Piešťany, Slovakia — 2017
Family House Piešťany
A modern family house with an outdoor terrace in Piešťany. Designed around a seamless link between interior, garden and daylight.
A family house of 210 m² in Piešťany, organised around a single idea: that the terrace is part of the house rather than an attachment to it. The living spaces open onto it directly, so in the warmer half of the year the usable area of the house effectively grows, and in winter the same glazing brings daylight deep into the plan. That connection between inside and garden governed the arrangement of rooms, the placement of openings, and the level at which the terrace sits. Working for a private client on a suburban plot, the design also had to handle the ordinary question every such house faces — how to be open to its own garden while staying private from the road and the neighbours. Orientation did most of the work here: which rooms face the terrace, and which face away from it, was settled before anything else on the plan. A house that opens onto a terrace has to answer for that opening in two seasons at once. Large south- and west-facing glazing that makes a room pleasant in April will overheat it in July unless shading is designed in from the start, and external shading — an overhang, a pergola, a shutter — outperforms anything fitted on the inside, because it stops the heat before it reaches the glass. The same openings are the weakest part of the thermal envelope in winter, so their size is a balance rather than a maximum. Terrace level is the other decision that repays early attention: a threshold flush with the interior floor makes the connection work but pushes water management, drainage falls and frost detailing to the front of the design. Getting those right is what separates a terrace that is genuinely used from one that is looked at through glass. A terrace that works is used for half the year, which makes it the cheapest additional room in the house by a wide margin. Completed in 2017.
- Category
- Residential
- Year
- 2017
- Location
- Piešťany, Slovakia
- Area
- 210 m²
- Client
- Súkromný investor
- Status
- Completed
