Prispa house

CONCEPT

The PRISPA in front of your house is like a magic strip, an intermediary space between the interior and the exterior, which protects you from wind, from very brutal temperature changes, from sun that's too strong, and it manages to do all this by design. Being such a control element, filtering the light and blocking or alleviating temperature alterations, it guarantees some of the energy efficiency.

Strategy

Prispa house wants to be the alternative which invites the revival of the rural lifestyle and the Romanian charm. It is a pilot project addressed to both the man dedicated to ecologic social and economic aspects of sustainability and that handful of people that still linger in the village, but never quite making the most of it.

To meet the needs of this target group, the PRISPA house is:

AFFORDABLE – it costs maximum 70,000euros, so as to make it a project fit to be financed by "First Home" (Prima Casa) governmental program
COMFORTABLE – according to both legalized European standards of living and Romanian psychological thresholds. PRISPA is an element all Romanians can relate to; this element is ever so slightly changed, to meet the numbers imposed by the EU
EASY TO BUILD – prefabricated elements, simplicity in structure and technology.
ADAPTABLE – its structure is modular and accepts extensions, it features reconfigurable elements in the living spaces.
CONTEXT – WISE – design, functions, finishing, independence in use

Architecture

Our solar house is a layering of two envelopes, an exterior one, covered in dark wood, which turns itself continuously into the interior, and an interior one which comprises all the living spaces and the technical core, as well as the resulting space between the two. This resulting space is the house’s star feature, the traditional transition space named Prispa. All these are held together by a simple, yet efficient, modular wood structure.

The architectural design is meant to be a multi-performer. On the one hand, it is configured to increase the exterior solar active surface, and to give the interior spaces their natural place in the house. On the other hand, everything the design entails pushes functionality to the extreme, in order to achieve contemporary living standards and optimise the traditional, mentally comfortable, functions. The spaces we achieved are an example of balance between the minimum necessary living area and maximum comfort.

Moreover, we configured the space so that the functions that need to be intimate or concealed are in the northern area of the house, near the core. We see this core both as a technical feature and as a traditional centrepiece in rural living – what we call “vatra” . The spaces destined for socialising are positioned in the front of the house, having the maximum height and a generous opening towards the Prispa.

Interior

When it comes to interior design, our goal was to create a space which can be easily associated with Romanians’ traditional way of living, while meeting contemporary standards of comfort and design. The end result? A neutral space, yet modern, with a traditional touch. Why neutral? Because our traditional rural inhabitant believes in simplicity and functionality.

On the other hand, we believe that “God is in the detail” and that a house should be custom-made for its inhabitant. Therefore, we designed an interior that can be easily personalised by the people who live in it, without losing its integrity or having to spend anything extra. The use of local, usually raw, materials is common in traditional architecture, so, when it comes to our senses, we used what nature gives us - wood, stone, clay – in natural colouring and texture.

This gives that neutral, yet comforting, feeling you should have at home. For those who like stronger touches, everything may be very easily personalised by accents such as textures, textiles and singular objects. Taking design up a notch, our gestures in the interior architecture also mark passive energy strategies and conceptual areas in the house.

Energy Efficiency

The energy efficiency of the house is ensured mainly by means of solar and fotovoltaic panels, placed on the exterior envelope at an ideal angle, generating energy to support all the needs for a proper use of the Prispa house. The context we considered while developing our pilot project made it mandatory that the technology used is rather simple, easy to find and low-maintanance. We didn’t want to make technology a lifestyle, but an aid to a healthy, easy to adopt one.

To improve the efficiency and to make it an energy-plus-house, we configured it in such a way that different elements, both active and passive, help reduce the quantity of energy needed for normal use. For example, the heating and ventilation system is similar to the one used in industrial buildings, reusing heated air from the kitchen to heat other spaces in the house, the radiator use infrared technology so they heat directly the solids, not use convection through liquids and air, the modular wall panels are using a very efficient, but natural insulation system, while reducing thickness and the stone indoor pavement placed next to the prispa windows create thermal mass.

Moreover, the Prispa is naturally configured to help maintain the interior confort by shading the space in summer and allowing direct natural light in winter, acting like a wind barrier and increasing the active solar surface, while also allowing us to create a windfang, another thermal barrier at the entrance.

Reconfigurable Elements

Flexibility is important both to traditional and contemporary living, for means of comfort and economy, so it became an important part in the development of our solar house.

In the bigger picture, depending on its users, another sleeping module can be easily attached on the side of the Prispa house because its structure and the easy-to-build modular panels allow for such an intervention.

In the interior, we have created spaces than can be used differently in a diversity of scenarios, ranging from a fun-to-use design of the dining area, to a two-way closet space, a retractable staircase and the possibility of dividing the sleeping area so that the inhabitant can create a working space. Hidden intimate spaces like the reading room on the split level or the use of the split level to access the technical room add to the flexibility, making use of space, while creating design-wise elements.