Architectural styles of private country houses
Dividing by style and placing on shelves all the architectural varieties of private houses found on the market of the Moscow region is an incredibly difficult task, since the architecture of houses built over the past 25 years is a mixture of author's expressionism, eclecticism, successful and not very experiments with architectural styles known to us. Roughly, the style of country houses can be divided:
1. post-soviet style- characterize the red brick houses built in the first half of the 90s, when it became possible to build your own large house. It was important to master the maximum amount with the available budget. The rooms were cut intuitively, and architects were then invited to the finished box to somehow “beat” it. Roofs were often covered with metal tiles or soft roofing. Most of the secondary offers on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway refer to houses in this style, whose owners have already built new proper housing for themselves, and they are trying to get rid of the old one, located on expensive plots, but not cheaply. Photo 1.
2. Classic style mainly found in the architecture of large houses and estates on the Rublevsky highway, with an area of 1500 sq.m and more. Houses of symmetrical forms, with pompous entrance groups and appropriate layouts, which become hostages of symmetrical eclectic facades. For decoration, mainly natural stone such as limestone, travertine, dolomite and granite is used for facing the plinth and porches. The roof is made of seamed copper, lead or zinc-titanium sheet, or natural stone - slate. The cost of building such houses depends on the complexity of the stone decor, but is approximately 1,500-2,000 dollars per sq.m, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. This style can be roughly divided into:
- Neoclassicism- a style popular in the 17th-19th centuries, recognizable by strict, elegant lines and the absence of excessive decorations, inspired by the architectural art of the ancient periods of Ancient Greece and Rome. Photo 2.1.
neo-baroque- a style popular in Europe in the 17th-18th centuries, which is characterized by a spatial scope, unity, fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms and an excess of facade decoration. Photo 2.2.
3. Architecture of houses in style Modern(known in different countries as Art Nouveau, Jugendstil or Secession) is distinguished by the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, “natural” lines, the use of new materials (metal, glass) and the flourishing of applied art - the facades were generously decorated with stylized floral patterns, flexible fluid forms. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a desire to create both aesthetic and functional buildings. Roofs take on complex forms with decorative fachwerk. On the facades are used: stone, plaster, wood, mosaic, ceramic tiles, bronze, stained-glass windows. Photo 3 (author AM Oleg Carlson).
4. Victorian style characterizes the variety of varieties of eclectic retrospectivism since the end of the 19th century - the revival of earlier European styles and adaptation to new design possibilities with the assimilation of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian and Arabic styles of decorative art. Mostly associated not with buildings in Britain, but with houses built in the fashionable bourgeois resorts of Normandy, especially in the famous town of Deauville. Photo 4.
The cost of building houses in Art Nouveau or Victorian architecture is higher than classical houses, but emphasizes the owner's desire for decorative arts.
Just as today we do not dress in the style of the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries and do not ride in carriages or horses, the construction of new houses in the style of Classicism, Art Nouveau or the Victorian period is considered anachronistic, because it does not correspond to the spirit of our time. For more than a hundred years, architects have not been trained anywhere in the world to design according to classical canons. Thus, the architect's risk of stepping over into the field of kitsch is very high and in fact is confirmed in 90% of cases.
5. castle style(or the so-called Disney style among architects) refers to pure kitsch and is typical for the countries of Eastern Europe (especially Romania) and China. It was in demand in business-class cottage settlements until the crisis of 2008. In most cases, inexpensive finishing materials that imitate natural materials are used to finish the facades and roofs of houses built in the castle style. The cost of construction of such houses is approximately 1,000-1,500 dollars per sq.m, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. Photo 5.
6. Wright style often referred to as all houses with protruding four-pitched roofs, but the architecture of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright since the beginning of the 20th century has been characterized by the "organic" shape of houses, with a decrease in volume on the upper floors so that the house with a terraced roof fits organically into the relief. Despite the fact that F.L. Wright created houses in the Art Deco era, "the last great style of the 20th century", his architecture deserves a separate shelf - as the first houses of modern style, where functionalism began to dominate the aesthetics of the symmetry of the facades. High-quality brick, stone, wood, a lot of glazing and elements of applied art are used to finish the facades. Sloping roofs, as a rule, are covered with seamed copper sheet. The cost of construction of such houses is approximately 1.300-1.800 dollars per sq.m, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. Photo 6 (by Portner Architects).
7. Country style represents a variety of houses built traditionally in different countries of the world, mainly in villages and provincial suburbs. This category includes the following styles:
log houses in all its varieties. Prefabricated, but with certain restrictions in finishing. The cost of building such houses is approximately 600-1,500 dollars per sq.m., excluding interior finishing and engineering systems. Photo 7.1.
Chalet (alpine style) with gable roofs and mansard second floor. Finishing the facades of the first floor of stone, the second of wood or plaster with wooden fachwerk. Roofing from slate, shingles or natural tiles. The cost of construction of such houses is approximately 1,000-1,500 dollars per sq.m, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. Photo 7.2.
Italian (Mediterranean) classic characterized by brick or stucco facades, with simple stone decor in the form of cornices, window framing and reinforcing corners. Large terraces with awnings, pergolas, window shutters and other elements have the original function of protecting from the sun, but are an integral part of this style. Photo 7.3.
- English (Tudor) style recognizable by its brick or half-timbered facades, with small windows, thatched or slate roofs and tall chimneys with decorative elements. Photo 7.4.
Belgian style It is characterized by the use of different-colored hand-molded bricks for finishing facades, gable roofs with a large slope angle and decorative gable cornices. Photo 7.5.
American-Canadian houses they came from the suburbs of North America, but taking into account the Russian mentality, they were localized taking into account the change in construction technology from wood-frame to stone (brick, foam block). Houses of this style mostly have a built-in or attached garage for 2 cars. In the struggle for this category of buyers, developers allowed savings, sometimes even in terms of violations of foundation construction and waterproofing technologies. Cottage settlements are massively built up with this commercial type of houses, since their cost is quite low and the design solutions are simple, but instead of the usual $600-700 in the USA, in Russia the construction price fluctuates around $1,000 per sq.m, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems . As a result of tuning this style, the Castle style appeared. Photo 7.6.
8. Modern style All architecture after the Art Deco era is called. Modern architecture implies a complete absence of stylistic canons and an experiment in using the possibilities of new building materials. It also has several stages of development:
Functionalism characterizes the presence of large areas of glazing, pure geometric shapes (usually rectangular), the absence of excesses in the decoration of facades and the use of large undivided planes from one material, a variety of roof shapes (often flat). The condensed philosophy of style is sincerity and pragmatism: "form is determined by function, and facade by form." Photo 8.1 (by Portner Architects).
Minimalism strives for the triumph of good taste - for the greatest possible ease of execution, respect for the basic rules of composition, the use of natural materials, maximum attention to detail, uniform colors, lighting design and the desire to achieve maximum functionality. Photo 8.2 (by Maxim Winkelaar and Bob Ronday).
Deconstructivism tried to free architecture from the hegemony of aesthetics, beauty, functionality and build a building, renouncing all the generally accepted deep principles of creating architectural structures, including: tectonics, balance, verticals and horizontals - destroying the old principles and creating something of their own. Photo 8.3 (by McBride Charles Ryan).
High tech with its aesthetics of metal, machines and industrial architecture. Photo 8.4 (author AM Alexey Kozyr).
Eco-tech (Bio-tech), where the architectural expressiveness of building structures is achieved by borrowing natural forms and direct use of wildlife forms in architecture, in the form of natural landscape elements and living plants. Photo 8.5 (by Guz Architects).
Vanguard- a bright and non-standard style, unexpected and provocative color solutions, contrasts and shapes, using incompatible, at first glance, textures and materials, with extraordinary solutions when pairing volumes and planes, creating asymmetric designs, bizarre shapes and curves. Photo 8.5 (by AM Atrium).
The cost of building houses of modern architectural style is approximately 1,000-1,500 dollars per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems.
It should be emphasized that almost each of the above architectural styles has its own pseudo-style, where for various reasons it deviates from standard canons, the proportions and composition of facades are lost, and inexpensive imitations of natural finishing materials are used.