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Playhouse, Nummi Pusula

Playhouse

NUMMI PUSULA (FI) - Uma and Rufus Bach, the children of the Finnish-Spanish architects Anna & Eugeni Bach from Barcelona, are the clients of a playhouse in the their grandparents' garden. The parents describe how it went: 'When an architect couple has young kids, there will come a day when they ask: "Mum, dad… You're architects, aren't you? And you make houses for people? So how about designing a house for us?" In such a situation, there are two possibilities: find an excuse to avoid it, or promise them that you will make a house especially designed for them. We found ourselves in this situation last summer, and we promised them that we would build a house for them on their grandparents' farm in Finland. And, of course, at the kids' insistence we fulfilled our promise.'

The 13.5 m² house, which was built with a budget of 800 euros, has a very simple structure with two externally identical modules oriented in opposite directions. One of these modules is double child-height, which allows an adult to enter the house without having to bend. The other module has two levels, connected by a simple ladder, allowing for a more complex layout inside.

For the structure and the floors, spruce from the grandparents' farm was used. The rest of the timber was bought at the local hardware store. The house was designed in July, and self-built in the space of two weeks last August, using the traditional techniques employed in the construction of Finnish barns.

Anna and Eugeni Bach: 'The interior is what children understand as a basic house, but due to their abstract nature, the interior spaces allow a child's imagination to flow, and spaces that might be identified as a domestic interior can suddenly become the dungeon of a medieval castle, or the top floor of the keep from which to shoot arrows at enemies.'