We have designed a new build house and spa on a leafy site on the outskirts of Moscow. Characterised by a number of large and mature trees, the site became the starting point for the scheme; a two storey house with adjoining garage, landscaped garden and pool building. The house is split into two zones for formal and informal living, providing different areas for the client to entertain guests and live in on a day-to-day basis.

The design is anchored to the site by a 3m high feature wall clad in Basalt, on axis with a large oak tree in the garden. By taking the wall through the varying conditions of inside, outside and into the pool building beyond, the wall becomes the focal point and ordering device of the design, linking the elements and bringing the outside in. The spa houses a 20m pool with changing rooms on the upper level and opens onto a summer kitchen terrace. Below is a massage room, gym, billiard room and bar as well as a large home cinema. The large flat roof of the spa is fully planted and creates the impression of an upper level of garden when viewed from the house, a garden that hovers above the pool on a band of glazing.

The design of the house and choice of materials plays on the idea of the traditional 'country house' aesthetic, using larch cladding to further blend the house into its' surroundings.