The summer retreat of a young couple on Lake Tisza, where the boundaries between self and nature are blurring – meet Sneci, the houseboat designed by Tamás Bene.
Sneci could even serve as a study that illustrates, summarizes and slightly exceeds what built environment related to rivers and waterfronts means. Architect Tamás Bene, who was approached by a young couple living in Budapest with the idea of building a houseboat on Lake Tisza as a summer getaway, puts it like this: their character seems to stem from the activities that organically shape waterside huts, dinghies and boats.
“The »activity« takes precedence over intentional organization and aesthetic speculation, giving way to spontaneity and thus resulting in an honest, authentic, and inimitable environment. The edifices exposed to an active, living natural environment and requiring constant care are themselves similar to their natural environment – in that nothing is notable about their individual aesthetic, but beauty resides in their disposition, the system of which they form part. We aimed to design a boat capable of assimilating into these surroundings, one that may become part of this scenery” – Tamás explains, thus capturing the aesthetic of houseboats very clearly.
The clients’ ideas sprang primarily from their love of the region, and a desire to learn about and experience it more deeply, for which they imagined a non-fixed starting point.
As an architect, I found it highly interesting to conceptualize and design a living space that has no tangible groundwork or foundations. The point of vehicles – their primary function – is to transport. However, the movement of this compact living space intends to enable its occupants to approach the atmosphere of their natural environment as closely as possiblethe designer explains.
And the boat provides the perfect means for this: the – now – happy owners can spend time, eat, drink, sleep and wake up nearly anywhere, thus blurring the boundaries between their personal selves and nature itself.
Photos: Balázs Máté
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