year 2010 High ground floor / Semi-detached house in Poznań year 2010

ARCHITECTS: Marcin Kościuch, Tomasz Osięgłowski
COOPERATORS: Marta Perlik, Barbara Suszczewicz, Łukasz Piszczałka, Przemysław Fedorczuk
SPACE: 270m²
STATUS: completed

Idea

This is a project of a semi-detached house in Poznań, but it is not the type of building that is most important here, but its other feature, the so-called "high ground floor". It is a result of the shape of the plot and building regulations. Due to the small width of both plots, the technical functions and the garage had to be located under the residential floors. The second important factor was the applicable building line, according to which the front walls of the buildings are set back from the street by 7m. In these walls there are gates to the garages, while according to the construction law, and for the convenience and safety of users, the angle of inclination of the entrance to the garage should not be greater than 25%.
All these variables caused the garage to push the ground floor nearly 1.5 metres above the garden surface. This could, however, cause discomfort for the residents who would have to climb seven steps to reach the lawn from the living area of the house. To avoid this, we made a simple gesture: we raised the edge of the garden which meets the building to the level of the ground floor. In this way, a green slope was created and the garden became more spacious.

Photos: Dawid Majewski FotoVideo / Photography by Przemysław Turlej

Function

The slope was made of compacted earth from the basement excavation (which significantly reduced the amount of earth that had to be removed from the construction site). The character and drawing of the elevations have been chosen so that the interiors of particular parts of the semi-detached house could be formed in a free way (the southern elevation of one house differs in the number and spacing of windows from the northern elevation of the other house).

Drawings

See also