IN / OUT House

Single-Family House

location / Cracow, Poland
design / Anna Zgadzaj, Aneta Mazur
organizer / Builder
area / 130 – 198sqm
area / 2013
stage / competition project

The basic assumption for the in-out single family home, is a dream, which is the main theme of the competition. As the years pass, dreams change and evolve, very much like a person’s life. In order to correctly answer the given problem, one must first understand what it is that the middle class dreams of.

With this dream in mind, the house has been designed to follow the changes in the life of the inhabitants, and adapt to them accordingly. Four phases of change have been assumed.

During the first phase, the house is meant for a couple of inhabitants – young people, who are trying to achieve success in their professions, live in a constant hurry, but are also able to find a bit of time for socializing. They dream of their own living space, which is modern, comfortable, and tailored to their needs.

With time, they begin dreaming of stabilization in their life, increasing their life standards and starting a family. To do this, their living space must undergo certain modifications. With the incorporation of a mobile modular system in the design of the house, the inhabitants can increase the area of the house easily, and with little extra cost. New spaces are created by moving the framework hidden within the walls apart, and filling it with modular panels. In the second phase, the living room area is increased, and a room for the baby is created.

Should a need for another room arise for another baby, or an elder member of the family, the house can be put into its third phase – increasing the area to maximum by moving apart all of the framework.

The fourth and final phase, is moving the framework back inside and a return to the initial, or starting phase. When the children grow up, and move out, the number of inhabitants falls again to two. In such case, the expanded area of the house is no longer necessary. There are new dreams of a peaceful old age, once again a comfortable space better suited to the needs of the inhabitants. It is real by moving the framework back in again means that the inhabitants who have lived in the house their whole life no loner have to sell the house.