Rubra is a complex of seven semi-detached and detached houses. The red houses were built in Straszyn near Gdańsk. Their design was created in the studio of Paweł Lis.
The intimate complex of buildings got its name because of the colour of the façade. It was made of cut hand-moulded bricks, which, in the form of clinker tiles, covered all the blocks tightly.
The estate is located in Straszyn, 12 km from the centre of Gdansk. The houses are built on a sloping site that slopes down towards the south and ends in an escarpment overgrown with old trees.
When designing our estate, we tried to refer to the building past of the Gdańsk Pomerania region. The overhanging blocks of the storeys are reminiscent of the characteristic arcaded houses, and the form of the walls and canopies, inclined at an acute angle, can be compared to the diagonal braces used in timber-frame constructions,” says architect Pawel Lis.
The sloping terrain encouraged the houses to be set up in a cascade arrangement. This gives everyone a better view, more light and attractive terraces with gardens facing south.
Why was the façade covered with clinker? Hand-formed brick has been used in the area for centuries. Among other things, it was used to build free-standing bread ovens. Railway buildings, houses and mills were also built from this material. The most important inspiration for the investment described here are the still existing hydroelectric power plants built on the Radunia river since the beginning of the 20th century.
The complex consists of six semi-detached and one detached building. All have individually designed and constructed gardens, irrigation and lighting systems.
Each type A and B semi-detached house has 236 sq m of floor space and a two-car garage. The Type C houses look slightly different and each have 233 sq m of floor space and a two-car garage.
On the ground floors, in addition to the living room with kitchen, there are also study rooms. The floors have four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a boiler room with a laundry room. The ground floors, which are 3 m high, have been glazed with aluminium-framed windows and fitted with an HS sliding system. All windows have been flush with the façade and are set on projecting consoles outside the face of the structure. In order to emphasise the separate character of the semi-detached buildings, the storeys have been set back from each other.
The overhanging canopies are a characteristic feature of these houses. They protect the rooms from excessive heat from the south, and their slanting form adds dynamics to the whole building,” adds architect Pawel Lis.
The detached house has 267m2 of floor space and a two-car garage. On the ground floor, in addition to the living room and dining room with kitchen, there is a study. On the first floor, we designed 4 rooms and two bathrooms, as well as a laundry room and a boiler room. The ground floor has been recessed below the level of the entrance. It has a characteristic elongated window that looks like a gap in the rock wall. The garage has been separated from the living area by a through-glazed corridor. This gives the effect that those entering the house are greeted by a view of the trees on the other side. The first floor on the entrance side is clad in seamed sheet metal and cut with vertical windows that extend to the edge of the canopy. To the south, the house has a large terrace overlooking the old-growth forest.
All buildings are powered by heat pumps and equipped with a recuperation system. The entire estate has retention tanks and a rainwater recovery system, which will be used for, among other things, watering the gardens. It is planned to install photovoltaics and energy banks. The architecture of the Rubra estate is a contemporary interpretation of the historical buildings of the region. The simple blocks stacked on top of each other, the sloping walls of the overhangs and the red of the burnt clinker give them a coherent, timeless character.
design: Paweł Lis
cooperation: arch. Karolina Osuchowska, M.A. arch. Piotr Gorzelańczyk
design: Darek Gardziński, M.Sc
greenery design: arch. Marta Dorozik
photography: Emi Karpowicz
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