House on 12 Legs

Zebegény is a popular vacation- and hiking spot in North Hungary because of its exceptional view of the Danube bend. Due to its location, the town has been a cultural and artistic hotspot for centuries. The architectural heritage of Zebegény, an important part of the local culture, has also been influenced by the geomorphology and natural resources of the town and its surroundings.



The project site is located in the north-western part of Zebegény in a resort area with family- and vacation houses. Examining the steep area of the site we can see all the attributes of downhill building: the houses are usually small scale, standing parallel with the slope and facing the valley, most of them surrounded by valuable forest trees.


Our design is a vacation house that can also be used as a workshop building. The twelve legged house stands in a dense forest of young oaks and acacias with an especially steep terrain as a result of a nearby rainwash. The key requirements of the design were the following: the building should change the terrain and the environment as little as possible, it should utilize the fantastic view upon the Danube bend, and it should also be cheap and simple to construct. These aspects have been integrated in both the mass and the positioning of the building. The gable-roofed mass, opened on its shorter side, is facing the Danube. It is standing on legs, the whole house is a simple light-weight wooden structure. The construction only required one tree to be cut down.


The building can be reached on foot from below. A series of simple wooden stairs lead up to the wooden structure, which touches the terrain at twelve points. The entrance of the building can be reached directly at the top of the stairs without any further elevation. On entering we reach the main longitudinal space of the building, which leads us to the terrace. Passing through this space we can see the different levels of the trees from the tree-trunks to the tree-tops, experiencing a horizontal climb in the forest foliage. Reaching the terrace we have a view above the tree-tops and glimpse the spectacular view of the riverbed.

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