Garden House

The idea that the house and the garden should be in unity was the beginning of the project. That’s why the garden was conceived as an interior space, only roofless. The house would have all its openings in the garden side.

This interdependence between indoor and outdoor spaces is the very definition of this architecture. The idea that the architecture of a house doesn’t start and end with the interior and its envelope but continues with its close and far away environment is as old as architecture. In this relation between the inside and outside are the fundamentals of architecture.

The exterior space, when articulated, is usually free from function, free from the weight of the interior. This space becomes powerful, expressive and poetic when mastered rightly. Then this space is not anymore defined by close architectural elements like structure or light, but starts to be connected with the world, with the landscape and all the present physical manifestations.

The new house occupies the same position as the old one. The basic idea was to create a very close relation between the house and the garden. It was the only possibility to “enlarge” the small inside space. It was like the house was occupying the whole plot, with a roofless part. Two small apartments would develop with an idea that the garden was a part of them.

The house itself is made of two volumes above each other. An external iron stair links the two apartments, emphasizing the vertical experience of the garden.

The overall concept of the garden as a living space in itself, with its own architectural definition is traditional. The use of the water is directly inspired from the Old Prizren, where until the World War II, all the houses were crossed by water channels.
The North brick wall uses an old traditional feature, a blind window, which used to show to whom the wall belonged.

The studios on the other side have a more sophisticated relation to the tradition with the light and the feeling of space itself. The house is made of local available materials only. Concrete and plain bricks are the basic materials.