Perforated House by Piotr Kluj and Pawel Litwinowicz
POZNAN – Looks can be deceiving and, at first sight, the Perforated House by Piotr Kluj and Paweł Litwinowicz seems to raise a big question. Why would anyone with an elongated building plot in a leafy neighbourhood near Poznań’s centre attach a minimalist residence to their neighbour’s house?
The answer is rather prosaic: the ‘new’ house is a renovation of a semi-detached dwelling of a type popular in Poland in the 1970s, though thoroughly unremarkable in most aspects. The client, a dedicated collector of antique furniture, liked the plot nonetheless due to its attractive location, and was prepared to invest in a radical refurbishment.
The architects, having replaced the front and back elevation with reinforced portals, were free to use the whole width of the house and constructed a double garage with a shallow ramp at the front and a fully glazed prospect at the back. Here, the level of the garden was raised as well, allowing direct access from the living room.
To achieve a contemporary look, the whole volume was subsequently clad in wooden veneer panels. Inside, the client’s furniture collection was used to decorate the space and the contrasting formal languages are reunited in parts of the façade, where cut-out floral patterns function as a screen between the street and the client’s bedroom.
Exterior photos Jeremi Buczkowski
Interior photo Anna B. Gregorczyk