Sunday Escape - A Country House in Trakai

Is it enough a design country house to change the general view of a nation?

Maybe not, but it can surprise you in the positive.

At least that is what he hoped for Architectural Studio Aketuri Architektai realizing his latest project.

"The Lithuanian nation tightly associates the idea of a country house with outdoor toilets, no commodities, old furniture not fit even for a shed of a kitchen garden, a muddy pond and small crooked self-grown carrots. We tried to have a fresh look at the country house”.

With these premises, it was born in 2013, west of Vilnius, near the idyllic wooded village of Trakai, a 130-square-foot building that looks like the archetype of the typical wood peaked roof cottage, but actually, offers all a family might need to relax.

Features? Dark shield and sides, all covered with shales, a slate-like sedimentary rock; a patio area in Thermowood, a type of thermally modified timber that runs around the outside of the property. The interior is bright and the ground floor houses a bedroom and a bathroom, an open space with a living and dining area that connects directly to the outside patio thanks to two glass walls, making the limit between the forest and the house almost imperceptible. The floors are made of light wood, such as the bookstores placed in the upper part of the living room over the glazed windows. The black chimney of a wood-burning stove rises through the double-height white space, dotted with wooden furniture, including trunks of square trees used as tables and stools. Long white metal rods enclose the staircase leading to the three bedrooms on the upper floor.

Have you changed your mind about the Lithuanian country houses?