Project Name: Inverted House

Location: Tbilisi, Georgia

Design Team: TIMM

Total Floor Area: 1,010 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Grigoriy Sokolinsky

Design Features:

Project Inverted House, designed by TIMM, stands as a masterful reimagining of suburban residential typology in Tbilisi, Georgia, transforming the dwelling itself into a protective perimeter wall that eliminates traditional fencing while creating an inward focused sanctuary. Located in Okrokana, a hillside district on the city's outskirts, this 1,010 square meter residence exemplifies the perfect balance between spatial inversion logic and sophisticated material transitions, redefining residential possibilities within dense suburban environments.

The project's most compelling design achievement lies in its creative transformation of urban environmental constraints. Characterized by narrow streets, small plots, and tall perimeter fences, the Okrokana district presented a site surrounded on three sides by neighboring walls and bordered by street on the fourth, resulting in complete lack of outward views and limited daylight access. Rather than attempting to open the house toward its constrained surroundings, the architects viewed these conditions as an opportunity to propose an alternative residential model. The structure wraps around the site's edges, directing all primary living spaces inward, thus achieving the building itself becoming the enclosure rather than being positioned behind a fence.

The spatial organization unfolds around two gardens, demonstrating remarkable spatial stratification. The inner courtyard functions as the true heart of the house, with all main living spaces including entrance hall, living room, and kitchen oriented toward this central void. A suspended swimming pool spans across this void, creating a covered outdoor space below while visually connecting the upper levels. The outer garden mediates the home's relationship with the street. Along the street, the building is slightly recessed, eliminating the need for a separate fence and softening the boundary between public and private space.

The sectional design embodies sophisticated spatial strategy and vertical organization. The building rises to three floors at the rear while appearing as a single story volume toward the street, this variation enables a dramatic double height living area and insertion of intermediate half levels, generating a gradual and fluid spatial sequence. This layered arrangement not only maximizes the richness of spatial experience but also optimizes each functional area's relationship with the courtyard, ensuring natural light and visual connections throughout the residence.

Materiality reinforces the project's inverted logic, creating a sequence of spatial dematerialization from exterior to inner core. The facade facing the street is clad in charred wood, a traditional technique historically used to protect timber from weathering, forming here a dense and protective outer shell. Inside the courtyard, this dark envelope gives way to natural, untreated wood, introducing warmth, texture, and tactility. Interior spaces are finished in white, allowing light, proportion, and spatial relationships to define the atmosphere as dominant factors. This gradual transition from charred wood to natural timber to abstract white embodies the movement from exterior realm to inner core, reinforcing spatial hierarchy and progressive privacy.

The project's defining feature is its creative transformation of site constraints and high quality building practices. By redefining the role of the fence as inhabitable architecture, the project proposes a new domestic typology for dense suburban conditions. Rather than resisting its constraints, the house internalizes them, transforming enclosure into a spatial asset. Through its inward orientation, layered organization, and material transitions, the project constructs a protected yet expansive domestic world, building its richness from within. Inverted House proves that architectural constraints can become generative design opportunities in dense suburban environments, creating responsive residential architecture to urban context and climate without sacrificing spatial quality, constructional clarity, or residential comfort.

Design Team TIMM, which stands for The Invisible Man Made Architecture, operates as an international network of partners with offices spanning Tbilisi, Istanbul, and Milan. The firm approaches architecture as a synthesis of design, research, and cultural exploration, recognizing that each client presents unique goals and aspirations requiring tailored solutions.

Led by co-founders Nikoloz Lekveishvili and Giorgi Pailodze, alongside CEO and Urban Design Department head Nutsa Kandelaki, TIMM has established itself as a multidisciplinary practice committed to delivering exceptional design through the creative integration of human need, environmental stewardship, value creation, science, and art. The firm's collaborative methodology encourages professional teams to research alternatives, share knowledge, and imagine innovative approaches to contemporary architectural challenges.

TIMM's diverse team includes specialists across multiple disciplines, from 3D scanning and interior design to urban planning, reflecting the firm's commitment to comprehensive design solutions. The practice maintains a strong international presence with Malkhaz Lekveishvili heading the 3D Scanning Department, Natia Lekveishvili leading interior design initiatives, and Jeff Radom managing US operations, supported by architects including Francesco Adorni, Liudmyla Bielashova, Ana Kipiani, and specialists based across their network locations. This geographic and disciplinary diversity enables TIMM to address complex architectural projects through culturally informed, technically rigorous design thinking.