Dezeen Magazine

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

This house in Józefów, Poland, has randomly positioned windows each framing different views of the surrounding trees (+ slideshow).

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

Tokyo-based hayakawa/kowalczyk completed the two-storey family home in a dense pine forest on the outskirts of Warsaw.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

A steel roof covers the grey brick exterior, which is interspersed with square-shaped wooden window frames.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

"Located in the middle of the woods prior to any development in the neighbourhood, the house was designed to recall a stone that had been thrown and left intact," said the architects.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

A wooden box-like structure is set into the entrance of the house, leading into the ground floor.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

The open, all-white interior features high ceilings with long corridors along the edges of the house.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

One the south side, the living room opens out to deep-set sliding doors, forming a wooden terrace.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

The second-floor bathroom offers a view out into the surrounding pine forest.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

Other houses in the woods we've also featured include a cantilevered house with a hole underneath to let trees grow up inside, a diamond-shaped woodland house and a tree-top hotel accessed via a bridge leading from the hilly forest to an entrance on the roof.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

See more architecture and design in Poland »

Photography is by Marcin Czechowicz and Juliusz Sokołowski.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk

Here's a project description from the architects:


House in the Woods

This family house stands amongst dense pine trees on the outskirts of Warsaw. Open ground floor plan with a living room, dining, kitchen area and separated level with bedrooms for four members of the family were required by the client in the initial brief.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk
Ground and first floor plans

Located in the middle of the woods, prior to any current development in the neighbourhoods, was designed to recall a stone that has been thrown and left intact. A faceted shape of the house, higher towards the main access road and lower to the garden is a result of the long study between required program and the volume.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk
Sections - click for larger image

The windows are of different sizes and appear randomly positioned. Each of them is framing a different view of the surrounding trees. Living room facing south opens up completely thanks to large fully glazed, sliding doors which allows to take a deep plunge outside and rest on the wooden deck terrace. Each room has been designed to accommodate variety of different spatial qualities of the faceted shape of the house.

House in the Woods by hayakawa/kowalczyk
Elevations - click for larger image

Used materials are modest and compliment carefully studied volume of the building. Grey brick was chosen as the primary cladding to create monolithic character along with roof which is cladded with titanium zinc steel completing the process of consolidating.

Project Name: House in the Woods
Architect: hayakawa/kowalczyk
Project team: Emiko Hayakawa, Aureliusz Kowalczyk
Client: Private
Area: 250 sqm
Years: 2009–2013