ARCHTEAM

Casa Rodinný - Hronov-Žďárky

(Continuación)

ARCHTEAM

Fotos: Ester Havlová

Arquitectos: Milan Rak, Iveta Rakova, Libor Rydlo, Alexandr Skalicky
Diseño: Archteam, s.r.o., Nachod
Proyecto: 2001 - Construcción: 2001-2003

Memoria original en inglés::

Alexandr Skalicky: Sequences from a real film / Private house in Zdarky :: Most of clients for our private houses have limited budgets, for financially modest or average buildings. As a rule, when designing houses we do not have the funds that would facilitate an extensive construction programme, for the building of really large houses. We have designed many private houses where financial aspects were a significant criterion. Financial limits do not limit our architecture. Our previous experience from projects and our present focus are a reflection of several values that are crucial for us, that overlap and combine in various ways when we work on a design. It is very difficult to list and rank the priorities in the individual phases of a project, because we have to think above all about the result – how they work together. Visiting the site and thinking about where the building will stand is important for us. We always want to give a house a particular atmosphere, and original individual elements. For the first phase of the design, two criteria are crucial for us. A simple layout that can be modified and adapted in the future in view of new requirements. We usually work on the basis of an open inner space, bounded by the outer wall and only divided by parts of the load-bearing structure. It is also important for us to choose a very simple and easy to implement construction. In a large percentage of the houses we build, their implementation could be described as “assembly”, with limited needs for drawn-out manual building. So how do we design small and medium-sized private houses? As elements that actively affect their setting. As a sequence from a real film, or a set of connecting spaces inside open halls. As a building set.
The location of a building always interests us, but we are not contextual slaves to the site. The landscape around Žďárky is unusually interesting, and dramatically different. The construction site offers different views of the landscape. To the north of the plot is a hilly landscape, receding to Broumovské stěny. To the east of the house and below the slope is the village, Žďárky. On the southern horizon, beyond a gently undulating plane, is a hill, Dobrošov over the near town Nachod. An entirely pragmatic and prosaic element is the main footpath leading from the village to the cemetery. The new house had to be placed so as to ensure some privacy for the client’s garden. On the other hand, the site allowed us to adapt the house’s facades to the landscape, and create links between the house and the natural scenery. We did not want to succumb to the shapelessness and indefiniteness of the house’s immediate surroundings. We wanted the architecture to respond to the existence of the much-used footpath and the dramatic backdrop of the landscape. From the path, from the north, the house appears to be very closed. It is a composition of small, narrow windows, which do not allow a view inside. But from the inside you can see out. From the garden, from the south and east, the house is not so modest. The owner has a room with the best view out from two sides, supported by a balcony. A little window in the east gable gives a view from the owner’s bedroom to the centre of the village. The window frame creates a little picture of the village on the bedroom wall. The house’s architecture is economical. Translucent sheets of plastic play an important role in it. They comprise the balustrade and the balcony. The wall of the shed is also made of translucent sheets of plastic, creating an optical screen. They partially conceal, partially reveal. The rear wall of the garage is the same.
As we were working in a village, we decided to use some elements from that setting. We are not really interested in rural architecture, but we were interested in the way traditional rural homesteads create a group. In the region, typical country farmsteads consist of cottages, barns and sheds grouped around a courtyard. Our house also has three parts – a residential area, a garage and a narrow shed – a drying-room. Thanks to its “group” layout, the house occupies a much larger space that if it had been a single mass comprising all of those spaces. It does not appear excessively large. The composition of the group is designed to shield the house’s private terrace from the street. It is made from three blocks of different materials: the garage and shed of laminated OSB wooden boards, and the plastered mass of the residential part of the house. The materials used designate the building’s functions.
The layout of the house follows a screenplay. It is a sequence of spaces, similar to the edits used in films. Beyond the entrance area in front of the garage is the courtyard, also possible is a move to the terrace behind the house, and then down the stairs to the swimming pool. The spaces inside the house are conceived similarly to its exterior, with the outer spaces ranked one behind the other. The idea for the layout of the residential part of the house was to have a small, dark space right behind the front door, which would be a transition to the large living room with different views out. The dark hall, including the ceiling, is panelled with the same black OSB wooden boards as the garage and shed. The door to the hall is also black. When a visitor, or the owners enter, they can see out through the staircase. Over the door to the living area is a transom window, indicating what lies behind it. A wardrobe with sliding doors, which will always be in different positions, will partially illuminate the hall. The small dark space behind the door creates a contrast with the living area, with large glazed areas. The layout of the second floor is very simple, a staircase connecting to the ground-floor living area, and then just three rooms and a bathroom.
The basic part of the house was built using the Prefa – Rastra system. It was assembled in three weeks, from polystyrene cement panels, reinforced with ferrous concrete, with the ceilings made of ferrous concrete panels. Other elements – the garage, the shed/drying-room and the pantry were made of wooden structures panelled with wooden boards and polycarbonate panels. The result is economical architecture, with a spatial screenplay, on a limited budget. That does not bother us, although designing a large private house with demanding construction would be a new challenge for us.