Project: Forest Family Home
Architects: FORM Bureau
Project author: Viktoriia Shkliar
Location: Kiev, Ukraine
Year: 2012-2018
House area: 295 m2
Photographer: Andrey Bezuglov
Text provided by FORM Bureau
“Beauty is in simplicity” – in fact, everything has started from this phrase. Country house – Forest Family Home, Viktoriia Shkliar’s project, FORM Bureau. The task was to create a multifunctional house with a terrace of a total area 300 square meters. This was the house for a married couple with two children. This was the second joint project with FORM Bureau.
The family specified at the beginning their basic needs and wants. They are passionate to natural and high quality materials. While working on the project, its architecture and design became integral. The works at the project took six years.
The facade of the house was decorated in Italian style within the design process. Wooden pergolas weaken the bright sun and create a shadow touch on the facade. All retaining walls and stairs at the site were created from rubble stone: the most natural material.
Living space was projected for two floors:
On the ground floor there is a living room leading to the combined area of the kitchen and dining room. Open layout and panoramic windows provide natural lightning throughout the house. The white walls and the ceiling visually expand the space. Opened panoramic windows in living and dining room allow merge with nature. In addition to the main premises, there is a hall with dressing area, study area, bathroom, sauna with pool and boiler room. We added a bathroom with easy access to the terrace.
The garage and workshop occupy a considerable square on the first floor. The staircase to the second floor was enclosed with a transparent ash wood construction. Bedrooms and children’s rooms, bathrooms, dressing and laundry rooms are upstairs.
Plastered brickwork and open concrete structures of the interior were deliberately preserved in their natural form. The house is surrounded by a beautiful garden, where it was important to deliver nature inside the house. One of the main decorations of the interior is the texture of natural materials: the warmth of wood and the brutal texture of stone.
White walls and no active decor, textured materials make the interior’s character. The color palette is of natural and neutral shades. To preserve the height of the 1st floor, the concrete ceiling was simply painted in white.
Natural wood is on the floor in all residential areas. In the kitchen and bathroom the floor and walls are covered in micro cement. Almost all the furniture is custom-made according to the sketches made by the author of the project. For example, the oak wall in the bedroom made of raw boards is, in fact, the facade of a wardrobe and decoration of the front door. All lamps and part of the furniture are delivered from Europe.
A special atmosphere of the interior is created due to a warm zoned lighting and music, lightly flowing from the walls and ceilings around the house. The effective combination of forms, materials and light provide the main essence of the project.
Forest Family Home Interior furnishing:
Upholstered furniture by INTERIA, a studio of beautiful furniture.
Kitchen furniture, closets, wardrobes and all wood furnishings were produced by the Ukrainian furniture producers.
The table on the terrace by Ivan Chudov’s workshop.
Plumbing – Zucchetti, Ideal Standard, Hansa, Emmevi, Hatria, Kolo, Hansgrohe, Grohe, Kludi.
Tiles – Venis, Caesar, Vives, la faenza, Megagres.
Lightning – Flos, House Doctor, SLV, IDEAL LUX, Nowodvorski, Ikea, AQForm
Textiles – of Irina Shentsova’s textile design studio
