The Housing Cooperative stands in contrast to those housing estates that are guarded like fortresses and huge high-rises in which even next-door neighbours don’t know one another. The building designed by the KMA bureau provides not only a comfortable living space (configurable interiors, large windows and terraces, a garden), but is also meant to give impetus to befriending the people with whom one shares the same space. The designers emphasize that their proposal isn’t a ready-made solution, but “a tool, an aid, and guidance for those who want to be independent and self-sufficient, appreciate the role of community, know how to organize a good team and want to create a new, privately-owned space. A space which will become a true, hospitable home thanks to closeness and trust”.
Apart from creating an attractive vision of a house which you can build yourself, Anna Misiura and Łukasz Kabarowski also prepared the technical specifications of the building and an estimate for the cost of constructing their design. The cost of building the house (about 2,6 million Polish złoty) should quickly be returned thanks to numerous energy-efficient solutions that help keep the bills smaller.
The website of the KMA bureau www.k-m-a.pl
Author: Anna Cymer, June 2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa