Barn by a River The BARN BY A RIVER project is aimed at creating an interrelated set of inhabited spaces premised on the aesthetics of environmental inclusion, and it offers a specific, locally grounded response to the feasibility issue of the interpenetration of architecture and landscape. The project’s idea is diffusion of the home expanses with the environment. The home and the landscape evolve reciprocally to meet each other, interpenetrating and merging one with the other. This reciprocal evolution is forming a meaningful parallel to the running river, along which the house and its surroundings expand. The home penetrates into the landscape, taking only a few steps to eliminate the boundary between house and its natural environment, thus merging the indoors and outdoors. The home has a telescopic body protruding into the exterior space from the bulk of impenetrable masonry, expanding further as a translucent glass wall to be completed with an air volume in the open. The home evolves from stone to air, from being closed and impenetrable to being open and transparent. The environment, too, appears to be moving to meet the home and to penetrate through its interior space. The landscape is cultivated so that the connoted values of harmony between the local elements – stone, wood, air, and water – are translated into the architecture and interior. Stone determines a tectonic origin; wood represents an embodiment of the natural growth and a sensuous texture of life; air defines optical diversity and changeability of the space. And yet water is the most important of the elements. It is the water continuum that determines to the greatest extent the nature of interactions between the spaces of home and landscape and facilitates their mutual diffusion. The line of river is repeated twice in the longitudinal and transversal volumes of two pools: one before the house, and the other inside it. It is as though the flowing river, coming through the interior home space, was stopped momentarily in the extension of the water surface, which expressively represents a philosophy of human habitation as eternal flow. Entering the BARN BY A RIVER, we seem to be entering a flow of life, sensing the passing time, as reminded by a Heraclitus’ quote of wisdom: “We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.”
Barn by a PRIMARY FUNCTION:
Guest house with a spa and two swimming pools. PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Traditional archetype of the house is brought to the asceticism of its forms. Cedar shingle of the roof and green schist walls conceal the building in the grass and bushes of the manmade landscape. The luxurious granite floors and the mahogany walls fulfil the ecological focus of the project. Behind the glass wall, the rocky riverside comes into view. The main image of the house is versatile natural landscape outside.
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River INSPIRATION:
Inspiring images: old barns made of stone; forest stream running through the bushes; summer kitchens for open-air cooking; apiaries and 100-foot high pines by the river. Childhood memories form the interaction between human-beings, home and nature. PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION:
The project was started in May 2013 and finished in September 2015. Location: the village of Kadnikovo, Ural region, Russia.
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Explication of the premises and areas
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living room
59.6 m2
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1st bedroom
26.7 m2
3.
washroom
12.8 m2
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2nd bedroom
20.4 m2
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bathroom
12.0 m2
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hallway
3.0 m2
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indoor swimming pool
104.8 m2
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shower cabins
3.4 m2
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river side
tv 7
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tv 4
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sauna
8.7 m2
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rest zone
27.6 m2
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lavatory
5.8 m2
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hallway
3.8 m2
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utility room
6.9 m2
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switchboard
1.7 m2
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BBQ zone: summer kitchen, wood burning fireplace, sitting area
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outdoor’s swimming pool and a relaxation area
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At night, being completely glassed in the front side, the house looks like a giant lantern lighting the riverside.
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During the day, the glass front of the house reflects the sky and the surrounding landscape.
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The glass front of the house is faced south-east, to the river.
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At sunrise, the pool surface and the river shine brightly. The water erases the boundaries between created and natural landscapes.
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After the night rain, the porch glitters in colours of the summer morning.
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The open pool edge is planted with mountain pines. The water overflows it like a forest stream.
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The pool deck is reveted with Juparana Tiger granite. The water column creates the illusion of the pool deck being carved out in a cliff.
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The cliffy riverside appears in the wild-stone walls. The water reflects the landscape, showing its integration with the house.
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The second bedroom and the bathroom next to it. There is a separate exit to the garden and the tennis court from the bathroom.
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The porch of the living room and the floors are reveted with black granite, increasing the impression of monumentality. The house space tends to escape its physical boundaries, combining with the landscape.
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The first bedroom and the bathroom with a shower.
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The living room in the evening lights.
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The washrooms in the spa area. The rough finish of stone and wood makes the technology’s advantage of the material less relevant, rejecting the violence against nature.
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The barbecue area. In fact, this is an open porch with a fireplace, summer kitchen and dining area for a small group of people.
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The evening sun creates soft and cozy atmosphere. After a busy day in the city, the biggest pleasure would be to watch the sunset in the nature.
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The front of the barbecue area and the summer kitchen from the tennis court side. In autumn the other side of the river shines in gold, and the view is incredibly beautiful.
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The tennis court. The owners of the house play tennis every day themselves, and invite friends and neighbours in quite often, so that they can play too.
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Dmitry Pozarenko architect
EDUCATION: 1992, Industrial Design, Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation WORK EXPERIENCE: 1993 – present, Pozarenko’s Architectural Bureau AWARDS: 2011 1st Place, INTERIA AWARDS 2011, (Moscow, Russia) 2012 nominee, INTERIA AWARDS 2012, (Moscow, Russia) 2015 1st Place, INTERIA AWARDS 2015, (Moscow, Russia) 2015 The Grand Prix, INTERIA AWARDS 2015, (Moscow, Russia) 2016 ARCHITIZER A+AWARDS 2016 (New York, USA) — The Plus Categories Special Mentions (Architecture +Water) 2016 A’ DESIGN AWARD & COMPETITION 2016 (London, UK) — Gold Prize (Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award) 2016 A’ DESIGN AWARD & COMPETITION 2016 (London, UK) — Silver Prize (Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award) www.pozarenko.ru
Copyrights: Dmitry Pozarenko, 2015. All images: Mick Pomortsev, photographer, 2015.