A new Lithuanian house that appears to cut through the landscape like an ocean liner carving through ice, Trim House is located in a suburban district of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is smooth, angular, and incredibly satisfying to the eye. Architecture firm KWK Promes designed the single-family home after being invited (along with several international studios) to take part in a closed competition in 2016 organised by a private client.
Tour this crisp and geometric Lithuanian house
The plot is nestled amid trees and located near other houses and summer cottages. However, in 2017, the firm encountered a challenge they’d never faced before during the design process. The Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union came to power and introduced regulations that limited the allowable building footprint by 50 per cent.
‘We had an almost finished design when suddenly the local zoning regulations changed, and it turned out that we could, in fact, only realise about half of it,’ explains Robert Konieczny, founder of the firm. ‘At that moment, the key was convincing the client not to give up on this location and start looking for another plot. It was important to explain that we could reduce the project without compromising the quality of the space and still create something equally valuable.’
While the client began looking for a new site, Konieczny and his team worked hard and managed to reduce the house’s area by 40 per cent, resulting in the unusual triangular floor plan. The design comprises a courtyard at the heart of the home, while the spiral staircase leads to the elevated first floor, which houses the bedrooms and terrace.
Says Konieczny, ‘The inspiration came from a classic atrium house, which we modified so that, on one hand, it would provide residents with privacy and a sense of security, and on the other hand, open the home to the surrounding beautiful nature. Interestingly, the name of this house does not directly refer to its spatial concept, but to the action we later had to take – a kind of “trimming” of the house after changes in the design. Paradoxically, the situation that forced us to do this initially seemed like a stalemate, but ultimately made the house even better.’
The garden area, which was ultimately expanded, added more sunlight into the home, another upside of ‘trimming’ the home. Although the scale changed, the core idea of the firm’s plan remained intact.
‘My favourite part of this building is the section we decided to “trim”,’ Konieczny tells Wallpaper*. ‘Although I really like the building itself – its interiors and the overall space – it is precisely what was ultimately left out that became the greatest added value. This allowed the garden to expand and let much more daylight into the interior, which is especially precious in this location and at this latitude.’