An interview with members of the studio COMMOD HOUSE; Austria

What makes your winning project Magic House from Eisenstadt one of a kind?
As you can see from the pictures, the magic of this house seems to live in every corner of it. Be it the natural transition from inside to outside, the seemingly fairytale garden, or the homey kitchen and living room with its special cat window. The harmony of how it all comes together as one magic hideaway is truly one of a kind.

What did you learn from this project?
The most important point to mention here might be the way we dealt with the existing nature. Often, the plot is cleared from all plants first, then the house is put on top and then the garden is replanted from scratch. Here, it was the other way around. The house was really planned into the existing nature. A part had to be cleared for it obviously but by no means the whole wonderful garden. And this wonderful garden is, what makes this house so unique.

What we certainly see is that the time for sustainable, healthy, modular living has come and people really understand and share our concept and values.

What are you working on at the moment?
We are always wrapping our heads around how to evolve as a company. There are so many ideas we have – we just need to put them into practice. What we certainly see is that the time for sustainable, healthy, modular living has come and people really understand and share our concept and values. The flexible modular building system has many potential applications. Private housing requires the best standards of quality. So, if we can make flexible modular systems work for our homes, there’s no reason it won’t work for offices and public buildings, for example.

What is your driving force?
Our vision has always been to mix high-quality design, sustainability, and building with a top material standard. But besides that, a house should be self-regulating, comfortable, and homely regardless of what the people who live there do or when and where they do it. In our mind, a house must work regardless of whether they’re living there seven days a week or if it’s just a weekend house, or if they want to open the windows often or if they never open the windows. It should always work.

Any ideas you think should be front and center in the minds of architects?
We are convinced that modular, ecological and healthy buildings will be the future of living. For us, it’s key to always stay up to date with developments within this field and even try to invent new solutions.
Furthermore, when you create homes for other people, you do not only bring their vision of a dream home to life, but you also guide them through some of the most difficult decisions (because they fear regretting them for the rest of their lives). They must fully trust your skills and advice. We believe in the power of good collaboration. Within the process of building a house, there can (and will be) challenging situations. The question is how to deal with them and how to best solve them.