House Pienenītes By Studio VĪKSNE

House Pienenītes | Latvia | 2021
[Studio VĪKSNE]

House Pienenītes was designed as a family home for a florist and a winemaker to spend time with the growing family, entertain guests and continue their work in a more informal setting. It is located in the rural community of Mercendarbe in Latvia and consists of a family house, a barn and a small sauna building, the latter of which will be built by the client later on.

It was designed by Studio VĪKSNE, an emerging London based architecture and design studio with keen interest in creating ecologically minded and energy efficient buildings with a sensitive approach to context.

Having spent her childhood in Latvia, the project architect Maija Vīksne and the client shared an appreciation for traditional timber architecture, especially the single family farmstead typology known in Latvian as viensētas which became an inspiration both for the arrangement of the buildings and the overall architectural language.

Traditionally, fields, meadows and gardens surrounded the farmsteads, with trees providing enclosure. Farmstead buildings were often partially hidden with only large pitched roofs visible from afar. The design takes an advantage of the tree lined site boundary at Pienenītes and creates a similar condition, with the buildings only fully revealed as you get close.

The farmstead buildings were usually compactly arranged around a well, creating a central yard space, with gardens for growing flowers, vegetables, fruit trees and grains surrounding the farmstead. Instead of creating a cluster of buildings that form one central space, Studio VĪKSNE arranged the buildings to create a variety of spaces that can accommodate different activities such as work, leisure and greeting visitors or passer-bys.

Similarly to farmstead buildings, House Pienenītes is designed as a family of buildings similar in appearance. The large pitched roofs with deep overhangs appear to be ‘hugging’ and ‘protecting’ the life inside the buildings. Rough sawn waney-edge timber cladding was used to add texture and depth and complement the clean lines of the window reveals and metal roofing. The roof overhang protects the perimeter of the building from rain and snow, creates threshold spaces which can be used for work or rest and helps with reducing overheating at large openings.

The barn building supports a range of work related activities – a shared workshop space for making flower arrangements and making wine, a garage and storage for logs and garden tools. The layout of the house is L-shaped and oriented in a 45 degree angle to make the most of the sunlight in living spaces during the day. Bedrooms are positioned to catch the morning sun and additional west facing windows are provided in living spaces to catch the afternoon light. The plan is divided into three zones – social, sleeping and ancillary. The entrance hall is located at the intersection of the two ‘wings’ and offers views across the house and garden spaces beyond. This arrangement also allows to separate noisy rooms from quiet spaces as well as deal with the privacy needs when the client is having guests over. Despite being wedged in the darkest part of the house, the entrance hall is a warm, bright and welcoming space for greeting guests.

Despite the simple building form, the interior spaces offer a variety of spatial conditions in terms of size, height, light and materiality. The social spaces benefit from tall pitched ceilings and a rich palette of materials while bedrooms and other more private spaces are relatively modest in size and finishes. A datum line was used throughout the house to establish a visual continuity and tie together windows, floors and joinery items to create a balanced composition. In bedrooms, the datum line was achieved using a two tone clay wall finish while in the kitchen and dining space the datum was created using dark stained plywood panelling at high level which also helps to visually bring the ceiling down to create a more intimate atmosphere.

The house exploits the presence of gardens and offers a variety of views, from small and framed views in bedrooms and bathrooms to generous views in the social spaces. The most special openings were introduced at the gable ends – a 3m tall window for observing stars and falling snow in the master bedroom and a fully glazed gable window in the lounge for spotting passing deer and foxes. The roof overhang can be seen from the inside, blurring the boundary between inside and outside.

Ecologically minded and energy efficient design was at the heart of the project therefore a ‘fabric first’ approach was used to reduce the energy consumption. Locally sourced natural materials and products were specified to reduce embodied carbon. It was important to create buildings (or large parts of the buildings) that, if left unoccupied, could eventually disappear in the ground without harming the environment. For this reason, the buildings were constructed entirely in timber frame, insulated with cellulose and hemp insulation and wood fibreboard sheathing, and clad in timber boards.

Internally, floors were finished in engineered oak boards or quarry tiles, walls and ceiling were lined with locally grown and manufactured birch plywood or finished with clay. The use of plastics was consciously kept to a minimum and were only used where no alternatives were available. For example, a breathable wall system helped to omit the need for breather membranes and vapour barriers. Text description by the architects.