Project Description
2017 Residential Architect Design Awards
Custom House More Than 3,000 Square Feet | Citation
Local firm Arches designed Valley Villa for a wooded site just outside Vilnius, Lithuania. The two-story, 4,478-square-feet residence is a collision of eccentric geometries, with a U-shaped base that is ensconced in the sloped site supporting a V-shaped main living level above. A garage, family room, guest room, and office fill the lower level. The main floor’s two wings contain public and private spaces, respectively—living, dining, and kitchen occupy a single open-plan space in one, and three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths in compartmentalized rooms fill the other.
The design balances traditional and modern forms throughout. The interiors are clean and bereft of detail, while the main-level wings both have traditional gables. But these are abstractions of the typical “house” motif, topped with irregularly pitched roofs that pitch and yaw as they come together at the structure’s core. The main living space cantilevers dramatically out from the base, providing shelter for outdoor living space below, while boldly proclaiming that this gabled house is neither old nor ordinary. “It takes a crystalline A-frame approach and makes it very compelling,” Katherine Chia said.
The base is sheathed in black slate, detailed to match the vertical timber expression of the upper level, which is clad in Kebony, a softwood product that has been treated to have the properties of hardwood. The vertical expression fits with the more traditional character of neighboring properties as well as mirroring the wooded site. It will develop a silver-gray patina over time, adapting the house’s expression further to the natural character of the site.
Visit ARCHITECT to see the rest of the winners of the 2017 Residential Architect Design Awards.
From Kebony Wood:
Architectural firm Arches has recently created a contemporary, eco-friendly villa within close proximity to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and the country’s largest city. Clad in 7,000 sq. ft. of sustainable Kebony wood, this unique property has been built to complement the scenery, with natural timber cladding and irregular pitched roofs, characteristic of the neighbouring surroundings and in harmony with the hillsides and pine trees. The villa strikes the perfect balance with an architectural style that is simultaneously modern and traditional.
The clean, angular design creates a minimalist exterior with Kebony as the prime material contrasting against the black slate at the building’s base. Architect, Arūnas Liola, aimed to design a structure that is both ecologically friendly and striking in appearance, interweaving natural materials with a bold sculptural form. The firm has frequently chosen to work with Kebony due to the fact that it is a natural material but with the resistance to stand up to testing conditions far better than softwood. The quality of the wood, and through the skills of an exceptional carpenter, meant the timber could be sculpted and worked with easily for this particular project. Kebony requires no additional treatment even when used as an external cladding, the material simply develops a silver-grey patina which will allow the house to adapt naturally to its surroundings over a period of time.
The patented Kebony technology is an environmentally friendly process, which modifies sustainably sourced softwoods by heating the wood with furfuryl alcohol – an agricultural by-product. By polymerizing the wood’s cell wall, the softwoods permanently take on the attributes of tropical hardwood including high durability, hardness and dimensional stability, without the need for tropical deforestation, resulting in a high performing, beautiful wood product.