KRM House | Open Architecture Design

KRM House is a pavilion-style house informed by the ancient Latvian farmstead – the viensēta. Designed as a holiday home, the house fosters a mindful awareness of place and time and is free of excesses. It sits within a sparsely populated area of Gauja National Park in Latvia where it's more common to spot animals than humans. Nature entertains, inspires and provokes. Life flows between the exterior and interior with the terrace as a facilitator.

Traditional farmsteads have a yard bordered by the home and its outbuildings, so Open AD introduced a terraced garden instead of a barn, shed and sauna building. The terraced garden conceals a garage. The resulting central area creates a pocket of privacy within the landscape and strengthens the owners’ sense of belonging and ownership.

The building has a timber and metal frame, and Open AD repeated this combination of materials in the facade and interior. The external cladding is tar-treated pine and the decking is larch. The grey colour scheme is inspired by the aged timber and stone of old buildings, as well as the melancholic grey Latvian weather. The home sits modestly in the landscape rather than crying out for attention.

Another similarity with historical farmsteads is the custom-made nature of many features. Open AD partnered with skilled artisans who brought the designers’ ideas to life such as the kitchen and shelving units, bed and couch. These are paired with select design pieces like the hanging fireplace.

Team: Zane Tetere-Sulce, Jelena Ozolina-Jelisejeva, Beatrise Dzerve, Zane Araja

Landscape architects: Landshape 

Build: Delta Construction 

Carpenter: Uldis Ceplis