HOUSES SI
Location: Simeonovo district, Sofia, Bulgaria
Program: two mirrored single-family houses in a one plot
Architect: Aleksandar Shinolov
Client: Private
Year: 2016
Site Area: 1060m2; Bldg. Area: 110m2; Grоss Floor Area: 335m2; Bldg. Scale: Stories above Ground 3, Stores below Ground 0; Structure: reinforced concrete; Materials: plaster, wood cladding, frameless glazing; Parking lots: 3; Max. Height: 9.50m
The plot is located in Simeonovo residential quarter, Sofia. It has a very long proportion (13m / 80m) and sloped terrain in the range of 0m - 3.40m. It houses two single-family buildings, exactly the same as an architectural image and as a structural solution. Mirroring each other, they form a large inner courtyard with a swimming pool.
The basic morphological concept for the architecture of the building is a box that is cut along its edges and after shifting the individual parts, it allows the light to penetrate the inside and create the main volume.
The ground floor living area receives maximum sunlight and has an access to large south, wooden deck. It is only blocked at the north by a solid wall, where it is the main entrance to the building- a niche in the "bare wall". This wall besides its thermal insulation function separates the living from the pedestrian and car traffic in the plot.
Level 2 has three bedrooms facing only south, with a view of the rising mountain, and access to a 20m long, doubled height terrace with sliding shutters. The impossibility where the buildings do not "look" at each other at east and west achieves a sense of privacy and coziness.
Тhe space of level 3 is built on the same logic. But here, in addition being open to the south and nature, there is also a beautiful view in the opposite direction - the panorama of the city.
