AN ANTHROPOD IS a vaguely humanoid space monster in the computer game ‘X-COM: Apocalypse’. When the Czech architectural firm ASGK was commissioned to design a low-energy house on the outskirts of Lodín, a village in eastern Bohemia, it was the client’s four-year-old son who issued the brief: design an anthropod leaning against the enormous oak tree in the middle of the plot!
The architects achieved this by giving the house plenty of angles in the shade of the leafy canopy. The structural frame is constructed from a finger-jointed structural timber known as KVH, while the façade, roof and interior cladding are all larch. The façade has then been charred and stained. The large expanses of glass allow the interior to benefit from the sun’s rays in winter, while the large sliding barn doors – also in larch – create shade when the summer sun gets too strong.«
w| asgk.cz
