LAGOM is a low-rise residential community that proposes a contemporary model of suburban living, combining the privacy of an individual home with the qualities of a fully open public environment. The project is located in Sokilnyky, near Lviv, adjacent to a lake and natural water landscape that forms the basis of the settlement’s spatial structure.
The concept of LAGOM goes beyond the traditional format of a gated housing development. The community is integrated into the existing residential fabric of Sokilnyky, extending its spatial logic and establishing connections with the surrounding environment. The main streets, pedestrian routes, and all public spaces remain open and accessible, ensuring permeability and integrating the development into the everyday life of the wider community.
This approach avoids creating an isolated private enclave where territory becomes a means of social separation. Instead, LAGOM establishes an open settlement structure in which the landscape, public spaces, and recreational areas become part of the broader urban context.
The architectural concept develops the idea of a diverse yet cohesive residential environment. The traditional language of pitched-roof houses is complemented by contemporary flat-roofed volumes, different facade types, and colour accents defining individual streets. Rather than repeating identical houses, each street has its own character through a combination of different housing types, scales, and architectural compositions.
The houses are planned according to the principles of contemporary low-rise housing: functional zoning, natural daylight, and a direct connection between interior spaces and private courtyards. The kitchen-living room serves as the central element of the home. Large glazed openings connect it with the surrounding greenery and extend the living space into the private outdoor area.
Additional rooms and attic floors allow the houses to adapt to different needs — work, leisure, creativity, or changing family scenarios.
The material palette includes decorative plaster, Elastolith brick-effect cladding, ventilated facade systems, thermally modified timber elements, and standing-seam metal roofing.
The combination of different textures, colours, and finishing techniques gives individual streets their own atmosphere while maintaining the overall architectural coherence of the settlement.
The structural and engineering solutions are focused on improving energy efficiency and operational comfort through the use of modern insulation systems, energy-efficient windows, and the integration of renewable energy sources.
The masterplan responds to the natural topography of the site. Streets are primarily organised as local residential spaces with minimal through traffic, creating a safe and comfortable environment for residents. Pedestrian routes, green corridors, and public spaces form a continuous network connecting different parts of the settlement.
One of the key principles of the project is the integration of natural processes into the structure of the residential environment. The water management system includes rain gardens, open drainage channels, and a dry stream that collects rainwater from the residential quarters. Rather than concealing engineering infrastructure, these solutions transform it into an integral part of the landscape, creating new routes for walking and recreation.
LAGOM’s approach to sustainability is based on an integrated strategy for energy, water, and resources. The use of solar panels, energy storage systems, energy-efficient building solutions, and carefully designed engineering infrastructure is aimed at reducing the operational impact of the development and increasing its level of autonomy.
The landscape is one of the defining elements of LAGOM’s identity. Planting is developed alongside the architecture, giving the site an established green framework from the outset through the planting of mature trees, landscaped areas, and natural routes. Parks, playgrounds and sports grounds, recreational areas, walking paths, and designated spaces for walking pets create a network of shared spaces for both residents and visitors.
The balance between private and shared space is one of the project’s fundamental principles. Private courtyards provide residents with the necessary level of privacy, while the landscaped spaces between the houses create a comfortable neighbourhood environment without introducing physical or social barriers.
Underground waste collection systems help maintain the cleanliness and visual quality of the public realm.
Particular attention has been paid to the safety of residents. Considering the contemporary conditions of residential development in Ukraine, each LAGOM house incorporates a dedicated safe room as an integral part of its spatial layout.
The safe room is formed by reinforced concrete enclosure structures, with their foundations incorporated into the building’s structural system from the earliest construction stage. This solution provides an additional level of protection for residents without altering the architectural character of the house or requiring separate external structures.
The integration of safety spaces into private homes demonstrates how architecture can adapt to contemporary challenges while establishing a new approach to comfortable and responsible residential environments.
LAGOM proposes an alternative approach to low-rise residential development — not as a collection of private houses behind fences, but as an open, integrated, and resilient living environment. The combination of architecture, landscape, water management, renewable energy, and accessible public spaces creates a settlement where residents’ comfort and environmental responsibility function as a single system.
