Location: Russia
Year: 2008
With Michael Lewis
The synergy that animates this unique project for six weekend ‘dacha’ houses outside Moscow starts with the dialogue between nature and design. Green Development is the underlying key to the commissioning client’s ambition to be the first Russian developer to ‘reinterpret’ the dacha, providing luxurious housing that could raise the public’s awareness of sustainability in design. Renewable materials and a sensitivity to the power of design to improve our lives inspired this project, which brought together a Finnish construction team and Italian design sensitivity. The natural beauty of this virgin landscape resounds in the rich visual palette: double height spaces and generous window glazing invite the landscape at every turn. A tactile, sensual quality pervades from the moment one enters the central living spaces: natural, native larch is used everywhere possible, leather door handles, complemented by river stones in the bathrooms, coexist beautifully with state of the art Italian and German designed fixtures for bathrooms and kitchens. Together they invite luxurious and intelligent country living for urban weekenders. Alhadeff Architects also finished the interiors of one of the six houses, the Ecohouse. Icons of contemporary classic design, such as Mattia Bonetti’s Drops Table (2007), Ettore Sottsass’s Bibliotheque Bookshelf (1985), Jasper Morrison’s Carrara Tables (2005) and many other sculptural elements provide a bright and energetic counterpoint to the tranquil seduction of the Pavlovskaya Sloboda project. Altogether, it is an architect’s dream of what a developer can do, when ‘green’ is harnessed to ‘growth’, and technological amenities are built into the heart of a sustainable design. The heart of these eco-houses beats to a strikingly modern tempo, yet makes a gentle footprint on the landscape, holding its place as the inspiration of all design. Michael Lewis of Michael Lewis Designs collaborated on the interior design. The presence of a central internet area and café required an innovative design intervention, to encourage browsing, lingering and longer hours, all new to the Italian territory.
