Andreescu and Gaivoronschi, associated architects

Andreescu and Gaivoronschi Associated Architects

AB House

The house is situated in a residential area in the north of Timisoara, Romania. Nearby, there is another house I designed 13 years ago, which develops the same idea of a "house on a house." It has to do with a social phenomenon typical in Italy and Greece, where young family members live with their parents. This coexistence was sincerely expressed in both cases: the "young house" on the "old one."
Wood represents youth and freshness, while stone is associated with roots and a long history. A wooden house on top of a larger stone house.
Moreover, this juxtaposition involves a public/private dialectic. The solid stone walls "defend" and enclose the private area to some extent. In the AB house, this fenced character is balanced by the subtraction of a typical traditional "grey" space for public/private interaction at the entrance. Behind the house, the theme of intermediacy is represented by the patio and the covered terrace, "the outside eating room."
Inside the house, there is a two-directional topology: the horizontal one, representing the parents' area, which also embraces the patio, and the vertical one that juxtaposes the spaces of the "two houses." This juxtaposition occurs in the living room area, where a typical "raum-plan" pattern is developed.
The living room is designed as a "theatre," observable from different levels. There is also a private part on the first floor, resembling the "women's room" in traditional Oriental dwellings—a space where one can observe without being observed. It serves as a future library and a smoking area.
The apartment contained in the wooden house above is also sufficient for a young couple. The inside/outside relation is developed here as well, without dismantling the unity of the box: an intermediary space to the south behind wooden louvres, a thin balcony to the west for observing the atrium and dawn, and a vertical incision to the east to direct the rising sun.