Multiko Window Architecture, Wienerberger Poland, and BXB Studio jointly competed for the title of the best building in the world in the Final of the World Architecture Festival in Singapore!
Multiko Window Architecture, Wienerberger Poland, and BXB Studio jointly competed for the title of the best building in the world in the Final of the World Architecture Festival in Singapore!
“This is one of the most intelligent, eco-friendly, innovative, and structurally and technologically complex houses we have ever managed to design at BXB Studio.” Bogusław Barnaś
Why did the “The Cave House” make it to the final of the World Architecture Festival as the only house from Poland? Here are some surprising facts about the The Cave House:
1. THE WAWEL DRAGON
The Cave House, inspired by the legend of the Wawel Dragon, will be built on a plot covered with ferns, directly adjacent to Wolski Forest, near the Kraków Błonia, with a view of the entire city. This is a building where modern design referencing the Wawel Dragon legend merges with the principles of ecological and sustainable architecture.
2. GARDENS ABOVE AND BELOW THE BUILDING
The Cave House will feature two gardens – one forest garden inside the Cave, beneath the building, and another shaped like a rolling meadow on the roof.
3. DRAGON FACADE AND DRAGON EYE
Its facade, with an extremely complex surface, will be covered with parametrically formed bricks resembling Dragon Scales. The Wienerberger ceramics used also reference Kraków traditions, with bricks shaping surrounding houses, tenements, and fortifications on Wawel Hill. Together with specialists from Multiko, the architects developed not only panoramic glazing enveloping the entire building but also a surreal glass pool resembling the extraordinary Dragon Eye.
4. INNOVATIVE ENTRANCE PORTAL
The architects designed a unique entrance portal inspired by centuries-old traditions of defining building entrances. Beyond its basic representative functions, it includes features that shape and illuminate the forest garden, shelter the entrance area, act as static ballast for the cantilevered structure, serve as a structural base for interior stairs, and aid air circulation through an external chimney ventilating the building with forest-filtered air from the Grotto, using intelligently controlled windows.
5. A CHIMNEY LIKE NO OTHER
The creators call the characteristic bulge of the portal – part of the undulating facade finished with uniquely laid Wienerberger bricks – a chimney. It draws air from inside the grotto and forms an overhang that shields the south facade from summer sun. At the base of this chimney, an automatically controlled window regulates the flow of natural air into the building, supporting natural ventilation with forest-filtered microclimate air.
6. LEVITATING ROOFTOP TERRACE WITHOUT RAILINGS
At the very top of the structure, a viewing terrace is designed to float above the meadow without requiring railings, while fully ensuring safety. This preserves uninterrupted panoramic views of Kraków. The terrace, wrapped in a flower meadow, includes a custom-designed outdoor kitchen by BXB Studio, embodying the concept of outdoor living and cooking.
7. COZY LITTLE HUTS
Interestingly, the living area has a modern, fully glazed interior, while the upper floor contains smaller spaces resembling cozy huts covered with gabled roofs.
8. DAYLIGHT IN THE BASEMENT
The building includes an elevator connecting all 2 above-ground and 2 underground levels. Another innovation is that daylight reaches the underground floors through specially shaped glazed light wells developed together with engineers from Multiko.
9. ECO-FRIENDLY INNOVATIONS
The house will feature the latest smart systems ensuring optimal energy efficiency integrated with the natural environment, geothermal systems, irrigation systems, rainwater utilization, wall heating and cooling, heat pumps, natural ventilation, and solar energy use. State-of-the-art sustainable products such as Porotherm Klima+ will be used, reducing CO₂ emissions in production by 20%. The architectural structure works harmoniously with the environment, sunlight, cardinal directions, topography, wind, water, sightlines, forest, and meadow.
10. TUNNEL + CAVE
Access to the building is another innovative solution. To optimize movement on the steep slope, a tunnel begins at the property boundary and leads directly into the building. This reduces driveway maintenance, snow removal, and increases green space by hiding infrastructure underground. Pedestrian access to the southern facade follows the shortest route, passing under the cantilevered building along a gently sloping forest path, creating an inter-level shaded forest landscape called the Grotto.
11. BIOPHILIA + DESIGN + TRADITION
The Cave House is a building whose unique and innovative design stems from ecological functional-spatial ideas and principles of human-centered biophilic design, focused on human health and well-being. Modern design and eco-elements merge into an inseparable, coherent whole, referencing local traditions and sustainable development principles. Bogusław Barnaś
