Single-family houses are tailor-made buildings, in which both the skills and philosophy of designers and the tastes of investors are expressed. The architects of rmk.architektura, the authors of House by the Pasture, talk about values, the dynamically changing needs of users and the influence of context.
House by the Pasture
Photo: Przemyslaw Turlej
What values - besides aesthetics - are crucial to you when designing a single-family home?
Home is the space closest to man, it is the place where one seeks shelter, starts and ends the day, plans the future, organizes daily life. An in-depth understanding of the needs of its future users provides the opportunity to lay out a functional model that will meet life's needs. Often in our projects, aesthetics are derived from function and the search for an interesting space. Aesthetics can be judged with the eye, function and space must be felt.
House by the pasture
Photo: Przemyslaw Turlej
In the era of remote work, new models of family life or growing environmental awareness, houses need to fulfill different functions than they did just a few years ago. How have the needs of home users changed in recent years, and how do your designs respond to this?
The standard nowadays is to design work spaces in homes: offices, studios, and multifunctional furniture. I'm not a fan of working at home myself, so I'll move on to the second aspect currently relevant - space for recreation. The desire for greater integration with nature makes it possible to think differently about relaxation at home. Both the passive one, when nature infiltrates the interiors, giving us respite, but also the active one, when the house is prepared to act in the garden or terrain, hiding various stashes, hiding places and cells.
House by the pasture, first floor plan
© rmk. architecture
How did the specific context - landscape, local culture, neighborhood - influence the design decisions for this particular house?
Every house has its own unique starting conditions, just as every person begins his or her story in an environment that shapes his or her future character. In the case of this house, the pasture next door decided how it functions and looks. "I want to get up in the morning and, with coffee in hand, admire the surrounding pastures from the mezzanine". - said the investor, and it happened.... Many judge the aesthetics of this house as unusual, but when they learn about its history, they conclude that it couldn't look any different. We are able to explain and tell every house. It's important to us that building makes sense.
House by the pasture, cross-section A-A
© rmk. architecture
rmk.architektura
more: A&B 7-8/2025 - HOMES: builder + architect,
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