chitila single

Date: 2018

Location: Romania, Ilfov

Field: Architecture

Use: Residential

Size: 350 sqm

This was a commission for a relatively large-sized single family home design in Bucharest suburban area: the brief contained a wide-range of required uses, including 4 bedrooms, office space, generous storage and a laundry room and a garage with a workshop area. At the same time, local planning regulations capped land coverage for the area at 35%, while the client preferred a grounded aesthetic to the home, rather than a tall building. This meant we had to get as efficient as possible with our use of floor space, which is generally a good idea if you want to keep your construction costs, energy use and carbon footprint down, but it can infringe on comfort and the resulting density can also affect the natural lighting of the homes. To save up on floor space and avoid these two pitfalls, we opted for a compact layout with minimal hallway areas, but big rooms, while positioning uses not requiring direct sunlight toward the inside. The economic layout allowed placing a maximal number of uses at ground-floor level, which maximized access to and from the outdoors, while meeting the 35% land coverage cap, and achieving a design with only two main levels and thus the grounded look that the client was looking for.