House in a House is a minimalist architecture project located in Bernolákovo, Slovakia, designed by PLURAL. The family house is located in a stabilized area of detached houses and garden plots. Set back from the street, it has the same position as a former garden house. This provides certain intimacy and isolation. The central situation of the house splits the plot into the front and rear garden. While the front garden is conceived as lush, informal vegetation, the rear garden hidden behind the house has a more functional character.

The house itself is divided into two concentric parts – the inner and the outer. The inner part is comprised of basic dwelling components and laid out on a Palladian 3×3 grid with a vertically accented dining room in its centre. The outer part consists of the additional program – patios of different size and proportion, garage, pool and storages. It forms an in–between space, neither a house, nor a garden. It serves as a mediator between both of them.

Photography by Daniela Dostálková