Krakow is considered as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Today, the second largest city in Poland is still referred to as the country's unofficial capital. Just four kilometres from the centre as the crow flies, a former quarry has become home to a residence with a striking slate roof: the Edge House.

With an eight metre-high quarry edge, the extravagant plot location proved to be a major challenge. This was magnified by the zoning regulations. In this exclusive neighbourhood, gable roofs are a legal requirement. Nevertheless, the owners wanted an unusual solution for the location. Their search for a convincing design lasted two years. Several architects were commissioned, but their results never quite met the owners' expectations. Architect Przemyslaw Olczak from the internationally active studio Mobius Architekten in Krakow finally won their trust and was awarded the contract. His idea was to build the house on the quarry edge. He placed the residential complex on the rugged cliff, adapting it to the contours of the slope with steeply inclined façades and using dark slate to offset it against the existing light-coloured limestone.

The exquisite building is also made truly extraordinary through the differences in height. Viewed from the south, it looks like a single-level home, whilst the cliff side to the north reveals three storeys that integrate into the rocks. The owners also wanted the wild flower meadow to be incorporated into the design. In order to prevent the structure from overpowering the meadow-rich plot, the architects designed parts of the site to slope slightly downwards towards the south and west sides of the building. This reduced the height, whilst simultaneously creating a private living and pool area out of view. Several balconies and terraces enable the residents to choose the amount of sun they desire.

Inside, a living area of 850 m2 is spread over three floors: a basement, ground floor and upper level. The entrance is at ground level and leads either to the spacious kitchen or through a separate hallway to the lounge and dining area. To the right of the entrance, there is a television room and one bedroom with a guest bathroom. The upper level hosts two large bedrooms with bathrooms and dressing rooms, in addition to a work and office space. In keeping with the exclusive architecture and elegant interior design, the Gira Esprit switch series was an obvious choice. A KNX system was installed for the complex building control. The 'brain' behind the system is the Gira HomeServer, which brings together and evaluates all of the information and sends corresponding commands to the devices. Every room is equipped with a Gira push button sensor. The brilliant thing about this intelligent technology is that residents have the option of adding other functions at any time, without having to hack open walls.