Belvedere on the Slope and Shed in the Gardens, RO: Rural Annexes
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - MORE PHOTOGRAPHY COMING SOON
Private Commission, Built / 2024 - 2025
Radu Remus Macovei in collaboration with Noel Stascha Fäh, Giorgio Azzariti
Photo Credits: Ioana Marinescu, Noel Stascha Fäh
Set within the rural landscape of Breaza, a small town in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, the project improves an existing rural vacation homestead by connecting its spectacular topography through a belvedere that frames views, a shed-garage that envelopes storage and a sinuous path connecting them to the surrounding landscape. The project is situated within an environment that alternates between dense forest, cultivated field, and the riverbank. The plot has an irregular shape extending over approximately 1,200 m² capturing scenic views.
Existing Structures
Within the property, several structures already existed from the outset: the main family house; a rudimentary garage; a modest shed with a small underground cellar. The project focused on the latter two, treating them as opportunities to define new, architecturally meaningful presences forming a scattered household within the garden connected by a path that overcomes topographical variations. The shed was reconceived as a belvedere framing the view, while the garage was restructured as a multifaceted utilitarian shed.
Project Scope
The project comprises the transformation of two existing service structures, reinterpreting them as multifaceted pavilions of a scattered garden household, each with distinct spatial and material identities. Rather than proposing radically new forms, the design enhances the buildings’ functionality by reusing elements of the existing structures and reinterpreting familiar archetypes and materials, ensuring that the pavilions remain recognisably of the place while responding to contemporary needs.
Materiality and Craft
The project is rooted in local craftsmanship. The collaboration with artisans was essential for the material culture and expertise they possess and demonstrates a mutually-beneficial exchange between professionalized architects and vernacular craftsmen. Wood shingles, produced in Breaza and sourced from local forests, were chosen for the roof and facade/vertical surfaces, establishing a tactile continuity with the house’s shingled roofing. Stone sourced from nearby river quarries and workshops grounds the structures and ensures durability, while timber structures provide both simplicity of assembly and adaptability. By deploying these resources, the project consolidated a network of local skills, reinforcing the role of architecture as a catalyst for sustaining and transmitting local knowledge within a contemporary assemblage.
Design and Adhocism
A crucial part of the project lay in the day-to-day collaboration with local craftsmen, where many decisions were made directly on site rather than through rigid predefinition. Axonometric drawings and sketches served as instruments of dialogue, but it was often the testing of details, the adjustment of joints, or the reuse of available materials that determined the final outcome. This trial-and-error process recalls the spirit of adhocism, where improvisation and as-needed solutions guide construction, allowing design intent and practical know-how to converge in built form.
In this context, the two interventions and connecting path, though modest in scale, articulate a careful balance between utility, tradition, and context. They affirm the possibility of designing contemporary architecture that does not overwrite the existing environment, but rather extends its logic and character into new forms of inhabitation.
The first intervention addresses a small shed with an underground cellar. While the cellar was preserved, the above-ground portion was reconfigured, replacing an enclosed storage room with a belvedere that opens the view from the main building and frames the surrounding scenery. The new pavilion sits on a new concrete platform. Positioned tightly between two mature trees, the footprint had to be carefully adjusted to preserve them. By misaligning the edges, the plan assumes a parallelogram shape, a choice with formal consequences for the roof. At its corners, two half-cylindrical structures liberate the view, while simultaneously accommodating service needs: one shelters the ladder descending into the cellar, the other provides storage for foldable chairs.
The roof follows the irregular plan, while its section rises and falls to produce a stereometric articulation that resonates with the undulating profile of the surrounding mountains. A small circular cut-out in the ceiling above the dining area admits light in the evening, transforming the pavilion into a stage for social rituals such as dining, conversation, and reflection—spaces poised between intimacy and openness. Atop the roof, a slender spire recalls vernacular apotropaic forms while also carrying a sundial, inscribing traditional modes of orientation into the life of the pavilion.
The structure itself is built from locally sourced wood, with a continuous shingle cladding that both integrates into the landscape and revives regional craft traditions. The ceiling and doors, by contrast, are made of zinc-coated steel panels whose reflective surfaces capture the landscape during the day and amplify the glow of artificial light by night, offering a contemporary repose within the rustic material palette. Finally, the path leading to the belvedere is covered in river stone gathered from the nearby valley, rooting the pavilion even more firmly in its immediate context.
The second intervention focuses on the existing garage roof. The original main structure—six stone-clad pillars with steel cores—and the stone-paved foundation were preserved and re-integrated, providing the basis for a new wooden roof. While the two ancillary additions—a compact service room and a small storage shed—are structurally independent, they are unified under a continuous envelope of timber shingles. This careful separation addressed structural concerns while visually binding the ensemble into a coherent whole.
The programmatic functions of the spaces are directly inscribed in plan: the six punctuations of the stone pillars articulate the garage; a half-circular extrusion marks the storage shed; and a rectangular projection registers the service space. Each of these elements is clad in local timber shingles, establishing continuity with the belvedere and reinforcing the architectural coherence of the property. Inside, the facade facing the sheltered parking area is clad with silver-painted wooden planks, echoing the reflective metal surfaces of the belvedere while also acknowledging the utilitarian character of the garage.
Attention was also given to apertures and light. Circular incisions provide ventilation from the doors upward and allow natural light to filter in by day while projecting artificial light outward by night. The double doors of the circular shed open fully, extending the toolshed into the garage and enabling its use as a workshop. Although its primary role remains that of car shelter and storage, the garage is no longer a purely utilitarian enclosure. By integrating additional functions and extending its spatial character, it becomes simultaneously storage, protection, and an adaptable setting for everyday use.
Conclusion
Together, the two interventions demonstrate how peripheral, utilitarian structures can be transformed into meaningful architectural presences. Through sensible reuse-practices, careful articulation of form, attention to materiality, and reliance on local craftsmanship, the project asserts the possibility of modest yet precise architecture that extends the cultural and spatial logic of Breaza’s landscape.
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