ZVENIGOROD

The building – a duplex, built in the mid-90s, is located in a cottage community near the city, on a slope, and from its second floor offers an absolutely amazing and unusual for Moscow suburbs view of the vast panorama of fields and forests, to the horizon. Perhaps this was enough for the owner to choose between building a house on a new plot or reconstruction of the existing half of the duplex. And we understand him as no one else does. But the disadvantages of the existing home don’t end with one common wall with the neighbors. Built in the early post-perestroika years according to those, still Soviet and familiar “norms”, the house has absolutely microscopic storey heights. The highest, second, had a height of only 2.40m, the first floor was in some places no higher than 2.2m. Add to this the narrow staircase to the second floor, and the absence of the stairs for descent to the basement (where, by the way, the laundry, garage and sauna with a rest room are located) and the general picture will be formed completely. On the one hand, a neat and generally very nice house, dizzying views from the windows and charming garden. And on the other – small floor space, low ceilings, narrow staircases and the need to pick up laundry across the street…

The client turned to us after seeing the issue of Dachnaya Otvet in Monino, where we were reconstructing an old house. Among other things, he was attracted by the large panoramic windows that we laid in that project. And that was probably the only wish he had for the “renovation” of the architecture – just to make the window openings bigger, so that there would be more light and there would be an exit to the backyard. But we, as is often the case, could not stop there. Thinking about how we could solve the problem of low ceilings without demolishing the house, we suggested the client to make a small second light in the living room area to give the feeling of extending the space somewhere upwards. In addition, we have reconfigured all the staircases, made them normal, double staircases, of a comfortable width, from the basement to the second floor. The stairs from the first to the second floor were made as transparent and openwork as possible, so that there was actually another second light connecting the two floors.

Of the other changes, we widened the second floor window opening, moved the porch, added a summer gallery to the house with a patio area and sliding sun shades, and many other less visible but important little things. In fact, we completely rebuilt the entire house and designed it anew.

Project for a summer veranda extension in Zvenigorod