window an assistant – it’s a huge window on the other side of the house. Nature is a co-author of this unique piece of art. After all, the center of the exhibition lives its life four times a year, it changes itself and never repeats. Seasons of the year draw their own masterpiece which are ennobled by the frame of our window».
Outside indeed
The street space was used for the numerous outdoor terraces. The garden of stones is “hidden” behind a round hole in the wall. The pool with sunbeds is “hidden” behind a rectangular arch. But the main entrance is really hidden from the road by a huge slab. Such a big number of walls is also an architectural and design solution. They are the spirit of the father – the one who cares, protects, and gives peace. The walls protect the creative, fragile, intimate spirit of the family and panoramicly open it to the landscape of the coastal world.
Between the lines
Getting the maximum from the minimum of the basic materials – concrete, glass and rebated roof – is possible due to a competent approach to the composition, strict project supervision and a successful dialogue between the customer and the chief architect. The experience of the professionals, responsible for this project, came in handy for this house and its owner.
Oleksandr Kovpak, the chief architect of the “Father’s House” emphasizes the importance of concrete in the work: “From a professional point of view, this is an architectural concrete, and, from the creative one, it is a concrete of poetry. The walls are the bridgehead for creativity. Perhaps they will once be adorned by the author’s haiku of their inhabitants.”
From non-standard solutions for ordinary inhabitants of suburban areas of Kyiv embodied in this house – it’s the gallery, this connecting line, stretching from the entrance to the shore of the lake. No, even crossing the boundary of the shore, hanging over a water pad. So, walking in the door of the house, you plunge into the Art River, float by its flow, and then suddenly connect with the natural pond. Magical, isn’t it?
Fantasy “Summer”, author – Sergey Makhno Architects
Monotonous, monolithic, wintry… Stop. Enable your fantasy and teleport yourselves in the summer. Among the greenery of the coniferous forest around, from the glitter of the sun from two sides: the sky and water, the Father’s House crashes into the landscape and becomes the central hero of the picture.