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Wooden house in Vultureni

An old wooden house from Maramures has been relocated near Cluj-Napoca, Romania using traditional craftsmen and only traditional natural materials.

ArhiBox, Wooden house reconversion, Vultureni, Cluj, Romania

A family of young entrepreneurs, passionate about trekking and open air activities, that wanted to live closer to nature, decided to move to the Romanian country side.

They bought an old wooden house from Maramures that they planned to relocate near Cluj-Napoca, Romania and to refurbish it in such a way so it could meet all their comfort needs.

The house is positioned on a high ground with its back to the forest and the front facing the open part of the plot, in order to allow the owners to survey the property and to face the sun. The design team considered how the house would relate with other two similar houses that are to be built in the future in order to replicate the image in functional relations of a traditional household in a contemporary manner.

Thus, this first house has a technical underground floor that is accommodating the central heating system and the batteries that together with the solar panels will provide the entire electricity need of the farm. The ground floor is comprised of a living area with an open kitchen, an office (that can be also used as a guest bedroom) and a toilet. The roof was brought to its original shape thus resulting two attic levels that allowed the architects to design two other bedrooms, each with its own dressing and bathroom and a multifunctional open space.

The owners of the house explicitly demanded that only traditional natural materials would be used: wood, sheep wool for thermal insulation, clay plaster, etc. The only modern elements were the wood window frames with stratified windows and the technical equipments.

The rebuilding of the house on the new site was made using traditional craftsmen from Maramureș (the area where the house was brought from).