Houses With Roof Decks – Breaking The Architectural Monotony

It’s been confirmed that Romanians prefer attic houses, for a series of reasons you find HERE. But architecture is a field way too vast and challenging to confine ourselves to attic houses only, especially since we live in a time when the contemporary design is increasingly becoming more popular. Under these circumstances, we wanted to find out more details about houses with roof decks which are not unfortunately such an often met sight these days. We sat down and spoke to Costi Zarnescu, commercial manager at Proiecte-online.com, a website specialized in economical houses which also features such roof deck house plans.

So what exactly recommends his type of houses? Why would a family pick such a design in a society still permeated with traditional and conservative ideas? “The first argument in favor of these houses is they break the monotony by taking a step outside the classical Balkan style architecture, with gable roof, attic and dormers, as we often see in Romania. So we break the architectural monotony by means of different shapes, we are no longer bound by design restrictions, we can now join volumes since we have no limiting frameworks anymore. So, we are first of all talking about aesthetic arguments which ooze the idea of modernity”, our interlocutor told us. The plans shown below confirm this generous offer of bold lines and shapes, here and there unconventional, which comes with this type of houses.

“Secondly, the living area is bigger because we don’t have the attic narrowing it. Then, we have the roof deck that can be used as extra space for relaxation, provided that it is designed to be so, technically built to serve these purposes. Typically, these houses have a roof which is not open to traffic, unless we design it to serve as a deck where we can relax and have meals”, Costi Zarnescu added.

These modern houses are very popular in the Western countries, over half of the plans built in France representing this type of homes. In Romania the demand is way lower, only 5-10 per cent of the houses we sell corresponding to this type of modern architecture. “But we have many clients who voice interest in them, but when they hear they are a bit more expensive due to the hydro insulation, they take a step back. All the potential customers who show interest in these homes invoke the aesthetic argument since the visual impact of these designs is very big. In a nut shell, these houses are preferred by customers under 35 years”, he further said.

Beyond the higher costs compared to a classical attic house, what else counts as a con in respect to these houses? “Other than the higher price, it is very important that the hydro insulation work is done by the book. If not, some serious problems may occur due to the fact we live in a region with many weather changes, we have a lot of snow, rains and many freezing/thawing cycles”, he concluded.

Here are some houses with roof decks presented on Proiecte-online.com, each featuring a special architecture, even futuristic.