Architectural styles of private country houses

It is an incredibly difficult task to divide by style and place on shelves all the architectural varieties of private houses found in the Moscow region market, since the architecture of houses built over the past 25 years is a mixture of author's expressionism, eclecticism, successful and not so much experiments with architectural styles known to us. Roughly, the style of country houses can be divided:

1. Post-Soviet style- characterize red brick houses built in the first half of the 90s, when it became possible to build a large house of your own. It was important to master the maximum volume with the available budget. The premises were cut intuitively, and then architects were invited to the finished box to somehow "beat" it. Roofs were often clad with metal or soft roofing. Most of the secondary offers on Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway refer to houses in this style, whose owners have already built new proper housing for themselves, and they are trying to get rid of the old one located on expensive plots, but not cheaply. Photo 1.

2. Classic style It is mainly found in the architecture of large houses and estates on Rublevskoye highway, with an area of ​​1500 square meters and more. Houses of symmetrical shapes, with pompous entrances and appropriate layouts, which become hostages of symmetrical eclectic facades. For decoration, mainly natural stone such as limestone, travertine, dolomite and granite is used for facing the basement and porches. The roof is made of folded copper, lead or zinc-titanium sheet, or natural stone - slate. The cost of building such houses depends on the complexity of the stone decor, but is approximately 1,500-2,000 dollars per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. This style can be roughly divided:

• Neoclassicism- a style popular in the 17th-19th centuries, recognizable by its strict, elegant lines and the absence of unnecessary decorations, inspired by the architectural art of the antique periods of Ancient Greece and Rome. Photo 2.1.

Neo-baroque- a style popular in Europe in the 17th-18th centuries, which is characterized by spatial scope, cohesion, fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms and an excess of facade decor. Photo 2.2.

3. Architecture of style houses Modern(known in different countries and as Art Nouveau, Jugendstil or Secession) is distinguished by the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, "natural" lines, the use of new materials (metal, glass) and the flourishing of applied art - the facades were generously decorated with stylized vegetation patterns, flexible flowing forms. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a desire to create both aesthetic and functional buildings. Roofs take on complex shapes with decorative half-timbered timber. On the facades are used: stone, plaster, wood, mosaic, ceramic tiles, bronze, stained glass. Photo 3 (by AM Oleg Karlson).

4. Victorian style characterizes the variety of varieties of eclectic retrospectivism since the end of the 19th century - the revival of earlier European styles and adaptation to new constructive opportunities with the assimilation of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian and Arabic decorative arts styles. It is mainly associated not with buildings in Britain, but with houses built in the fashionable bourgeois resorts of Normandy, especially in the famous town of Deauville. Photo 4.

The cost of building Art Nouveau or Victorian homes is higher than classic homes, but emphasizes the owner's desire for decorative arts.

Just as today we do not dress in the style of the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries and do not ride carriages or horses, building new houses in the style of Classicism, Modernism or the Victorian period is considered an anachronism, because it does not correspond to the spirit of our time. For more than a hundred years, architects have not been trained anywhere in the world to design according to the classical canons. Thus, the risk of an architect stepping into the field of kitsch is very high and in fact is confirmed in 90% of cases.

5. Castle style(or the so-called Disney style among architects) refers to pure kitsch and is characteristic of Eastern Europe (especially Romania) and China. It was in demand in business-class cottage settlements before the crisis of 2008. In most cases, inexpensive finishing materials that imitate natural are used for finishing the facades and roofs of houses built in the castle style. The cost of building such houses is approximately $ 1,000-1,500 per square meter, excluding interior finishing and engineering systems. Photo 5.

6. Wright style often called all houses with protruding hipped roofs, but the architecture of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright since the beginning of the 20th century has been characterized by the "organic" shape of houses, with a decrease in volume on the upper floors, so that a house with a terraced roof fits into the relief. Despite the fact that F.L. Wright created houses during the Art Deco era, “the last great style of the 20th century,” his architecture deserves a shelf of its own - as the first modern-style houses, where functionalism began to dominate the aesthetics of symmetry of facades. For the decoration of the facades, high-quality bricks, stone, wood, a lot of glazing and elements of applied art are used. Sloped roofs are usually covered with folded copper sheets. The cost of building such houses is approximately $ 1,300-1,800 per square meter, excluding interior finishing and engineering systems. Photo 6 by Portner Architects.

7. Country style represents a variety of houses traditionally built in different countries of the world, mainly in villages and provincial suburbs. This category includes the following style directions:

Log houses in all its varieties. Prefabricated, but with certain restrictions in finishing. The cost of building such houses is approximately $ 600-1,500 per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. Photo 7.1.

Chalet (alpine style) with gable roofs and a mansard second floor. Finishing of the facades of the first floor from stone, the second from wood or plaster with wooden half-timbered. Roofs made of slate, shingles or natural tiles. The cost of building such houses is approximately $ 1,000-1,500 per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems. Photo 7.2.

Italian (Mediterranean) classics characterized by brick or plastered facades, with simple stone decor in the form of cornices, window frames and reinforcing corners. Large terraces with awnings, pergolas, window shutters and other elements have an original function of sun protection, but are an integral part of this style. Photo 7.3.

• English (Tudor) style recognizable by brick or half-timbered facades, with small windows, roofs made of thatch or slate and tall chimneys with decorative elements. Photo 7.4.

Belgian style characterized by the use of hand-molded bricks of different colors for the decoration of facades, gable roofs at a large slope and decorative cornices of pediments. Photo 7.5.

American Canadian houses came from the suburbs of North America, but, taking into account the Russian mentality, they were localized taking into account the change in construction technology from wood-frame to stone (brick, foam block). Houses of this style mainly have a built-in or attached garage for 2 cars. In the struggle for this category of buyers, developers allowed savings, sometimes even in terms of violations of technologies for the construction of foundations and waterproofing. Cottage settlements are massively built up with this commercial type of houses, since their cost is quite low and the design solutions are simple, but instead of the usual $ 600-700 in the USA, in Russia the construction price fluctuates around $ 1000 per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems ... As a result of tuning this style, the Castle style appeared. Photo 7.6.

8. Modern style called all architecture after the Art Deco era. Modern architecture implies a complete absence of style canons and an experiment in using the possibilities of new building materials. It also has several stages of development:

Functionalism characterized by the presence of large areas of glazing, clean geometric shapes (usually rectangular), the absence of frills in the decoration of facades and the use of large undivided planes from one material, a variety of roof shapes (often flat). The condensed philosophy of style is sincerity and pragmatism: "the form is determined by the function, and the facade is determined by the form." Photo 8.1 (by Portner Architects).

Minimalism strives for the triumph of good taste - for the greatest possible ease of implementation, adherence to the basic rules of composition, the use of natural materials, maximum attention to detail, uniform colors, lighting design and the desire to achieve maximum functionality. Photo 8.2 by Maxim Winkelaar and Bob Ronday.

Deconstructivism tried to free architecture from the hegemony of aesthetics, beauty, functionality and build a building, renouncing all generally accepted deep principles of creating architectural structures, including: tectonics, balance, verticals and horizontals - destroying old principles and creating something of their own. Photo 8.3 by McBride Charles Ryan.

High tech with its aesthetics of metal, machinery and industrial architecture. Photo 8.4 (by AM Alexey Kozyr).

Eco-tech (Bio-tech), where the architectural expressiveness of building structures is achieved by borrowing natural forms and direct use of forms of living nature in architecture, in the form of elements of a natural landscape and living plants. Photo 8.5 (by Guz Architects).

Vanguard- bright and non-standard style, unexpected and provocative color solutions, contrasts and shapes, using textures and materials that are incompatible at first glance, with extraordinary solutions for pairing volumes and planes, creating asymmetric designs, bizarre shapes and curves. Photo 8.5 (by AM Atrium).

The cost of building houses of modern architectural style is approximately $ 1,000-1,500 per square meter, excluding interior decoration and engineering systems.

It should be emphasized that almost each of the above architectural styles has its own pseudo-style, where, for various reasons, it deviates from the standard canons, the proportions and composition of the facades are lost, and inexpensive imitations of natural finishing materials are used.