Just after World War II, my dad bought an old wooden cottage in the Jizera Mountains. It stands in the shade of a group of trees at the edge of a meadow, with a stream flowing along down below it. There was once a barn next to the cottage, but it disappeared with time.

I decided to try an experiment. I bought undried, unprocessed boards from the sawmill and laid them out where the old barn used to stand, in the shape of the future barn. More or less in the profile of the cottage. I wanted to test what it would look like and make sure the neighbours wouldn’t be annoyed by the new building. And I also wanted to dry out the timber. Thus, I created a hollow stack in the shape of a house, which essentially copies the principle of a log cabin, only with boards. And because a stack of drying timber is not a building, I didn’t ask the authorities for permission. They were, shall we say, quite irritated by this.

It was important not to shorten the boards or process them. We only built interlay boards and tied everything up with wire ropes – no nails or screws at all.When people walk inside, they see the world around them through a thick pattern of criss-crossing boards. It’s a strange kind of magic. I didn’t plan it – it simply happened.

Team:

Architects: Martin Rajniš, Kamila Amblerová, Jaromír Leffler

Photographer: Radka Ciglerová