Location
The house is situated in a small village at the outskirts of Warsaw. The surroundings are dominated with usual „polish cubes” from the sixties and old wooden barns.
Idea
The clients' top priority was to gain the feeling of maximum security in their future house, which determined the building's outlook and performance. The house took the form of a cuboid in which parts of the exterior walls are movable.When the house opens up to the garden, eastern and western side walls move towards the exterior fence creating a courtyard. After crossing the gate one has to wait in this safety zone before being let inside the house. In the same time, there is no risk of children escaping to the street area in an uncontrolled way while playing in the garden.
Movable elements interfering with the site layout
The innovation of this idea consists in the interference of the movable walls with the urban structure of the plot. Consequently, when the house is closed (at night for example) the safe zone is limited to the house's outline. In the daytime, as a result of the walls opening, it extends to the garden surrounding the house.
New type of building
The sliding walls are not dependent on the form of the building. That is why this patent can be applied to both modern and traditional, single- and multi- storeyed houses covered with roofs of different geometry.This universal solution we came up with gives a new type of building where not the form but the way of functioning is the most important. The name: „safe house” gains a new meaning now.
Mechanisms and construction
The most significant are the sliding walls (both 2,2m high, 22 and 15m long). Apart from these, there are large shutters (all 2,8m high, with a width ranging up to 3,5m) and a drawbridge leading to the roof terrace above the swimming pool.The southern elevation is closed by an enormous roll-down gate of 14 and 6m. It is made with white anodized aluminum which makes it possible to function as a movie projection screen. All the movable elements are based on built-in electronic engines. The whole building is a concrete monolith, while it's mobile parts are light steel trusses filled with mineral wool. As a result, the building is perfectly insulated when closed. The whole house is clad with cement boards. Wide glazings let the building acquire energy during the day (winter) or prevent the sun's heat from going into the house (summer). When the house is closed the building accumulate the gained energy. Such a solution together with the hybrid heat system and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery makes the house become an intelligent passive building.
