It was built surrounded by trees and close to the sea. The modest grey house is located in Wisełka. Its conceptual design was prepared by arch. Tomasz Sachanowicz (s.lab architektura), arch. Nanni Grau (Hütten und Paläste Architekten) and Frank Witte and Frauke Hildebrandt.
The built house is a place that offers the owners a comfortable holiday and gives them the opportunity to enjoy the Baltic Sea. It is 1.4 km from the latter, and the residents are 2 km away from the centre of Wiselka.
The advantage of the house is its location. It is separated from the beach by a rich and hilly pine and beech forest. Thanks to this, the very way to the sea is a pleasure. –The Baltic Sea without the promenade and its accompanying hustle and bustle, the high forest, the relatively few people, the lack of cars near the beach and the silence are all important advantages of the location,” adds Tomasz Sachanowicz.
The investors live in eastern Germany on a daily basis. Enchanted by the charm of Wisełka, they decided to build their second home here. This seaside base is intended to serve them as a holiday home ideal for relaxation, celebration, but also work, concentration and tranquillity. When they are not using it themselves, they will make their residence available to others as a short-term rental. The building consists of two main parts: “day house” and “night house”, which are connected by a wide, glazed transition area.
Formally, the building consists of two simple blocks, covered by symmetrical gable roofs with slope angles of 45 and 30 degrees. These blocks are connected by a connector covered also by a gable roof with a 37-degree pitch. The ridges are located parallel to the front of the plot. By dividing the mass, the ridges of the roofs could be situated about 2 metres below the maximum height specified in the building conditions, thanks to which the house gains an intimate character. The division of the mass is reflected in the functional layout – a two-storey night part, with an anonymous façade with small openings from the street, and a day part, open with large windows to the garden. The connecting roof covers the terrace areas located between the day and night sections.
“The day house” consists of a single, large and high room, whose height at its highest point is more than 6 metres. This room has large windows in the three outer walls, giving views of the surrounding garden and sky. The ‘living house’ has a lounge area with a spacious sofa, a large dining room with an old Berlin table and a modern kitchen with plywood built-ins. At the heart of the living area is a large clay oven, on which you can sit or lie down at any time of the year. On cold days, you can fire up the cooker and enjoy its pleasant warmth. An old swinging door from 1930 (from the Jewish Girls’ School on Berlin’s Auguststrasse – the homeowner’s acquisition from an eBay auction) connects the living area with a glazed transition zone, which is also connected to the terrace on both sides. A piano and a sofa are set up in this zone.
“The night house” has two floors. On the ground floor there are two bedrooms with access to their own parts of the terrace, a bathroom with shower and washing machine and an additional toilet. The ground floor and the attic are connected by a wide wood-finished staircase. In the attic there are three bedrooms – two larger and one smaller – and a bathroom. These rooms have walls finished with clay plaster and a sloping ceiling upholstered with plywood, which gives them a cosy, warm atmosphere. The calm atmosphere of the interiors is complemented by modest furnishings.
The house in Wisełka was designed in close cooperation with the client. The interiors were decorated and furnished according to the clients’ ideas and included many furnishings from their lives (an antique wooden table, a piano, a door from a Berlin school, old books and albums). Much of the finishing work inside and around the house was done by the clients themselves with the help of friends. In this aspect, it is an example of phenomenological building and inhabitation in Heidegger’s terms – the proximity of design, construction and use , explains Tomasz Sachanowicz.
The Grey House is an example of a minimalist approach – in the sense of austerity, not doing unnecessary things and using as few resources as possible. This translates into the wall material used requiring no additional thermal insulation, the recycling of windows and doors, interior finishes that do not require painting, the use of natural materials such as clay and plywood, the lack of mechanical ventilation, and the absence of solutions commonly regarded as minimalist – such as the more costly, labour-intensive and problematic hidden gutters and downpipes in case of failure. Here, the drainage of rainwater, flowing from the roofs through downpipes into concrete fittings built into the terrace surface, is celebrated and drained onto the lawn.
photos: Stephan Falk and Tomasz Sachanowicz
Concept design: arch. Tomasz Sachanowicz (s.lab architektura, Szczecin), arch. Nanni Grau (Hütten und Paläste Architekten, Berlin), Frank Witte and Frauke Hildebrandt (clients);
Architectural and construction design, site supervision: arch. Tomasz Sachanowicz / s.lab architektura www.slabpracownia.pl
The following collaborated on the technical design: construction: Mirosław Bartosiewicz, sanitary installations: Ewa Rybak, electrical installations: Patryk Dominiak. Contractor for the main construction work: Tomasz Zużewicz.
Read also: Single-family house | Minimalism | Elevation | Interiors | whiteMAD on Instagram
