The OUTrial House by KWK Promes
Polish architects KWK Promes designed the OUTrial House in Ksiazenice, Poland.
A green clearing surrounded by forest was the only context for the proposed small house. Hence the idea to “carve out” a piece of the grass-covered site, move it up and treat it as the roofing to arrange all the required functions underneath. When the whole was ready, the client came up with another request, to create some space for a small recording studio and a conservatory. The latter was obtained by linking the ground floor with the grassy roof through an “incision” in the green plane and “bending” the incised fragment down, inside the building.
This procedure turned the roof into an atrium, as the only way to reach it was through the interior of the house. As opposed, however, to a typical atrium, the newly-created space has all the advantages of an outer garden while remaining a safe, internal zone within the building. This way, a new type of house was created, and its designation – outrial – is to convey the idea of an atypical atrium which is part of both the interior and the exterior of the building.
Visit the KWK Promes website – here.
Visit the KWK Promes website – here.
Dudye on 22 Apr 2009 at 11:36 am #
When looking at the outside, it can look as if the architecture is a bit confined, but then when steeping inside the house: there are plenty of mirrors that brings light and the whole design becames actually kinda open,like it is one with nature, with the green grass on the roof. It’s a cool house, like it a lot
Los CA on 22 Apr 2009 at 1:06 pm #
I like it! I think I am just a sucker when it comes to modern & white with clean lines!
budi on 22 Apr 2009 at 9:09 pm #
very..very…very…inspiring!
jack on 23 Apr 2009 at 2:48 am #
OMG, at last, this is it, this is what I have been looking for, my dream house!
daniela on 23 Apr 2009 at 4:13 am #
awesome,so simple and therefore speaks to many people for different reason!
Scott on 23 Apr 2009 at 6:30 am #
This is why i am going to school for Architectural Tech, and Environmental Design
roseann on 23 Apr 2009 at 9:53 am #
I wish this could be my home!!
David on 23 Apr 2009 at 3:25 pm #
A stylish bunker; reminds me a little of the utilitarianism of military architecture.
A good way to spend a lot of money without seeing much for it.
Mishele on 23 Apr 2009 at 4:20 pm #
Well, at least it has curves, but why all the cement? Boring. I like the way the green comes into the house. It needs a few cats.
kast on 23 Apr 2009 at 6:56 pm #
i wish the house have a manicured landscape …break the rules and plant a shrub ,trellis etc…
sean on 23 Apr 2009 at 7:20 pm #
I’m thinking this is an affordable rendition of Villa Savoye fit for today’s environmental politics. It would be more of a Corbusier machine if the driveway looped around the house. The road has more of a stop-and-go standard suburb drive-in, back-out utility and less of a procession which detracts from its attempts toward the sleek. I like the use of materials to transition from nature to built environment in the driveway, staircase and roof, though.
ry on 23 Apr 2009 at 8:31 pm #
the interior does look confining in that their doesnt seem to be ample usable square footage, I think the house would be better if the curves were not as quick, that way maybe you could get some more space inside. I like the curves don’t get me wrong but not that accentuated since they detract from square footage.
Ellis on 24 Apr 2009 at 8:31 am #
What’s with all the lawn? A perfectly good living roof and they planted turf on it? If architects are trying to move towards a responsible future, this is the sort of thing that is going to hold their efforts back. Seriously, it shows a lack of imagination to my mind.
Phil Sergent on 24 Apr 2009 at 10:52 am #
Now this is the way it’s done!
theFaroes on 24 Apr 2009 at 11:38 am #
Copycats!.. xD In the Faroe Islands, it is, well was, usual to have grass on the roofs. It is sometimes done today, but not as often as it was in the old days.. Check the website! ( blasastova.fo )
nikki on 24 Apr 2009 at 11:15 pm #
this is absolutely beautiful
Phyllis on 25 Apr 2009 at 7:40 am #
Interesting design, but I hate mowing grass. Why would I want to mow my roof and stairway? And…how much water is it going to take to keep that roof lawn from dying? There are other types of plantings that could have been used that require much less upkeep and much less water. Sure it looks nice when it’s new, but how ’bout a year or two later?
Rudy on 25 Apr 2009 at 2:01 pm #
I like the idea of this house but the stairs fail to impress.
A few remarks: children can’t be allowed on the roof unsupervised. The satellite dish is definitely in the wrong place.
noel on 25 Apr 2009 at 6:59 pm #
How can a building like this be a benefit in energy reduction with all the glass this thing has? I can’t see this being anything but expensive to heat and cool. And the flat, grass covered roof? Someone, 10 to 15 years from now, will be asking the question “who’s idea was this?” This is trendy, cool design, but it isn’t good design for these times.
Steve Miller on 26 Apr 2009 at 10:20 pm #
So – how bad do you suppose it leaks?
Laura on 26 Apr 2009 at 10:42 pm #
Great house! The lawn above needs to be a putting green.
graham on 27 Apr 2009 at 12:40 am #
why not glass, these days you can get very very efficient tripled glazed glass that will outperform many other forms of insulation.
The grass isn’t an issue if there is sufficient rainfall in the area. Many types of grasses don’t require mowing if you aren’t after a manicured lawn look. It is only an issue if it requires heavy watering and attending but if it is native wild grasses it would require no more upkeep than any other plantings. Also if it is native grasses that is more eco friendly than using introduced species.
Seems to me there is plenty of usable living space not effected by the curved glass wall. Just how big a house do you actually need.
Kerry on 27 Apr 2009 at 6:31 pm #
Sorry, I can’t hang out with you today. I have to mow my roof.
Eddy Korb on 28 Apr 2009 at 6:39 am #
a veggie garden, flowers and some tall grasses as a wind break would be nice up there!
David Dickerson on 28 Apr 2009 at 10:08 am #
Finally a house where I can mow my grass on the roof LOL
Sammy Ball on 28 Apr 2009 at 1:42 pm #
it’s really beauitful, my main concerns would be leaking and bugs.
Robert Jene Amick on 29 Apr 2009 at 12:43 am #
Rudy (ultra) is right. The satellite dish is wrong …it was the first thing I noticed. I DO appreciate the idea of lifting the meadow and inserting the structure under it; but that puppy is gonna leak sooner or later for sure. Paolo Soleri speaks of structures as Neo-Nature, but this seems an over-simple solution compared to the Cat-Cast at Cosanti where I lived for a while and in which he had poked holes in the roof and surrounded that space inside from roof to floor w/ a glass “aquarium” w/ a tree planted in the ground at floor level which extended up above and over the roof. That was interesting; especially when something would fall into it while crawling across the roof and we would have to figure how to fish it out without it getting loose inside the living space. This house is an interesting treatment but it’s somehow 1950-ish with it’s hyper-clean lines. I’m giving it a C+; until the roof starts to leak, that is.
Mary on 29 Apr 2009 at 12:53 am #
I really think this is pretty cool looking. The roof would make a great putting green.
Mary on 29 Apr 2009 at 12:56 am #
Darn it, someone else said that.
Ethan on 29 Apr 2009 at 5:35 am #
I applaud the attempt at the green roof. The rest just seems based on some lines from a minimalist text book, if such a thing exists. Overall, I think it would be more interesting to me to hear why some people are raving about this design, than to see the design in person. I would like to know where all of the water gathering in the green roof goes when it gets to the bottom of the stairs(??).
Lucianne on 29 Apr 2009 at 7:51 am #
My concern would be: Who is going to mow that lawn? How? What a mess on the glass! Rather have a small lawn on the ground. A nice patio on the top.
I love the house and the open space. I am normally a traditionalist, but this is good. I would not have so many windows. And I would make a statement by tweeking it with softening some or one of the hard lines. A circle drive would go good with the stature of the home.
sheesh on 29 Apr 2009 at 9:33 am #
I bet you critics all live in shabby little appartment complexes. I think it’s cool what they’ve done. Oh and the satellite dish? That’s so they can watch the damn TV.
ned on 29 Apr 2009 at 3:19 pm #
Someone has been studying the history of design, this is definitely 1960 revisited but not creatively. Again a youthful designer’s attempt lacking the ability to improve on past experience (missing) I doubt there is any improvement in energy efficiency, just to grass the roof is good camouflage from above but little else. Magazine design, that’s all.
Try harder next time.
hophead on 29 Apr 2009 at 4:15 pm #
Damn, no pictures of the recording studio…that’s a shame
Ian on 30 Apr 2009 at 4:23 pm #
it must be a bitch to mow the lawn
jack on 30 Apr 2009 at 5:46 pm #
good desain
Rosie on 30 Apr 2009 at 6:46 pm #
Not for me. I think it’s a bit creepy and cold.
Ionic Breeze on 30 Apr 2009 at 11:23 pm #
Very nice idea. This house is completely camouflaged if regarded from a plane
Dashpie on 01 May 2009 at 5:32 am #
Interestingly beautiful but I would never put grass on the roof maybe some planets and outside living room on the roof. The roof and stairs with grass not a choice for me I am not a big mower. The satellite dish a no no on a house trying to get back to nature.
Jafar on 02 May 2009 at 12:30 am #
Idea is good to keep cool inside the house. What you done for leackage. Any special protection? I understood that roof always will be moister, No problem for concrete?
ironyworks on 04 May 2009 at 12:28 am #
Pretty cold, very high maintenance. all old tricks but decently designed..IW
Marty Barbee on 07 May 2009 at 8:14 am #
This is the pinacle of modern design. A great example of functionality, sustainability, and the use of natural light. The energy savings alone are stellar. Camaflouged into the landscape provides much shelter for future tonados and hurricanes. the only thing I didnt see here is the use of renewable energy. (Solar panel-Windmills) Although I applaud it’s eco friendly design, I really have to take my hat off to the designer for his/her use of thought within design.
Berit Qvarnström on 09 May 2009 at 11:55 am #
Is this a home? For people to live in? It looks like some sort of exhibition hall, or an eyecatching example to show the excellent work that the architects are capable of doing.
Where is the comfort and the cosyness? This is simply not what I would long for after a hard days work. Glass, cement and flat, empty lawns.
Sorry to be so negative.
Berit Q.
Michael Nash on 11 May 2009 at 11:34 am #
I’m really surprised at the comments about the grass. The whole concept — as stated in the FIRST TWO SENTENCES of the description — is to make the structure become an element of the existing meadow. Who waters the meadow? NO ONE. Who mows the meadow? NO ONE. Mowing/watering planting vegetables defeats the whole concept.