The Photographer’s House is the result of a unified vision between two friends, architectural photographer Zsolt Batar and architect Bence Turányi (founder of Budapest-based T2.a Architects). “When two different ways of thinking meet, the result is something completely new. Our conversations about art, architecture and design were brought to life in this house,” said Turányi in a press release.
Two of Batar’s main objectives in building the house—which he owns—were controlling costs and building quickly. Only one week passed between sending the architectural construction plans and statistical calculations to the Austrian manufacturing company, where final shop drawings were designed, and the completion of structural assembly on site. The 1,300-square-foot house, built in two days, is made of prefabricated, cross laminated, and glued timber panels.
The house was one of six finalists in the building category at Hungary’s 2013 Media Architecture Prize (MAP) competition. “If I would have to tell one story to define contemporary Hungarian architecture, among the finalists of 2013, it would definitely be the story of Bence Turányi’s house,” MAP jury member Daniel Kovacs commented.
Despite its rapid construction, the Photographer’s House is an example of slow design, a term that connotes in part a hyper-awareness for a design’s social and environmental responsibility. The relationship between the house and the surrounding forest is one that Batar has documented through photography throughout the changing seasons. The sustainable wood house, in a sense, is another depiction of the forest.
