Architect’s Modern Mansion Review | Architecture & Design, House Tour

I must tell you out the gate this isn't our project. We've promised to show cool design worldwide and this is the one by GK studio. You see the main entrance to the house. A very cool posh idea that we also recently implemented. These are gates that simply come down into the ground and it turns out to be a super minimalist solution. That is the most beautiful gates I could ever possibly imagine. It must be said there are simply slabs so to speak which can be easily lifted if something needs to be serviced. Meaning there is easy access and actually here are the sizes of the holes where actually these bars go in. They also have quite a large gap. Shall we show it? Yes. There's a very big gap here fingers can go through right and actually this allows moisture to escape there and actually not to form there. Friends before entering the house I want to show you the carports. In my opinion this is a masterpiece. They look beautiful and add character to this village. In general the metal construction reinforced with these stiffeners made of cables is supported by cable strays on this prop. The role of the covering is performed by a plastic or vinyl film. That is it's not a tarpaulin fabric it's more akin to banner plastic yes but extraordinarily thick and in fact the snow begins to melt a bit then slides down it rolls down this surface and generally even in winter one can use such unique canopies. Now let's go inside and show you the house. It's like the house isn't even here it's as if it's hiding from us on the slope. I would say that the idea of the house it's like a collected image from our two houses. I'd characterize it this way because there's a lot of exposed concrete here which Andres for example used in his own home but here the main idea of the house and the relief remains the same as the one I pursued. Here there is the same open panoramic facade from the inner courtyard and a completely closed house that directly transitions into the ground from the driveway. A very beautiful solution there is a lot of interesting stuff here and we can start with the entrance group. Let's talk in more detail about the entrance group because I really like first of all the quality of the concrete. Here we use the c2025 grade but we use the c3240 grade to achieve such a light color. Look at these inserts from the shuttering there are always these through holes left. You can repair them with a repair compound or you can use just inserts which the manufacturer produces but here architect made his own inserts, created a matrix and in general it looks very aesthetically pleasing. He pours the wall and immediately the inserts. The concrete becomes homogeneous and fits right into the wall like that. As you can see this concrete was poured in large panels but not super huge to avoid any cracks due to soil deformation. There is a slight roughness to ensure the surface is not slippery and the most interesting thing is that naturally heating for this ramp is provided and it operates in automatic mode meaning there is a sensor that reads the temperature and humidity and turns on at the moment when ice is formed. It's very interesting that you don't have to go out every morning and check whether you can get out today or not. Gently heat it up and patiently wait for roughly 20 minutes or even half an hour for it to fully melt. Here it is automated and all possible issues that might arise when driving into such a carport or garage have been foreseen and worked out. Yes I've noticed people are wary of such ramps but honestly in my opinion it's quite cool. The fact the house is below the road and seems hidden in the terrain actually adds privacy to it. People walk by just like that. They feel like there's no house here at all. Yes he's just downstairs. Look the gates are located here. Directly from them steps lead to such a huge red front door so that no one would miss it seeing that the entrance is there. Here is a small staircase that leads to the roof of the house. Well this is the best isn't it? Here we are still on the ground on the landscape and here we are already in the house on the roof of the house and this is such a smooth transition it's just something perfect in terms of earth sheltered homes right because from the street you can't catch where it exactly begins. You can leave the house and then enter the house again. This by the way is a drainage system. It's also very interesting that there is quite a thick layer of soil here with 1.9 feet of fertile layer. That's a huge amount. That's a lot meaning usually they do four inches the minimum you can do is two just like in my house. This allows you to achieve such a perfect lawn. You can plant bushes and you can even plant trees that will grow. But the trees are not the only interesting thing here. I guess the main feature here is these light lanterns. These enormous domes provide illumination to various rooms inside. We'll go inside you'll see how bright it is there and they automatically rise. There is no mechanical ventilation inside the house but it's not needed here because the amount of fresh air received is regulated by these drives so to speak and they also automatically rise and close according to a rain sensor. If it starts raining it will simply close and then once the rain has passed it will open back up. How is a parapet usually made? Either a metal parapet or a glass parapet. And here instead of a parapet there's just a bush. It doesn't let you fall there and generally it shields you from the road. A person here is isolated a bit from the road by this bush. In my opinion it's a very cool idea. I'm thinking of growing them on my roof perimeter but one of the advantages of this house is that there are no neighbors in front meaning there's a huge valley in front and a very distant view of the mountains. And here's another engineering feature that is as you can see the solar collectors are hidden but we'll tell you more about them a little later what they are used for. We see a lot of monolithic concrete here but it doesn't look let's say office-like or industrial or overly brutal. Instead it's softened with greenery. The greenery along one concrete wall along another concrete wall. Above is the tree that we have in the entrance area and accordingly that's why the house looks exactly like a house. This specific end of the roof is sloped and therefore the cladding turned out to be quite interesting. We have this wooden slat which transitions into the cladding of our roof resulting in a holistic architecture that organically flows into different planes. And then this thickness you see the thickness from here to the top meaning you have to understand that this is all roofing soil underlayment from below it forms this thick layer That much soil right? But the most interesting part is this presentable section the entrance. Firstly the size of the door. Look here it is this is a quite enormous door the door is so big because its pivot axis is located right here. You see this part of the door also goes there. Moreover there's an electronic lock with fingerprint recognition. Its locking mechanism is on one side and here too since there are no hinges to better press the door from this side. Moreover the question of how to bring electricity here it turned out impossible to conduct where the axis is. And here there are contact groups or whatever they might be called which make an electrical signal when they are connected. When we open the door it's clear there's no electrical signal but entering and closing it here it is with a door closer see a nice hidden one it moves right up here. When the door closes an electrical signal locks it automatically. I would say that making doors of that size or even larger on hinges is very difficult is impossible with any sort of manufacturer's guarantee because they will inevitably sag. This door is quite heavy but in such a design it's a working scheme because how to create a tight fit on that side so to speak was the question. It's easy here. And how do you run the wiring there I never understood. Here it's solved with a double lock. Yes and in addition on this side we have aluminum composite which means we're looking at solid panels. On this side is HPL. You see this door it's actually custom made by the architect himself. Uniquely crafted not something you could find ready-made off the shelf. Let's go inside friends. See how interesting it is. Firstly there is a huge skylight here. I think this is the main feature of this space. If we had just vertical windows even if all the walls were made of glass it would still be quite dark here because this side of the facade is always in the shade. And thanks to this skylight we have a lot of light. You just look as if the light bulb is on right. And it results in very beautiful soft lighting inside this space. And in the evening there's also a diode strip installed right under the dome which also provides reflected light and in fact imitates natural lighting as well. A beautiful solution and it's also on a drive. In short all advantages. I'd say such windows provide maximum light more than any others as they face directly into the roof. Straight into the sky where the Sun is always shining. Yes it's like a spotlight on your interior. This is where the wardrobe is located. Look this is also a door with a pivot hinge. Actually all the doors here have a pivot hinge. You can just walk around like this as if on a merry-go-round moving in a circle. Just like that. From this side you see there's a mirror here. You can try something else on and look at yourself. The walk-in closet is quite large. Generally outer wear and shoes are kept here. It's a very architectural solution and I like how the architect used such a door in one place. And then all the doors he used were not of the hinge type but with this pivot axis. The house slightly descends down the terrain so we have steps. And right here we enter an interesting space of a corridor from where you can directly see your cars. And probably the cars are well washed and they are aesthetically pleasing. Then it's probably nice to walk here and admire your cars. And on this side to admire some books. Moreover this side can be curtained off meaning there are blinds here that simply at the push of a button quietly descend. How quiet smooth they go. Everything is neat here. Once again attention can be drawn to the light. Even the large panoramic window isn't enough as if we had the overhead light on. So these bright circles they are actually not merely some bulbs lighting up. This is light from the sky. Listen it's about 3.2 feet high. This is a light pit. Very deep. I wonder does the phone get cell reception here? The phone signal needs to be checked right? I'd also like to note walking down the corridor there isn't a single painted wall here. That is an interesting solution where all walls are made of some material. From this perspective it's large format laminum, large format porcelain stoneware. These are indeed veneered walls and there's this soft panel on the wall. Generally speaking such a hotel version so to speak when you don't see a single simple painted wall that might I don't know crack with plaster and then you have to live with it. Actually I discovered wallpaper for myself. We haven't used wallpaper probably for many years. I don't remember it was about 10 years ago that we last used wallpaper. And if the wallpaper simply adds a texture to the wall they look cozier. Just a bit more homey. Not these floral wallpapers but plain monochrome colors. Yes background textile. They look very cool. A large kitchen island on the right. What's interesting here firstly the countertop. This is a wooden countertop. It's elm and as architect always says the more you dirty it up the more beautiful it truly becomes. Don't fear making the wooden countertop dirty. It's all about perfect imperfection. You see this is just a board. It is integrated right into the countertop. It's clear that it's used for cutting on it. If you find that you don't like something you can just like this flip it over. This way. And here no one has indeed ever cut anything on it if that concerns you. Gas hobs akin to gnocchi comes with a built-in extractor hood. By the way Gaggenau there are two. Look here. For one burner for the second and a very handy thing. Actually it's exactly these kinds of extractor hoods. I have one like this. They work very conveniently because they really do suck in all the steam. They are pretty powerful and I don't know how it works but all the steam just goes there. And so for instance as an example when we were cooking at home our buckwheat burned the first time we cooked because you just can't smell anything. It's that overwhelmingly powerful. Listen I can't boast about the same thing. Gaggenau Leica exhaust hood. It pops up is noisy and doesn't extract good at all. Well this is a tried-and-true option. Truly cool. The coolest feature is the closet which by the way also has a mirrored door. This is polished metal akin to what you'd find in restaurant kitchens. The refrigerator is located there. Here it is. Kind of an extra fridge. Why is it here? Because this actually is the door that leads outside and right here you can leave the bags then take them from here and place them. Ideally what this house is missing of course is an extra kitchen. And you mean to fit it in there? Actually if there weren't these steps here I think it would even be possible to set up some kind of work surface right here. Yeah actually in this scale of housing the must-have is a pantry with an extra kitchen. There's actually a chef here and that's comfortable. He comes for the holidays. And there is also another kitchen. A summer one. It's there located on the terrace. Here a door was specifically made so the cook could come up take something from the fridge and walk through the terrace. Thereby not disturbing those in the living room seated on the sofa. Well this is the main room. This is the living room. Here our attention was immediately captured by this elegant fireplace. It's very cool like a periscope but it's very stylish. Indeed looks really cool. And actually it costs $18,000. Well not less. A very large living room area. Here you can, I don't know, have the whole family on the sofa. And I really like this panel, this solution, the fact that we have soft upholstery. It significantly helps with the acoustics. Because when we have high ceilings of 11.4 feet, whenever there's some hard material on the floor like parquet or tiles, it creates a considerable amount of echo. And so watching television or even listening to music is always a big problem. It's very well solved with such soft panels. They actually create just the right acoustics. Because usually all our equipment is thoughtfully placed along this wall. You'll definitely ask about this house's heating. There are full convectors inside. Bedrooms have radiators. In the bedrooms architect does not utilize floor connectors because they have a fan that creates a slight noise. And there is underfloor heating beneath the engineered wood which just slightly warms up this board. To me it's the perfect system that is the heated floor. It really is a heated floor, meaning it's one degree warmer than the room temperature. There are convectors and yes it's perfect that in public places they come with fans so they are quite small. If there wasn't a fan here it would be about three times thicker really without exaggeration. And it is in the bedrooms where there is a combination of both a radiator and a convector which are silent without a fan. And in my opinion such heating is the most appropriate way in any house. We haven't paid attention to this sliding system yet. It's a really cool thing. That is these windows fold up like an accordion. One behind the other and hides behind the sofa. A truly beautiful solution because it results in barrier free access to the terrace. I'd probably say something trivial but it's important. You see the terrace transitions directly into the lawn and it results in a complete integration. Mainly there's the kitchen, table, sofa, table, kitchen, lawn. And about the fireplace I would also like to say that first of all it rotates like this. You can turn it towards yourself. Secondly there is such an interesting plate here to prevent damage to the parquet floor in case of any sparks. But in my opinion the most interesting thing is this air supply into the fireplace. So the fireplace is hanging right? But from here there's a flow of cold air and the shutter for regulating the fireplace it is located right here. And accordingly I sincerely don't know precisely how it functions but somehow this hatch opens up just a tad right here and air is blown in from this pipe. That is it's a factory solution the first I've seen like this. By the way it's a very convenient scheme that is where to place this spa block because often it's attached to a quiet area through some corridor and these are all somewhat poorly thought-out solutions. You see this isn't from the kitchen side it's from the bar side. Yes and it's convenient because all guest movement happens in the living room and it can smoothly transition into the spa section with its own small relaxation room. Here there is a guest bathroom which can also serve as a powder room and the most beautiful feature here is probably this steam room. Look just like a glass corner. The entrance is on the side with a very beautiful floor because we have a board laid out on stones like this. In fact water never spills here you don't walk through puddles. Electric sauna well here you can actually pour a bucket of water over yourself and relax in these inviting chairs. What's interesting here is that it's not a bucket of water it's actually a tank so to speak with nozzles. Endless. Yes absolutely infinite. It outputs 13.2 gallons per second some crazy amount of water and that's an alternative too. You won't get tired of pouring water on yourself. Yes an alternative to these barrels. Look at these wallpapers. Yes that is to say these wallpapers can even be utilized in humid rooms and they indeed add a sort of warm coziness if you will to this space. This door opens quite effortlessly just like this. By the way speaking of sliding doors there's this nuance that they are all 11.4 feet tall and actually the manufacturer didn't provide a warranty for this door but look how easily it opens you just push it with a finger and it slides on its own. In fact this panel weighs somewhere around 550 660 pounds. It's a splendid implementation. Now let's go to the terrace and see what the house looks like from the inner courtyard. Well here you see as we step out we immediately see the font. It's heated directly from the boiler room a heat pipeline stretches here allowing for the heating of this font. It's like an extension of the spa area creating an interesting courtyard between this retaining wall and the house wall. It's covered with an awning and these awnings have a straight orthogonal finish you know not in waves like in an Italian courtyard. They are quite modern without red green flags. It's true that there are beautiful awnings suitable for modern architecture. It seems to me that it's particularly good here because it neatly covers the entire inner courtyard and beyond as you can see there's a green strip of bushes and in fact when it extends there's a completely enclosed circuit here. Even if you run out here naked nothing at all will be visible from the neighboring house. Another interesting feature here is this concrete wall but it's not just like a wall a waterfall is hidden here. This is a very cool solution. There is water here you see within the stones where the circulation of this very waterfall naturally occurs. It's also very pleasant to catch its sound. That means we can slightly open this door it's a sliding door to the kitchen and just listen to the waterfall. Cool isn't it? There's also this visual axis. While cooking the drapes are open you see the water shimmering it's just pure idle. From here we proceed you see to the summer kitchen. Such a kitchen. Truly restaurant grade. A cauldron is a must. How can we do without a cauldron? Everything is made of stainless steel and it's often said that stainless steel it gets scratched and look yes it's scratched. And that's okay it looks truly beautiful. Good materials they age beautifully as the saying goes. Terrace. The terrace is huge along the entire house. There are interesting little things here. This is a guide for fabric roller blinds. Overall there's no air conditioning in the house. And as architect explains these blinds cut off a large part of the terrace. The terrace is huge along the entire house. There are interesting little things here. This is a guide for fabric air plus correct house orientation to cardinal directions. This is the eastern side. After 12 there's no Sun here anymore. Meaning you wake up with sunshine. Moreover the house remains refreshing. And overall the layout of this terrace is very pleasant because we have an exit directly from each bedroom to this terrace. And there are even separate relaxation areas. That is over there it's just a small chair to read in. Here you can swing so to speak plus sun loungers to sunbathe in. Then there's a dedicated gathering area and a kitchen area for hosting parties. Such a cool distribution of functional zoning. And across from the terrace along the whole length of the house there is a 82 feet infinity pool hanging over an abyss with a view of such beautiful mountains. And in general in my opinion it's an incredibly beautiful story. There's a terrace you can sit and dangle your feet. By the way an important thing right here is a shallow pool area. For some reason it's always forgotten. And sometimes you don't want to swim sometimes you just want to lie down just to lay. Half in water. Yes halfway in water. I really want to talk about the engineering systems in this pool. First and foremost the most fundamental thing you've seen is the infinity pool which perfectly matches those paradisiacal images where it extends and merges with the horizon as you swim. Interestingly in winter when the overflow is activated it stops so that there won't be super cooling of this pool. Particular attention here deserves the heating and warming of this pool because it operates from solar collectors. These eight panels are actually connected to support this pool. And thanks to the fact that they function on solar power and we have the Sun even in winter or rather I should say they work on solar radiation. That is it doesn't matter to you whether it's a cloudy day or the scorching Sun there's always some amount of radiation. And it turns out that these panels are always working. And in the ideal scenario it turns out that even in winter at minus 4 you don't necessarily have to drain this pool because it will be heated to a minimum. And this is a very beautiful and correct solution because you don't spend any electricity or crazy money for it all to function. And at the same time you always have a beautiful view from the window because the biggest problem with all these pools is that they are tinned for the winter. And you end up with this surface entirely covered with boards with some kind of ugly cover. They also come in some branded rather unattractive ones right? That is to say it's always considered a bad option. In this form with engineering it can function in winter too. Of course you can't swim in it because it'll be cold but the water won't freeze either. Well it must be said that there are no expensive solutions in terms of tiles mosaics and so on. There are membrane bases here. And here due to earthquakes pool basins are not made of concrete nor are they tiled. Simply because all of this can crack and the waterproofing can be damaged. And in fact the material can be different. In my opinion the most fashionable solution today is this red film. It's clear that this house has much more interesting technical rooms. So far we have shown you the main areas of this house. I want to remind you this is already the third private house of the architect featured on our channel. We will continue to feature architects houses so be sure to subscribe to our channel and we'll see you again.