Karsai House

family house
2017
Nagykovácsi

The Karsai House is located in Nagykovácsi, on the side of the Zsíros Hill, in a side street with a gentle slope. The area is uniformly free-standing, with plots of around 1,000 square meters, and only a few newer houses and sparse vegetation at the time of construction.

The design of the building intended to resolve the contradiction between the site layout and the plot layout. While the terrain here opens up like a fan to the Devil’s Ditch valley and its rich views, the right-angled lot division deflects the building lines away from the favorable orientation.

The ground floor maintains a rich connection with the garden, while the upper floordesigned to accentuate the stunning views. The massing of the building defined by stacking two rotated slabs. An important compositional element is the play of enclosure and openness and the juxtaposition of the orientation of the two masses. 

The central element of the spatial system is the large covered terrace; which defines the entrance and creates the perfect shaded outdoor space for summertime. A series of ground-floor rooms follow the site boundary while connecting to the covered terrace. The layout of the space extends to take advantage of the features of the terrain. By lowering the ground floor, the living room gains an extra interior height. The large openings bond the interior with the garden. In contrast to the ground floor, the orientation of the upstairs rooms does not follow the Cartesian coordinate system typical of the plot but the lines of the landscape. Thanks to its unique orientation, the second floor and its bedrooms favorable the best views.

senior architect:
László Földes

architect:
Dániel Laczó

plan: 2016
completed: 2017

net floor area:   140 m2

photo:
Balázs Danyi