Transformation House

While working on the project, three main ideas clarified for us: nature-city; solitude-openness; creation-presentation.

Nature-city

This aspect is related to the surroundings of the plot. Analysing the landscape opposite, we can see that there is a transition from nature in the east to the city as the dominant landscape element in the west. We thought it worthwhile to take advantage of this in the process of working on the form. As a result, we came to the conclusion that we will divide our volume into three levels and turn them in relation to each other so that each level offers a different view. Level III is directed towards nature, because at this stage there is a search, a transformation of what is natural in the environment, such as emotions and feelings, which we can confront, delve into, analyse and extract. Nature is here a source of inspiration for creative work. Level II opens up to a view of nature and the city, which emphasises the next step, the passage beyond. Level I opens dynamically to the city. 

Solitude - openness

This idea came to us while answering the questions who is a musician? What spaces does he/she use in his/her creative work? What are their specifics? What do they serve him for? Three stages emerged in this analysis. The first one is when the musician locks himself in, looks for inspiration for his creative work. He makes rehearsals, corrections in the piece, which first appeared in his imagination, and with the help of the score and the instrument it becomes externalised. The next stage is the recording of the work, at which cooperation with others is outlined. This is certainly a small group of trusted people. These are also the first listeners of the new work. The final moment is when the creator stands in front of a larger audience and can perform what he has been creating for some time. In this way, he shares his emotions and feelings, he externalizes himself. We have also shown this specific creative process in our block. Almost the entire surface of level III is occupied by a room, which we called 'the lonely room'. It is a place of seclusion, where the artist can be alone with his thoughts and ideas. The only opening to the surroundings from this room is a skylight in the ceiling. It is a window of reconciliation with nature and a symbol of the artist's inspiration. This room is the most isolated from the rest of the household, like a secret chamber in a high tower. This arrangement enhances the feeling of privacy and enables full contemplation of what is important. Descending to level II we move to the semi-open zone. It consists of two distinct zones: musical and private. In order to emphasize the difference between them, we applied a procedure in the form of height difference within this level. The music zone with a recording studio is separated from the private zone with bedrooms by 0,5m of height. Between the zones we designed a buffer zone, which is emphasised by a longitudinal skylight in the ceiling. Thanks to the solution with height differentiation within one level, we emphasise our way from solitude to openness. We started it on the top floor in a space created only for the artist, going down the musician finds himself first in a private zone among the closest people, then going down further he finds himself in other musical spaces, but they are accessible to a larger group of people than himself. Going down to the lowest floor he finds himself in the most open zone, where the whole living area is located, with a lounge that opens up towards the city. We want to invite the city inside, and as the city, it is above all a larger group of people with whom we share what has been created on the floors above. This space designed so that the creator can share and enjoy his creation with others. In doing so, he opens his soul to his listeners. It is a space created with mini concerts in mind.

Creation - performance

To be able to understand what kind of musical spaces to design, we referred to the questions we mentioned above. Who is a musician? What spaces does he use in his creative work? What are their specific characteristics? What are they used for? When we knew the answers to these questions, we knew that our project had to refer to the three stages: creating - recording - performing. From this, three spaces emerged that needed to be designed: a room where the musician would be free to create and practice; a recording studio; a concert hall. Knowing what we wanted to design, we decided that it would make the most sense to locate the creative room on level III, the recording studio on level II and the concert hall on level I. In addition to the location of these spaces on each floor, further questions had to be answered. What materials should be used? How should the various spaces be designed so that they are acoustically correct? An important aspect was the soundproofing of the individual music zones. Therefore, it made sense for the recording studio and the creative room to be located next to walls that border the ground. In addition, the walls of the room on the top floor are covered with a layer of soundproofing foam. The recording studio is a kind of complex. The listening room is a box in box form. It consists of placing one box in another. There is an expansion joint between the walls of the individual boxes. The listening room has its own ceiling separated from the ceiling above the rest of the rooms, it also has a separate floor system. In addition, we have used acoustic absorbers in the interior and covered the walls with material that increases the acoustic coefficients. In the recording rooms, we also used sound-absorbing foam. In addition, to reduce the risk of noise from outside, we have installed soundproofing locks. All this to provide the best possible place to work - recording, arranging, fine-tuning the tracks. The main element of the living room, which at the same time plays the role of a concert hall, is a stage with a piano. In its background is our window, which points to the city with its dynamic form.

Our form is coherent as a whole, although it consists of three masses with different forms, which are additionally twisted in relation to each other. It grows out of the hill, forming a unity with it. The top storey emphasises its integration with the hill in the roof, which is a continuation of the hill through its curvature. The other storeys appear to be flanked by the hill. As far as façade materials are concerned, we decided to use: glass, dark stone on almost the whole block, light-coloured boarding around the windows and on the terrace and ramp in front of the house.