The two architectural companies’ one from Kosovo and the other from Switzerland collaborated in a project of building a house for the private investor. The house was built in a hill overlooking the city of Prishtina, away from the overcrowded city, the environment offers a wide space surrounded by nature.

The Swiss architect studio Luca Gazzanig, in partnership with Ilir Murseli MA + P Architects, focused on incorporating the project with the surrounding area, trying to work on “relation between simplicity and ornament”. The VXA Project embodied the topographic terrain, as well as demonstrated some formal complexity.

“A collaboration work of elementary volumes in search of proper spatial balance that forms an artificial landscape of micro prisms, interstitial spaces and new points of view in the territory” said the designer. The outer design is arranged to offer a space not so open to the outside, but to form a sequence of autonomous elements in different positions. The windows were treated with dark stabilized wood and sliding shades, offering protection from the sun and completely closing the space from the open.

For the living area the designer has planned a gallery that combines these architectural elements. “Organizing a “promenade” in part double height from which you can access various environments intended for domestic life, and housed in spaces orthogonal, and while sighting through the view of the “calibrated” wooden masks, “explains the designer.

The white plastered façade lineaments and frames the wooden part of the façade and openings. A mobile system of wooden panels provides protection from the sun and offer the perception of pure solid in contrast with the wood of the frames.  Gazzaniga chose a model that could guarantee “elegant finishes and a warm residential feel of home”. The designer said “We had in mind one type of joinery that contributed significantly to defining the idea of our costumer”.

The windows frameless system is mounted in the wall, it is composed of a fixed glass and laminated wood sliding door. The frame to wall is made of birch plywood, complete with aluminum profiles, double glazing with low emission filled with argon gas, external sealing and thermo-acoustic seals. A solution which then gives the house a minimalist design, elegant and very contemporary. The garages are closed with sectional doors.

Luca Gazzaniga was born in Lugano, Switzerland and opened his studio in 1990 with his partner Carlo Ceccolini. He has always been devoted to criticism and theory of architecture having many publications in various Europen magazines. On the other hand, Ilir Murseli has been part of international projects in Istanbul, Jerusalem, Ashgabat, Cairo and lecturer of Architectural Analysis at the University of Prishtina.

The project is an example of a good partnership in-between studios and a successful contemporary design.

Photography credits to Ilir Rizaj.