The ground floor apartment in a historic apartment building in Prague is located in a quiet part of a residential district. However, at the same time the apartment is situated above a bar located in the basement of the house. This turned out to be an obstacle to its lease and it was decided to use the premises as offices.
The original design of the apartment building from the beginning of the 20th century featured small apartments with two rooms, one facing the street and the other the courtyard. The middle vaulted tract was originally divided by a thin partition and used as corridors and facilities for the individual apartments. However, the requirements for housing changed over time, the original size of the apartment was no longer sufficient, and the two apartments merged into a single unit. As a result, a relatively spacious hallway in the middle of the new layout of the apartment emerged. Interestingly, because of the merge, this apartment then atypically featured two front doors.
During the reconstruction of the house, the internal common areas with historical wooden door frames and terrazzo floors in the corridors were sensitively preserved. The conversion of the apartment into office space builds on these historical elements.
For the needs of the law office, a representative reception and a generous meeting room providing quiet and comfortable environment for meetings with clients were a necessity. At the same time, the firm required separate offices for partners, a separate bathroom for clients and a separate office and bathroom for employees.
The symmetrical arrangement of the original residential layout has been preserved. In the central wing a spacious reception and facilities have been created, including a bathroom for clients hidden behind a cupboard wall. A meeting room is logically situated next to the reception. Partners' offices are reduced in size in order to accommodate facilities for employees including a small kitchen and toilet with shower.
The reception area in the central tract connects to the representative public spaces of the house both by the floor surface, which consists of terrazzo tiles, and by the refurbishment of the original coffered doors. The focal point is the solid oak reception desk designed in the same style as the generous meeting room table. Both furniture pieces have been designed by COLLARCH specifically for this interior. The design is complemented by luminaires that can create dimmed decorative lighting at the reception while also being able to create ideal working conditions by providing bright light in the space.
The generous reception and meeting room are balanced by the economical use of the remaining spaces. E.g. the archive is located on the floor above the facilities in the central tract. The reception is conveniently connected to the employees' office by "a hidden window" in a closet inserted into a niche after the original door - this makes communication easier and helps with handling the necessary documents.
The texture of oak wood has become a connecting design element. Apart from the selected furniture pieces it has also been used as cladding of the new partitions separating the facilities and as the flooring material in the form of oak parquets. The atmosphere of the individual rooms is softened by textile curtains that not only protect the space from direct sunlight, but also significantly improve the acoustic properties of the interior.
Теаm:
Architect: COLLARCH
Photographers: Dorota Velek, Michal Janků, COLLARCH
