Flora first: the Moscow home built to fit around trees | Concrete Ideas

In this week’s iteration of Concrete Ideas, we’re spotlighting a wooden home on the outskirts of Moscow built in harmony with its natural environment.

Snegiri Architects designed their creation to fit around two mature birch trees and two pine trees at the heart of the site, allowing the land’s original green inhabitants to continue their lives unencumbered in a semi-sheltered courtyard at the heart of the house.

Meanwhile, the home’s slanting roof is covered in greenery, a natural continuation of the stonecrop and wild camomile found in patches throughout the garden.

Completed in 2018, the cottage was created as a “passive house”; a building with the ability to save 90 per cent more energy than a regular home thanks to a little technical know-how. The building stands with most of its rooms and windows facing the sun in order to trap more natural heat and light. The building is also equipped with a sustainable ventilation system and Swedish plate technology, which combines the design of a heated monolithic foundation plate with a floor heating system. Finally, the home is insulated with cold-proof mineral wool covered with larch wood saturated in flax oil.