The House with a private Giewont mountain, Poland

The House with a private Giewont mountain, Podhale residence images, Kościelisko Poland building, Polish property

18 November 2025

Architects: BXB studio Bogusław Barnaś

Location: Kościelisko village, Podhale region, southern Poland – foothills of the Tatra Mountains

Photos by Rafał Barnaś, Piotr Krajewski

The House with a private Giewont mountain – Southern Poland Home Design

The House with a Private Giewont – one of the most beautiful houses in the world – has reached the final round of the prestigious Italian competition The Plan Award – 12 most beautiful villas in the world.

It has also been honored with the ICONIC Design Award 2025 in the Residential Building category during a ceremonial gala held at BMW Welt in Munich.

This year, it is the only house from Poland recognized by international juries both in Munich (The PLAN) and in Milan (ICONIC).

The house was designed by BXB Studio Bogusław Barnaś, one of the most frequently awarded architectural studios.

The Iconic Awards are organized by the German Design Council, an organization founded in 1953 by the German Parliament. Each year, it honors designers from around the world who create innovative and visionary architecture.

THE PLAN is one of Italy’s two most important architectural magazines, distributed monthly worldwide in 30,000 copies, as well as a major international online publication.

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The House with a private Giewont Mountain

Set on a scenic plot in Kościelisko village, this house is both a creative reinterpretation of Podhale region’s traditional architecture and a tribute to the Tatra Mountains landscape – especially the iconic hiking trail to Giewont Mountain.

The design metaphorically reflects a mountain hike, shaping not only the surrounding path and garden, but above all, the home’s core: a vertical circulation layout that culminates in a spectacular view of Giewont.

The form of the House with a Private Giewont draws inspiration from traditional wooden shepherd’s huts common in the Podhale region of southern Poland. Its color, texture, and materiality evoke the Tatra landscape – grey, rugged rocks and snow-covered white peaks.

The roof is clad in titanium-zinc sheet metal manufactured by ZM Silesia, and the façade features custom-designed, mobile panels with an openwork structure that allow the house to be freely opened or closed. The original perforation pattern, developed in collaboration with the Equitone brand, achieved several objectives: filtering natural light into the interior, creating a façade texture and color palette inspired by the snow-covered peaks of the Tatra Mountains, and referencing local ornamental motifs. Thanks to the designed lighting, the building resembles a lantern after dark, emitting both light from within and reflected exterior illumination discreetly concealed within the arcade’s structure.

The panels, mounted on automated systems, can open and close freely. This transformable façade also acts as a secure enclosure, allowing the building to close in on itself, forming a boundary aligned with the smallest possible perimeter.

We also designed the garden using local rocks and mountain pines. The path to the house is made of large stone slabs, recalling Tatra Mountain trails. The landscaping is low maintenance and blends with the mountain scenery. Boundaries are defined subtly through natural materials – greenery and stone.

Inside, the concept of a mountain trail is reflected in a dramatic circulation spine: a black steel structure winding through all four levels. At its peak, a bridge crosses above the living room, pierces the glazed gable wall, and extends into an outdoor viewing platform. The entire house is designed around this path, which is visible from nearly every room – even the garage, thanks to a glazed ceiling over the underground floor.

The result is a house deeply rooted in its environment, emotionally and physically. The main living space, with the best view, is situated on the upper floor. A fully glazed gable wall frames the Giewont peak, integrating it into the interior and reinforcing the home’s mountain atmosphere.

From the panoramic living room, the path continues up to a mezzanine and the bridge. Suspended by three thin steel cables and anchored discreetly into the window framing, it creates a surreal effect of floating above the interior. The bridge gently rises, and its steel railing gradually disappears, becoming fully glazed as it transforms into the final outdoor platform—set at the ridge of the roof.

In this house, Giewont becomes an inseparable part of the building—both literally, as it shapes the interior, and emotionally, as it allows one to experience the feelings evoked by the designed trail leading to a panoramic summit.

Film on YouTube – The House With a Private Giewont Mountain

The House with a private Giewont mountain, Poland – Property Information

Design: BXB studio Bogusław Barnaś
Location: Kościelisko, Poland
Team: Bogusław Barnaś, Magdalena Fuchs, Łucja Janik, Justyna Duszyńska-Krawczyk, Urszula Furmanik, Bartłomiej Mierczak, Yousra Bouras, Mateusz Zima, Michał Kiercz, Jakub Dunal, Edyta Ptasznik
Roofing manufacturer: ZM Silesia
Manufacturer of perforated facade panels: Equitone
Window Architecture: Multiko

Film production: Unique Vision Studio Rafał Barnaś
Photos: Rafał Barnaś, Piotr Krajewski
Graphic design: BXB studio

Area: 327 m²
Date: 2018-2024
Client: Private

The House with a private Giewont Mountain

This house features a private mountain trail that defines its philosophy. It’s simple form is inspired by local wooden huts, while its color and texture blend seamlessly into the snowy mountain landscape. The roof is clad in titanium-zinc sheet metal, and the façade is composed of individually designed openwork panels that allow the house to be freely opened or closed.

After dusk, it resembles a glowing lantern. This house has no fence, as its façade itself forms a boundary with the shortest possible perimeter. The garden requires no upkeep, being composed of mountain rocks and low-growing pines. The path leading to the house takes the shape of a mountain trail formed by stone boulders.

Inside, a black internal passageway, visible already from the glazed garage, acts like a spatial sculpture leading through all four levels of the house. The glass-walled living room is located in the attic to emphasize the view of Giewont, the iconic peak of the Polish Tatra Mountains, which becomes an integral part of the interior.

A steel footbridge suspended above the living room leads to an outdoor viewing platform located just beneath the ridge. This unique relationship with the landscape is what inspired the name of the house: The House with a Private Giewont. It is more than just a modern building. It is a consistently realized idea of a mountain trail, a concept of connection with nature, tradition, and the local landscape. At BXB Studio, we believe this is what makes the house durable, unique, and timeless.

Bogusław Barnaś (BXB studio)

MSc (Arch) / Dipl. -Ing Arch.
architect, designer, academic tutor
Member of the Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland IARP and the Association of Polish Architects SARP.

Bogusław Barnaś, founder of BXB studio, is one of the most awarded Polish architects and has been in the field for over 20 years. In his designs, he seeks synthesis between man and nature, combining centuries-old tradition with modern sustainable development. Barnaś is the creator of “Perception Architecture,” used in the Krakow Tenement project next to Wawel, which was voted the best hotel design by the Italian PLAN magazine.

Barnaś is a graduate of two universities, with degrees from the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow University of Technology, and the Faculty of Architecture of the Fachhochschule Muenster in Germany. In 2009, he founded studio BXB, bringing together many years of professional experience gained, among others, from Norman Foster – one of the most outstanding contemporary architects.

Barnaś has presented his achievements at several dozen lectures and presentations for institutions such as the City University of Hong Kong, Coventry University, the International Architecture Congress in Belgrade, World Communication Forum Davos, Łódź Design Festival, World Architecture Festival and the European Architecture Days in Strasbourg.

He authored a series of exhibitions and the publication “Architecture rooted in tradition”. He was a guest on many radio and television programs. His first completed building – Eco House – was immediately adapted into the third episode of the TV program – Houses of the Future. His first projects, such as The Polish House and The Artist’s House, set the creative direction of studio BXB. They were awarded by British Wallpaper* magazine and presented at the London Festival of Architecture.

Barnaś has been listed among the 20 most talented architects by the British Wallpaper* magazine. He is the winner of Architect of the Year Award 2022, triple winner of the American MasterPrize award, the Iconic Award, The Plan Award, German Design Award, European Property Award. He’s been awarded twice for the best ecological projects – PLGBC Green Building Awards for The Eco Warsaw Tower apartment building and The Symbiotic House. He won first prize at Polish Architecture Award XXL 2022 contest. Barnaś is a three-time nominee for World Building of the Year as a finalist of the World Architecture Festival WAF. He also won the SARP 2023 Award of the Year – one of the most important architectural awards in Poland.

Film on YouTube – Modern Polish home design by BXB studio Bogusław Barnaś

The House with a private Giewont mountain, Poland images / information received 161125 from BXB studio Bogusław Barnaś

Location: Kościelisko, Podhale, south Poland, eastern Europe.

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Architecture: BXB studio Bogusław Barnaś

image courtesy of BXB studio architects practice