Helsinki studio Avanto Architects have completed this house with four wings overlooking four distinct views in Virrat, Finland.
Called Four-Cornered Villa, the house is stained black on the outside and clad with light wood inside.
The lakeside building has no running water and draws power from solar cells.
Photographs are by Anders Portman and Martin Sommerschield.
The information below is from Avanto Architects:
The site is situated on a horse shoe shaped island and faces north and east. The cross like shape of this simple villa reaches towards four very different views.
The space is open and defined at the same time. The exterior is treated all black and to contrast the interior is very light.
Dark color makes the building disappear totally when seen from the lake. The roof is flat – there is some warm irony to the clichés of modern architecture.
The building is insulated well and heated by wood only resulting in a carbon neutral building.
There is no running water and the electricity is provided by the sun. Vegetables and herbs are cultivated on site and the Vaskivesi Lake is known as a good place to catch pike-perch.
The simple and ascetic life at the countryside differs dramatically from the hectic city life and provides a possibility to live a life with a minimum impact to the nature.
Four-cornered villa
Location: Virrat
Gross floor area:78 m2 + sauna 24m2
Budget: 150 000 €
Client: The architect
Structural design: Konstru Oy / Jorma Eskola
Electrical design: Virtain Sähkötyö Oy / Väinö Sipilä
See also:
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| Shingle House by NORD Architecture |
Prefabricated Nature by MYCC |
Trufa by Anton García-Abril |
love it! but i can't figure out where the picture 7 fits on the plan?
It appears there is a sauna building. "Gross floor area:78 m2 + sauna 24m2" at the end of the post. Good catch though, why wasn't the sauna bldg included in the exterior shots?
hey! how do they live with no bathroom?
Presumably that's in the sauna building…?
Nice Simple design, blends so well with the environment, surprisingly welcoming for an all white/cream interior. I love it!
i guess picture 7 is of a separate building that contains the bathroom and a traditional sauna. Very misleading and dishonest to talk about blending with the environment and not showing even a sketchy site plan.
I dont understand what the "warm irony" is… any thoughts?
It's Finland you dope.
It is a beautiful building and looks especially warm and inviting at night. Yes, the lack of a bathroom and running water is a minus, but an outdoor latrine and a nearby lake to bathe in might offset those concerns. I would think of it as more of a large, modern camping shelter.
its very beautiful but from an energy point of view its a desaster. the relation of surface and space is not very smart especially for a cold area as finland…
If the warming is done with fire wood from own forest the carbon emission is a round 0. So in this case there is no need to do a box with tiny windows…
The running water is no good for fragile lake environment. in Finland the washing is done in sauna and the water is taken from lakes. There is no communal infarstructure in remote areas but living is more or less self sufficient.
where is the toilet or bathroom???
I like the way the winged or cruciform layout makes for both an open plan and also discrete space. But gege is very right; all of the exterior walls make for less energy efficiency. The builders of traditional vernacular in cold climates knew this intuitively and so built compactly.
I’m also not fond of the washed out and totally uniform color palette. Coming from a climate myself where everything is gray/white for months on end, this space would enhance “cabin fever”. At the least the flooring should differentiate itself from the walls and ceilings.
perfectly impractical, the story of all things beautiful
A desperating place to live. The light colors will not only increase the "cabine fever" but will increase the "cold" sensation (and will not retain the warmth obtained from the sun reflection in the windows), not even mentioning the need for sunglasses to be able to open the eyes by a sunny day.
Moreover, 2 fire places for such a little and impractical house would even not be enough, as it is obvious from the map that it will be nearly impossible to get homogenous temperature in the main room.
Nothing to be proud of, I must say.
Nothing.