This project of a detached single family house, was an inquiry for an architectural competition „Your House – a dialogue with tradition”, which main objective was searching for contemporary forms of regional housing of Warmia and Mazury region.

As a proposition for a contemporary housing, the building lacks of detail, but the main elements that shape the vernacular architecture of the region were distinguished. The proportions of building shell and roof layout resemble those existing in traditional buildings, both of brick and wooden construction.

Building in its functions is clearly divided into two zones: living and night. In the design a south facing winter garden was introduced, as a resemblance of a traditional veranda or porch which in the past was also a highly glassed element, and acted as a vestibule reducing heat loss from the building.

In the interior divisions, the building refers to the traditional two-tract, three-axis systems, in which individual residential chambers were organized around a centrally positioned masonry heating fireplace. The layout proposed in the design is a contemporary modification of this idea, also in the functional aspect. As a reference to the traditional thinking about the heat distribution, a contemporary form was introduced which could function on similar principles, but which is coupled with modern building installation technologies.

Apart from passive design techniques contributing to the reduction of heat demand, in the project a winter garden coupled with a ventilation system and a heat storage-mass wall was introduced. This concept uses passive solar gains during spring and autumn to help heating the building. The basic heat source for the building is a biomass boiler for pellets or chips. This heat source has been selected with consideration to its economic and ecological aspects. 

Technical parameters of the building:

Total volume:                                     545.5 m³
Building area:                                    137.5 m²
Net area:                                           160.3 m²
The aspect ratio of A/V                     0.886