buro511 completes its roma house among the forests outside moscow

the design team at architecture studio buro511 realizes the clustered timber volumes of its roma house among the forested region outside moscow. the team worked closely with their client, who sought a retreat among the centuries-old pines, away from the bustling density of the city. the house is designed as a protective and comforting fortress, as well as an integration within the natural surroundings, built with a material palette that is both brutalist and warm. developing the project the isolated retreat sought to express the ‘lair of an eternal bachelor in the forest’ with a lofty main room, a master bedroom block — including a bathroom with full-height, panoramic windows — and a small guest suite.

images by ilya ivanv | @photoivanov

buro511 | @buro511 completes its roma house outside moscow to express a hybridization of design languages. the team playfully notes the indecisive nature of the client, who many times went back and forth between envisioning a tiny forested cabin, then a brutalist construction, then interiors of heavy luxury. in the search for a cohesive collection of these many languages, the team began with luxury furniture pieces and warm surface finishes — even for the bathroom sinks are finished in walnut veneer. these elements are mixed with austere concrete and stone sourced from turkey. maintaining a quality of roughness, the ceilings are finished with wooden fencing, painted black by hand to ensure the brushed texture.

the team at buro511 celebrates the completion of the roma house as one of its most important projects since the young studio’s beginnings at the turn of 2019. while the design-build process was complicated and took over two years, the designers feel that the project fully reflects the inner world of the client. ‘this house is exactly what its owner is… ambiguous, contrasting, always in the balance of oppositions of life positions, opinions‘ commenting on the process: ‘we put our hearts and all our experience — or lack of it — into this project.’