House reconstruction project in Lisove village

In the field of suburban real estate, modernizing buildings from the Soviet era is one of the most popular solutions for expanding living space. A professionally developed house reconstruction project allows for transforming an old summer house into a full-fledged well-equipped cottage suitable for comfortable living at any time of the year, without the need for capital demolition of the existing walls.

View of a suburban summer house with a basement in Lisove village before the development of the reconstruction and extension project

Fig. 1 General view of the summer house in the «Romashka» cooperative before modernization.

Analysis of the Initial State and Structural Elements of the Summer House

What layout and technical condition did the country house have before reconstruction?
At the time designing began, the object in Lisove village (Kyiv-Svyatoshyn district, Kyiv region) in the «Romashka» cooperative on a 6-acre plot was a typical summer house from the late 1980s measuring 6.2 x 7.1 m. The building featured a basement floor made of foundation blocks, a ground floor made of precast concrete panels, and industrial floor slabs, all of which were in good technical condition.

In the initial basement floor, there was a narrow and highly inconvenient car garage with an area of 17 m² and a dark storage room of 12 m² with a ceiling height of only 2 m. This height was absolutely insufficient for organizing a modern kitchen-dining area or other living spaces. On the first floor, there were two small bedrooms of 12 m² each. On the attic level, a large room of 19 m² was located, but access to it was carried out exclusively via an external open staircase. The house completely lacked a kitchen, a common living room, and a bathroom, making it unsuitable for winter use.

Initial basement floor plan with an inconvenient narrow garage and utility storage room before reconstruction

Initial ground floor plan of the precast concrete house with two bedrooms without a bathroom and a kitchen

Fig. 2 Initial architectural plans of the basement and ground floors of the building.

An engineering and technical inspection of the structures showed that the existing precast foundations were in good condition. The load-bearing walls and precast concrete panels had no visible damage, cracks, or deformations, which made it possible to use them as a reliable base for future extension and expansion.

Architectural Concept of a Cottage with a Capital Extension

How to transform a summer house made of precast concrete panels into a comfortable cottage?
Completely dismantling or demolishing a precast concrete panel building on a cramped suburban plot is an economically impractical and expensive process. The optimal solution is to develop a reconstruction project with a capital two-story extension of all necessary living and utility spaces under a single new roof, turning the property into a modern cottage.

New balanced ground floor plan with an extension for a kitchen-dining area, a living room with a fireplace, and a bathroom in Lisove village

At the main entrance to the new extended part, the architects placed a spacious hall, a bright kitchen-dining area with an area of 16 m², a cozy living room with a fireplace of 15.6 m², and a bathroom with a shower cabin of 3.3 m². The organization of a new internal low-pitched staircase made the operation of the entire house comfortable and year-round. From the living room, a large exit is provided to the land plot, where an open dining area and a barbecue are arranged on an outdoor summer terrace.

Attic Floor Layout and Facade Solutions

On the attic floor, due to the space above the new extension, the architects added a large master bedroom with an area of 23.5 m² and a separate bathroom with a shower. The existing old house and the new capital extension are covered by a single roof. This allowed for visually combining heterogeneous objects into a cohesive, harmonious, and modern country house.

New attic floor plan of the country house after reconstruction with the addition of a large bedroom and a bathroom

Exterior visualization of the main facade of the modern cottage under a single roof after completing the reconstruction in Lisove village

Fig. 3 Updated main facade of the cottage from the access road side.

Exterior visualization of the backyard facade of the summer house after reconstruction with access to an open summer terrace and garden

Fig. 4 View of the reconstructed house from the garden and outdoor recreation area.

Expert Conclusion and Internal Linking

Designing the modernization of capital precast concrete structures of the Soviet era on limited plots requires high qualifications from the architect, accurate calculation of the redistribution of new loads on the soils, and professional joining of roofing nodes. Architect Andrey Kalyaev and the engineers of the "Akvilon PRO" architectural bureau have successfully implemented this task, creating a safe and energy-efficient property.

If you are planning a capital rearrangement or expansion of your suburban real estate, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the developments in our project of reconstruction of a single-family house into a two-family house for comfortable living of two generations of a family. You can also study other architectural solutions by browsing all house reconstruction projects in our specialized catalog.