Terrace Košice

A 29 m² weekend house in an allotment area. Energy €30 a month, and the garden stayed.

A weekend house, 29 m².

The garden kept its space.

1 roomliving room with kitchenstorageclass A1energy €30/month

Košice, allotment area · 2023–2024

Into the slope, not the garden.

The owners wanted to keep their garden in the allotment area, so the house took the slope instead. A pit was dug into it, and the walls, the curved one too, were reinforced and cast on site as one whole.

Excavation pit with PERI shuttering boards and geotextile lining for the Terrace Košice earth-sheltered house foundation.

Curved steel rebar mesh on a concrete slab during construction of the Terrace Košice earth-sheltered house, with red formwork panels and excavated earth nearby.

Concrete shell of the Terrace Košice earth-sheltered house under construction, with blue foam insulation and a muddy trench. — During construction

Water stood in the pit, so the walls are concrete and insulated.

Insulation boards go on the base of the walls before backfilling.

Construction site with steel reinforcement grid against an earth wall, scaffolding and blue insulation boards, part of building an earth-sheltered house. — During construction

Earth behind the back wall.

Once the back wall is cast, the gap behind it is filled with soil again. The soil then insulates the house and evens out temperature swings: class A1, energy at €30 a month.

Sloping plot
The house is set into the slope. A plot that is a problem for an ordinary building is an advantage here.
Rooflights and light tubes
Daylight also reaches rooms that have no south façade.
Green roof
The roof surface is alive. It holds back rainwater, cools itself by evaporation and gives the plot back the area the house took.
Terrace
A covered or open area adjoining the living space.

Earth coverThe house is covered by a layer of soil that insulates it, damps temperature swings and protects the shell from sun and frost.

Aerial view of the earth-sheltered Terrace Košice house, green planted roof, glazed wood facade and terrace with a bicycle.

Daylight through the roof too.

In the design, one side of the house is glazed and opens onto the terrace. A row of rooflights brings daylight into the rooms further from the windows. The other part of the roof is planted, so the garden carries on over the house.