Looking at the modern body with its large glazed areas, it is hard to believe that not long ago there was a car repair shop here. The bold redevelopment of the building was undertaken by architect Krzysztof Grześków from the studio rewizja grupa projektowa. The changes resulted in a house that is also the studio’s office.
The building is located in Wrocław. The architect wanted it to be located a maximum of 10 minutes by bicycle from the city centre. The presence of old trees nearby, the proximity to the Oder River and recreational areas were also important.
There aren’t too many such neighbourhoods in Wrocław. There is Sępolno/Biskupin, Zacisze, Zalesie. However, it is very difficult to find a plot of land for sale there, and even if we do, we are unlikely to be able to afford it. Therefore, we decided to revise our way of thinking a little and thus found an old car workshop which was located on a small, 240 square metre building plot, but which met all the previously mentioned criteria. Admittedly, the building itself was unusable, but the sale of some of the demolition materials allowed us to contribute to the budget for building the new facility,” says Krzysztof Grześków.
When designing his home and office, the architect decided to combine elements characteristic of industrial halls with solutions typical of residential construction. In industrial construction, everything is prefabricated and only assembled on site. This avoids inaccuracies and speeds up the construction process considerably. The construction of Casafutura took 100 working days and all the work was carried out by three people.
Using the right module allows elements to be assembled like building blocks and avoids unnecessary cutting. Here, this module was a multiple of 120 cm: the prefabricated façade panels are 120×120 cm; the windows are 120 x120 cm; and the 30 cm columns (120/4) are spaced 360 cm apart (120×3). Consequently, this helps to make it easy to arrange the interior with a standard module where, for example, the width of kitchen cabinets or furniture is 60 cm. and facilitates finishing work where the standard width of, for example, plasterboard is also 120 cm.
The finished elements, brought from the factory, are so precise that they do not require e.g. plastering, and the appropriate distribution of installations makes it possible to avoid unnecessary buildings or suspended ceilings, which often generate the highest costs.
Of course, when we think of a hall, we automatically have an image of aesthetically unappealing large-format shops in our minds, but this impression is usually compounded by an ill-considered choice of materials.
We replaced, for example, the material of the facade panels with firewood, which significantly warmed up the image of the entire facility, and we added gravel to the poured industrial floors, which after sanding created exactly the pattern and colour we wanted (terrazzo),” adds the architect.
The building consists of two parts the residents’ private zone is on the first floor. The ground floor is occupied by the studio area. Each part consists of eight squares of 3.6×3.6 metres. All other functions such as kitchens, bathrooms and technical rooms have been arranged in a buffer zone located directly in front of the wall of the neighbouring building, providing additional isolation from the neighbours and, due to the clustering, reducing installation work.
project: REWIZJA Grupa Projektowa
photos: Maciej Lulko, Ada Gruszka
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