KRATOVO DACHA | Studio Mishin

The House in Kratovo - a place of contemplation

LANDSCAPE
The project is located in a residential neighborhood near Moscow. On the site around 800 m2 tall old pines grow. The arrangement of the trees, which we kept intactly, defined the shape of the house.
We consider the specific nature of the site as a unified house , which is interpreted as a series of spaces in the open air: enclosed rooms and small yards.

INTROVERT HOUSE
The house has no relationship to the surrounding buildings.
It is completely separate, independent and withdrawn. Microcosm - an enclosed world is formed inside - its inhabitants would feel safe and isolated from the outer world.
The house observes pine trees, courtyards, gardens and dells.
Each window is regarded as a particular view with its own specific composition, where a lonely pine tree or an uneven stone wall with shadows falling from trees and oblique rays of light is thought out and planned.
The house and the wall of the fence continue towards each other. It is unclear where the house ends and the fence begins.

TIMELESS ARCHITECTURE
The house is neither traditional nor modern. The house does not respond to the current time.
Looking at it, one would have difficulties defining the time when it was built: in the Middle Ages, in the period of post-war need or today.
It is also difficult to understand whether it was built at once, or it was gradually expanding with outbuildings and outbuildings as the family grew. Deliberately incomplete or incomplete by a possibility to grow and shrink naturally without prejudice to the concept of the house.
The windows and doors look rather random and chaotic. However, they obey the internal logic followed by the convenient location inside the rooms and the composition of the views opening from the windows.

NO DESIGN INTERIORS
There is nothing deliberately stylish or designed, none resembling any publications in fashion magazines. Everything is done conscientiously, a little rough, so that the house is reliable and will serve for a long time.

EVERYTHING IS ARCHITECTURE
Almost all the house's objects and elements are continuation of the house, an inseparable part of it, inheriting its gene code. A door handle, a window sill, a niche for a lamp - these are not brought in complementary, however they are a part of the general solution.

MATERIALITY
The project’s materials keep their properties over time, acquiring an additional nobility of aging.
The interior spaces and the external facades are made of the same materials: light stone, natural lime plaster, marine plywood, exposed concrete. They are chosen to form contrasting pairs at their junctions: roughness of the stone coexists with the warmth of natural texture of the wood, rough plaster, in turn, emphasizes the smoothness and coldness of the lead roof.