za bor architects designed the ‘Hill House’ in Moscow, Russia.
Description from the architects:
Hill House or «House in Nikolina Gora» (the word ‘Gora’ in Russian means ‘Hill’) owes its name to its area location and the architectural design: the house seems to be buried into the ground. You can see the top of the project (namely, the part where the living room is situated) over the trees and the base part of it is hidden under the ground. Nevertheless Hill House corresponds to the contemporary vision of convenience and humanity.
The project creation story began with a small 3D visualization publication in a magazine. A young family with children saw it, really liked it and found its creators – Arseniy Borisenko and Peter Zaytsev (za bor architects) – to order the construction of their own residence. There were no special conditions concerning the outer appearance of the future house. But the landscape was so strongly pronounced that the architects decided to dig a lower level in the ground. The idea was accepted immediately without any corrections. The rugged terrain played a positive role in the project making it not ordinary and interesting both for the architects and the clients.
Everything is upside down in this house compared to ordinary buildings: upstairs there is the entrance as well as public zones and downstairs there are private ones. Also there’s entrance to the green yard from the lower level of the construction.
By digging down the lower level and overhanging the top console, the architects created an interesting psychological effect: the house looks like a little white cube causing its guests’ amazement.
The interior is the continuation of the exterior. It’s calm, restrained, with a few bright and unusual elements. That’s the way how the concrete bar counter and the concrete fireplace appeared. Other unique elements are the wooden bed ‘hovering’ above the floor and the Corian sink with a structurally complicated shape.
The clients were completely satisfied with the result and made several more projects with the za bor architects.
| Firms | za bor architects |
| Location | Moscow, Russia |
| Project Architect | Peter Zaytsev, Arseniy Borisenko |
| Area | 450 m2 |
| Photography | Peter Zaytsev |
