Assignment

Summer cabin (Dacha) is widely popular in Russia as an affordable summer retreat. You can have your cabin be as complex or as simple as you like, fitting any budget. Most cabins are self-built out of any materials available in the area.

My family’s summer cabin was a typical example of such typology - a self-built chaotically renovated structure with a weird synergy of ill-fitted and well-fitted. On one end, the cabin had many issues typical for self-built structures such as too steep stairs and too narrow passages. On the other end, the cabin was always perfectly in-tune with my family’s needs and the way they organized their life on the site.

I spent years sketching improvements on and off, with some of my ideas even being implemented into the old informal structure. However, after more than a decade, the informal structure was at capacity, approaching the level of development where it could be a house. Thus we decided to fully rethink our summer cabin and turn it into a house that could also be used in winter. We wanted to harvest all the lessons we learned with our informal experiments and use them in the design of the site and the new structure.

This was a dream scenario for the informal architecture renovation. It was done by the residents, with their own money, and as they see fit. The residents remained on the site and continued their way of life uninterrupted.

Old Summer Cabin and Site

New House and Site

I did not get a chance to see the Summer House in the summer yet. Therefore, below are the photos from the last visit in the abnormally warm January of 2019, with some work still being done. Today, the house is completed. Post-occupancy evaluation from my parents is glowing, which is remarkable considering how hard they are to please: the house remained in PD-SD for nearly five years (intermittently) before they were happy with the design.

While functionally the house was built nearly as designed, my parents and I spend many days arguing about the finishes, and I ultimately conceded. In the end, they are the primary users of the place and they should customize it to their taste, in the best traditions of informal architecture.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3