house of designer Sergey Rafalovich (160 m2) in Kemerovo Sergey Rafalovich

Passing the gallery

A photo: Karen Manko

Interview prepared: Julia Sakharova

Architect: Andrei Kationov, Danil Nikonov

Architect-designer: Sergey Rafalovich

Magazine: N11 (78) 2003

Such a "semi-naked" house is easy to imagine on the coast of Florida, where it is hot, or somewhere in London, where the originals practice transparency in everything. But try to mentally “superimpose” it on the map of Western Siberia (imagining a taiga, frost 40 ° C), and you will feel that this requires willful effort ... Designer Sergey Rafalovich asserts that living in such a house in severe taiga conditions extremely comfortable. And that he didn't invent anything on purpose, he just saw a house in a dream ...beginingSergey Rafalovich: “This is absolutely true: the house appeared to me in a dream. And I didn’t dream about a finished house, but a process: first I designed, then I built, then I made and bought furniture, I picked up accessories. I saw everything, down to the smallest detail, even the glass the board "in the floor of the second floor was present in my dream. Trying to answer myself the question of how this turned out to be possible, I tend to think that probably the accumulated experience manifested itself. That is, the subconscious mind" showed "me the size in a dream rooms and sofas that should have entered there There are knotted larch knots and ways of fixing double-glazed windows. In short, when I woke up in the morning, I went to the office, painted everything and gave it to the designers. It happened in October, and a year later the house was ready. "Nature "The concept of the house is simple - it is extremely open to nature and becomes part of it. The forest is noisy around, I also wanted mountains. Then I created a conditional mountain landscape on my site. I brought impressive stones and planted coniferous perennials. The irregular oval pool resembles a natural reservoir. From the glazed terrace of the house there is a view of the geometric garden, in which concentric alternate - just not circles, but squares of grass and pebbles. Taking care of the plants yourself is also a creative process. "Credo - transparency "The transparent terrace occupies one third of the house. On the ground floor there is a dining room, on the second floor there is a seating area. (While it seems to be empty, but soon sofas will appear here - simple shapes, natural colors.) transparent "inserts" were made in the roof, through which the sky is visible. For the glazing, a two-chamber double-glazed window with a selective coating filled with argon was used, which has good reflective properties and helps to keep warm. plosberezheniya allow to maintain heat in the house with two fireplaces and several electrical convectors with automatic temperature control. Transparent roof part made of polycarbonate thickness of 32 mm. "Opaque part "The other two thirds of the house is a living room and a small kitchen (in the lower floor). So that I myself can cook something there sometimes. In the upper floor there is a bedroom and an office. All furniture except soft (and the dining room downstairs) , I designed it myself. Sometimes it seems to me that my house is a little bit egoist: it is designed for one, a maximum of two, but in principle its planning is simple and capable of transformations, so that the house can quite shelter a third person (for example, in private chambers 2 floor) ".Time spiral In the dining room on the first floor, Sergei began to create an object called "The Spiral of Time". Like the house, the "Time Spiral" began spontaneously: at first, the sea minerals of a difficult period were bought and built into the wall. Then there appeared their fellows of another variety and "went" in a spiral ... It is planned to exhibit objects from different civilizations in this way, but how it will all end, the owner has not yet decided. Maybe the closure of the spiral will be a can of Coke, and maybe ... a book? The fact is that Sergey has plans to write a book about several generations of his family. So to say, to give family secrets transparency ... But this is another story.Sergey Rafalovich: "I built a country house for myself. And I feel great here ... And when they ask if it’s cold in such a house, after all, Western Siberia. Then I answer with pleasure: no, not cold. And I share the secrets of heat saving ".