The second wing is calmer and more private. The parents’ apartment was designed as a comfortable, independent zone with a bedroom, walk-in wardrobe, large bathroom, exercise room and access to a private terrace. Further on, there is a children’s area with its own bathroom, as well as a guest room and utility facilities. The study was placed close to the entrance, so that people coming for a meeting could use it without entering the private part of the house.

When designing the functional layout, the relationship between the kitchen, the daytime zone and the garden was especially important. We imagined the kitchen terrace as a place for everyday rituals: bringing in herbs, preparing vegetables, putting down a basket from the garden, drinking coffee between one task and the next. This house does not treat the garden as decoration. It is designed so that the garden becomes part of life.

Ecological and regenerative solutions

For larger projects, we work with our original method called EKOZONING, which combines architectural practice with the principles of permaculture design. This method helps connect buildings, landscape and the needs of users, and in 2025 it was awarded the PLGBC Green Building Award in the Service of the Year category.

Here, EKOZONING covered the entire two-hectare plot. We did not design only a house, but a complete way of living on this land: the driveway, garage with a carport and workshop, orchard, vegetable garden, grain cultivation, flower meadows, root cellar, composter, banya, swimming pond, fire pit, recreational lawn and exercise trail. Each element has its own place, resulting from sunlight, humidity, ease of use and how often the residents will use it.

The green roof is one of the most important elements of the whole concept. Visually, it merges the house with the landscape, but it also works very practically: it improves water retention, protects against overheating, increases the thermal inertia of the building envelope and strengthens the natural microclimate around the house. What matters here is not only the vegetation, but above all the layer of soil and substrate, which creates an additional protective barrier, also in the context of reducing the impact of electromagnetic radiation.

The house was also designed with great attention to the sun — not only in terms of views and daylight, but also year-round thermal comfort. This is passive solar design: arranging glazing, overhangs and the form of the building so that in winter, the low sun can enter deep into the interior and warm the daytime zone, while in summer — when the sun is high — the roof and projecting overhangs protect the glass and terrace from overheating.

This is most visible at the largest living room terrace. The sloping, dynamic form of the building and the deep overhang above the glazing are not merely aesthetic gestures. They were designed to respond to the angle of sunlight at different times of the year. In winter, the house captures light and passive solar gains, while in summer it provides shade exactly where it is most needed — on the large living room glazing and part of the terrace.

Technology and natural materials used

The residence was designed as a strawbale house — with a timber structure filled with straw, using prefabricated straw-and-timber panels. This technology makes it possible to combine the modern precision of prefabrication with the softness and health of natural materials. Straw provides very good insulation parameters, timber creates a lightweight and warm structure, and clay inside the interiors builds a friendly microclimate.

Inside, clay plasters were designed to regulate air humidity and give the interiors a calm, natural texture. On the outside, charred larch cladding appears — dark, elegant, durable and very forest-like in character. It gives the house depth and makes the modern form feel at home in the landscape, as if it had always been meant to stand on the edge of the forest.

The form of the house is distinctive: sloping, slightly crystalline, as if cut by the sun and the forest. It is not only a visual effect, but architecture resulting from the place, the cardinal directions and the rhythm of the day. The interiors are completed by a fireplace, large glazing, timber, clay plasters and the orangery — elements that make this straw and clay house modern, exclusive and very cosy at the same time.

Resource circulation and installations

The entire concept was designed in accordance with the principles of permaculture: as a space in which resources circulate — water, energy, organic matter and the everyday life of the residents. The orchard, vegetable garden, grain cultivation, flower meadows, composter, root cellar and swimming pond together create a small circular system. It is a place where organic matter can return to the soil, while the garden becomes a living support system for the home.

The swimming pond plays a special role, supplied with rainwater from the roofs and paved surfaces. It has not only a recreational function, but also a practical one: it helps retain water on the plot, supports irrigation, creates a beneficial microclimate and strengthens biodiversity. As a result, water is not treated as a problem to be quickly drained away, but as a resource that remains on site and works for the entire garden.

The project includes installations that support independence and comfort: pellet heating, photovoltaics and solar collectors. The orangery helps passively heat the interiors outside the summer season, while the green roof strengthens protection against overheating and improves retention. The whole concept was designed so that the residence would be not only beautiful, but also sensible in use — comfortable, cosy and well connected with its surroundings.

This residence is a story about how a natural home can also be spectacular. It can have a modern, almost sculptural form, large glazing, a comfortable layout and a high standard, while remaining warm, healthy and deeply connected to the earth. This is not luxury based on shine. It is the luxury of silence, space, light, privacy, contact with the forest and everyday life in which the garden truly lives together with the house.

The project is available as a ready-made design for those looking for a unique, natural single-storey residence — a house made of straw, timber and clay, designed with comfort, health and closeness to nature in mind.

Keywords, tags: natural single-storey residence, residence by the Kampinos Forest, house by the Kampinos Forest, luxury natural house, modern single-storey residence, single-storey residence design, ready-made natural house design, straw house, straw and clay house, strawbale house, prefabricated straw-and-timber panels, timber structure filled with straw, natural materials, healthy home, ecological house, regenerative design, EKOZONING, ecological garden, permaculture, permaculture garden, green roof, charred larch cladding, clay plasters, photovoltaics, solar collectors, pellet heating, orangery, passive solar design, protection against overheating, swimming pond, flower meadow, orchard, vegetable garden, slow life, living close to nature