moveable walls at KWK promes' open house offer privacy when needed

open house by KWK promes to complete next year

Designed for a family of two, Open House by Robert Konieczny / KWK Promes is the studio’s latest in a series of works using movable solutions in architecture. Sited near Bremen in Germany, the residential project explores modernity through local heritage and openness through enclosure. Konieczny will develop this design as an evolution of mobility concepts he had previously implemented in buildings such as Plato Contemporary Art Gallery (one of the top five buildings in Europe in the Mies van der Rohe Awards 2024), Konieczny’s Ark, and Safe House. Construction work began in June, and the Open House is scheduled to be completed next year.

all renders © KWK Promes

maintaining everyday openness with occasional enclosure

At the start, the client’s expectations were seemingly simple: the house had to match the style of other dwellings in the neighborhood. What eventually challenged KWK Promes (see more here) was the project location, a usually quiet corner on the edge of the village that periodically gets overcrowded with people during nearby sports events. Despite this downside, the architects wanted to avoid fencing up the property for fear of tainting its heritage character and disrupting the natural migration of wild animals. The goal, therefore, lies in maintaining everyday openness, with the possibility of using temporary closure in the most inconvenient moments.

Open House is set to complete next year as a single-family dwelling

creating a movable, two-part structure on circular rails

Familiar with KWK Promes’ previous mobile projects, the client eagerly got on board with applying a kinetic solution to the Open House. Robert Konieczny began by observing nearby buildings and their distinctive shutters and drawing insights from his older works. ‘In the Open House, instead of covering directly the large windows clustered on one wall, the studio moved the shutters away from the mass, creating an unusual atrium, which will become a piece of the surrounding meadow once completed. The movable, two-part structure on circular rails makes it possible to close and open according to the resident’s needs, independently of each other and in different configurations,’ explains the architect.

The Open House spans approximately 250 square meters and features a garage, two bedrooms, a spacious living room with mezzanine, and a kitchen. Complementing the core program is a terrace that, thanks to moveable walls, can be easily transformed from an open space to a private zone.

the 250 sqm program extends to a terrace

Construction-wise, the building’s reed roof and whitewashed walls relate to the area’s traditional architecture. Windows located on the south side of the building are placed under the roof’s outline to reduce excessive indoor heating, thus significantly reducing energy costs. The roof structure, equipped with custom slots at the top, makes the entire Open House by KWK Promes act as a chimney, supporting gravity ventilation. Lastly, the electricity required to power the house and the sliding wall will come from photovoltaic panels, highlighting the project’s energy independence.

windows located on the south side of the building are placed under the roof’s outline