Villa Reden Apartments, Poland Housing Building, Residential Design Poland, Franta Group Polish Property Photos

Villa Reden Apartments, Chorzów, Silesia

20 December 2021

Villa Reden Wins Eurasian Prize 2021 Residential Building Grand Prix

The jury chaired by architect Daniel Libeskind awards Villa Reden Grand Prix in the residential building category for Europe and Asia 2021.

image courtesy of architects practice

Location: Lwowska 34; 41-500 Chorzów, Silesia region, southern Poland

Design: Architekt Maciej Franta – Franta Group

Photos by Tomasz Zakrzewski

Villa Reden Apartments by Architekt Maciej Franta

The unique context of the place and the potential negative consequence of implementing a new tissue in this unique area meant that the decision to shape a new building was not easy and had to refer directly to these guidelines, not compete with them, and “respond” to the environment with its uniqueness in a contemporary way.

The task was even more difficult as the budget was limited and the investor’s expectations were high. The idea and shape of the building resulted directly from the irregular polygonal shape of the area intended for development and the idea of leaving the largest possible tree stand on the plot.

Such a simple inspiration has become the basic guideline for shaping the building. Creating the form step by step, first of all: the solid was formed in accordance with the function of the apartments, optimizing their function into the shape of an irregular polygon.

Then, a perimeter line was marked along the plot boundaries and the block of flats was surrounded with balconies to obtain a panoramic opening to the surroundings. Due to the acute angles (foreign in the context), it was decided to round the corners, referring to the character of the interwar villas in the neighborhood, tree crowns and the surrounding greenery.

In the next step, to open the view to the surroundings, the block was dressed in wooden viewing terraces with various surfaces around it, an internal break in the form was introduced by implementing a patio to illuminate the internal parts of the apartments (bathrooms and entrance areas to the apartments) and the floor of the residential part was raised by one level, leaving undeveloped ground floor as a space for social interactions of residents and additional external functions.

The building formed in this way received unique features in the form of large terraces, from which you can enjoy the charms of the surroundings, and full integration with nature due to the proximity of trees and additional lighting in the patio. In the last step, the rhythm of the elevation was shaped.

Vertical divisions of the façade were introduced, creating expressive regular squares arranging the freely formed volume of the building. It was ensured that the division of the facade and its rhythm were equal and did not have anomalies in the form of extensions or additional elements.

Despite the fact that it looks like one coherent apartment building, it was designed as a complex of four single-family, two-apartment group buildings. The building has been divided into four independently functioning parts, in which there are a total of eight apartments and the ground floor of the building is mostly empty space serving as a common part of all residents and the zone of entrances to the buildings with technical rooms (heat exchanger, power connection, water meter).

Each part has an independent entrance on the ground floor in the form of a staircase leading to two premises. Each of the apartments has access to a terrace of various widths along its outer perimeter, and to a patio, which additionally illuminates the entrance areas to the apartments and the bathroom.

The building contains 8 apartments 76-75 square meter on 2 levels with usable area: 715,4 square meters.

Villa Reden Apartments Chorzów, Silesia Housing – Building Information

Architects: Architekt Maciej Franta
Area: 300 m²
Year: 2021
Manufacturers: Graphisoft

Project specs:

Basically, the building is a small-scale facility and does not have a very diversified selection of material solutions. Its basic feature is a modest and consistent selection of finishing materials as well as a simple and inexpensive way of building. We tried to meet such assumptions in line with the client’s expectations. Of course, the final effect is the result of confronting our assumptions with dynamic changes on the construction site, a fairly long construction period and various unforeseen circumstances.

The upper storeys were built as a reinforced concrete skeleton with columns and cores. The structure is filled with a 25 cm wide ceramic brick and insulated with a layer of 18 cm polystyrene. A 2 mm thick thin-layer plaster was used as the external filling.

It is worth mentioning that the volume of the building in the almost empty ground floor was based on reinforced concrete columns and partly on the walls constituting the structure of staircases and technical rooms. The ceilings were designed in monolith technology, however, at the construction stage, it was decided to change them to a prefabricated structure and replaced them with filigree ceilings, which remained unplastered inside the premises. The internal walls are also made of brick technology with a ceramic brick with a thickness of 11.5 cm. and plastered.

The structure of the roof and terraces, originally designed in monolithic and wooden technology, was replaced with a steel structure during construction. Terrace structures consisting of “C” and “T” profiles in the form of perimeter beams, transoms and columns were filled with reinforced concrete, insulated and a wooden terrace was made on the substructure. A wooden soffit was made from the bottom of the terrace slab.

Photographs: Tomasz Zakrzewski

Maciej Franta

Maciej Franta (WA PK 2008, PhD studies at WAPK, Faculty of Architecture at the University of Knoxville in Tennessee), has been running the Franta Group studio since 2010. Author of, among others such projects as the adaptation of the tenement house for the Opera hotel in Tarnowskie Góry, the Oswaldów Park estate, the extension of the Municipal Hospital Complex in Chorzów, and kindergartens in Kraków and Sułkowice.

Winner of national and international competitions, including: the Education and Sports Center in Mysiadło (1st prize), a kindergarten in Sułkowice (1st prize), a forest arboretum building in Syców (1st prize), a housing complex in Zabrze (1st prize). Winner of the award in the competition: Małopolskie Voivodeship Award Stanisław Witkiewicz 2018

Contact Information:
Frantagroup – Architekt Maciej Franta
Ul.rymera 4/6; 40-048 Katowice, Poland
Tel. +48 664 973 970
Email: biuro@frantagroup.com

Villa Reden Apartments Chorzów, Silesia Housing images / information from Franta Group

Address: Lwowska 34; 41-500 Chorzów, Silesia, Poland, eastern Europe

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