Living in an own historic but individually reconstructed house with a garden just several steps away from an underground station is a dream that can come true for really few families with small children. However, if three such families united their efforts to buy a three-storey villa that needed reconstruction, we were sure it would be a very interesting experiment. And that we have to find a rational way not only to the implementation and to the operation of such housing type, no utopia.
The investors bought a relatively small sloping lot with a view to Palava hills. The assignment for the architects was quite simple: “A family house if you are able to fit anything on this lot.”
The house is part of a newly-built street on the edge of a small Moravian village. The new development doesn’t take into account the traditional row design of local villages. Houses here are not attached, without any unifying feature; they mutually don’t respect roof ridge or roof pitch.
The challenge was to design contemporary living in a village neighborhood consisting primarily of “catalogue” houses.
Ondřej loves nature and forests. Before having children he led a life of a modern nomad. He owned a site in the middle of the woods and always dreamt about building a cabin there. During winter he used to live in the city and in spring he relocated to his parents’ cabin nearby the future building site of the house LO. He wanted his house to be connected to the surrounding nature, to be ecological, and to have his own photo chamber there, to spend his winter evenings developing his photos. He also had a clear idea about the building material. As hempcrete has never been used as a building material in the Czech Republic, it was a great challenge for me as an architect. First struggles evolved in a valuable experience and fascination with its features and its history. Building with hempcrete is easy and allows the builder to build their house on their own. Material is petrifying for several years and draws carbon dioxide from the air around during this process. Hempcrete has great insulating features, is recyclable and also resistant to pests, fire and molds.
To design a house in a pristine nature of Krkonoše was an exciting challenge, especially when it was for my long-standing friend and his young family, for a person who loves nature, art and life. Moreover, the design of the house corresponds in size to the existing building, which has been standing in this protected area since ancient times and as the only structure as far as the eye can see. The responsibility towards the circumstances and strict regulation gave an archetypal form. In addition, the investor required a sophisticated approach towards the space, which would be spiritually focused, unusual, and pure.
The office complex is built on the area of the former Prague Joint-Stock Engineering Works, formerly Ruston Company, known under the popular name Rustonka. The triangular plot is close to the Invalidovna residential area, metro station and the Olympik Hotel, near the center of Prague, close to the right bank of the Vltava River.
The Perspektiv studio completed a large office project with an area of 7300 m2 for the largest central European fixed-odds betting operator, Fortuna Entertainment Group, in the centre of Prague this autumn. The main task for architects was to create an agile environment for employees and to roof different divisions of the company in one place.
The architects decided to make the most of the space and design offices the main feature of which is simplicity, sustainability and efficient use of space. The emphasis was on maximizing creative potential and creating ideal conditions for supporting the community with reference to the principles of the agile workplace.
The plot is situated in a gap between family houses that form the banks of the Dyje River. Steep terrain of the plot has the original terrace landscaping with stonewalls. Above the opposite riverbank rises a rock wall; resting on the wall are the Znojmo Castle, the Rotunda of St. Catherine and the Church of St. Nicholas. The surrounding houses are quite diverse; they are mainly family houses or blocks of flats with one or two floors. The determining elements of the designed house are the shape, profile and orientation of the plot. Its minimal width, large slope and north orientation determine the basic shape parameters of the building. The house is therefore designed on a narrow, rectangle ground plan. It respects the street line on the north side as well as the distance from neighbouring buildings.
Sedlčany Community Centre is situated close to the historic centre of Sedlčany in Central Bohemia, south of Prague. It consists of two buildings establishing a natural transition between the town’s historic block structure and the less densely developed area. The tenement house ends the street line establishing a corner. The point of gravity of the slightly stepped-back house of prayer is rotated towards the town’s centre closing and orienting the new municipal park at the same time. Two different approaches are used for the tenement house and the house of prayer; the more traditionally conceived tenement house is by its expression and composition conforms to the house of prayer establishing a quality space for it. It is designed as a simple or even modest form referring to the distinct shape of the house of prayer by its inclining plane in the back section.
The wing reconstruction area and the new lecture room VŠPJ (College of Polytechnics) is a modern concept of rapidly developing education center located in northeastern corner of the lot, which was originally perceived as a farmyard. The place of the new building is strictly symmetrical, markedly triangular, thus for a construction seemingly disadvantageous. The authors from the studio Qarta architektura changed the disadvantage to an advantage by using the shape and by a link up to the existing block they gained compact space for a large span construction.
Spontaneity, raw materials, pristine nature and above all – meat. The best steaks in the city of Olomouc.
Ten years back, you would have come here to have your vehicle inspection certificate stamped. Entering the place, you would have covered your ears to escape the noise of the roaring car engines and watched the mechanics checking clutches and brakes. As the shift ended and the chaps clocked out to leave for home all hungry, they might have been dreaming about one kind of meal. The juicy steak they would eat seated at a solid wood table supported by raw steel legs. Greenery and nature come face to face with animal force. That’s the core of Steak Restaurant’s (STK) interior, housed in a former car repair shop which gave the steakhouse its name.