The Iron Porch House

Nagykovácsi, Hungary

Photo © Tamás Bujnovszky

Photo © Zsuzsa Téglásy

Photo © Tamás Bujnovszky

Photo © Zsuzsa Téglásy

Photo © Tamás Bujnovszky

Photo © Zsuzsa Téglásy

Photo © Tamás Bujnovszky

arkkitehdit: Földes Architects

Location: Nagykovácsi, Hungary
Year: 2010

The 726 sqm site, being reminiscent of a fairy glade, is located at the northern part of Nagykovácsi.

The garden surrounded by young fruit trees and pines on three sides has idyllic atmosphere. There are cottages, some new family homes and most of all green all around. The square site is slightly sloped to the street and wide enough for a long house to fit in between its borders.

These makings suggested that the fourth side of the garden should be closed by the house itself creating intimate atmosphere inside.

This is strengthened by the brick braids designed in front of the smaller windows and the tunnel-like concrete frame of the entrance. The other side looking at the garden is in a whole different situation.

The inside turns to the garden and to the terrace with big openings this way almost doubleing the community places of the house in most time of the year.

The steel framed porch risen at half floor level is a contemporary transcription of its ancestors known from the vernacular architecture.

It creates transitional space between the exterior and the interior and provides direct garden connection for all rooms in the house including even the bathroom.

Besides it has a main role in the natural climate control by shading the vast glass surfaces in the summer and letting the warming sun rays to the back wall of the living room in the winter.

The 50cm wide covered brick walls with its big heat impotence, the roof structure with its thick insulation and the traditional attic above the rooms contribute to this too.

The house doesn’t need cooling even in the biggest heat-weave and its heating energy-demand is slight too.

Following the simple and moderate exterior the interior is formed by simple and strict design using the logic of the vernacular architecture too.

In the living area of altogether 130 sqm we designed four rooms of full value beyond the family’s day premises.

The scene of the family life is formed as a perpetual space line. The released height and visual connections give extra elegance to the living room.

From here a flight of stairs leads to the room line which is separated from the day-bustle by being elevated at half floor level.

The workplace on the gallery creates strong connection with the living room by penetrating its air space.

Besides the classic materials, as the brick and the wood, concrete and steel appears too.

The coloured surfaces in the interior, the green of the frame of the doors and windows, the lamps, the furniture and the almost minimalist stove shows the cooperation, the taste and the talent in interior design of the client couple and gives a fresh young dynamism to the house.