In 2021, the owner of a villa in Prague’s Ořechovka district approached me with the question of whether I would design an extension to the existing house, because the house was no longer large enough for a family with six children. However, the extension seemed inappropriate to me from the beginning. It would disrupt the integrity and preserved architecture of the house from the early 20th century. I therefore began to think about whether it would not be possible to design something else. The owner agreed, and so the idea of a detached house in the garden was born.
I planted the house among the trees. I wanted to preserve all the trees that were growing in the garden, so we chose a foundation on micropiles to avoid damaging their root systems. The result is a truly minimal structure – its floor plan is only 5 × 2.5 meters, but it has four floors. The ground floor is open. It serves as a covered seating area and also as an entrance to the house, which is accessed via a spiral staircase. One floor higher is the kitchen-diner. Because the individual rooms are very small, I built all the storage spaces directly into the structure as carpentry elements. Above the kitchen is the room where Ema lives today. On the top floor is another room resided in by Jan. The rooms also have a toilet and a shower, and each of them has the option of folding down an additional bed, so that two people can sleep comfortably in it.
The top floor is located among the treetops. In spring, when you open the window, you are completely connected to the garden. There is no need to play music or the radio – the birdsong reliably replaces this experience. The entire house works like a construction set. The lower structure consists of steel legs that were manufactured in the workshop and installed on site by crane. The upper part is a wooden structure. The individual floors were also created in the workshop and installed on site by crane in a single day. The large glass walls naturally opened up the issue of intimacy and shading. This is solved by folding shutters that can be opened completely or, conversely, the entire house can be closed. This way, everyone can choose how much they want to be connected to the surroundings and how much intimacy they need in the room.
My goal was to create a structure that would not compete with the main villa, but on the contrary, would let it stand out. The new house was supposed to be a rather inconspicuous addition that would also offer their own space for two children to live in. The building is also a reflection on how little space a person really needs for living. The total usable area of the house is only 34 m². Nevertheless, it can accommodate a kitchen, two rooms, bathrooms, storage spaces and sleeping space for several people.
Materials Used:
Dřevostavby Biskup, s. r. o. - wooden structure
AA COM s.r.o. - building constructor
