House Chestnut

The Chestnut House is the debut of our architectural studio. A small plot in the former gardeners' colony on the border of Kopřivnice and Štramberk strongly defined the shape and location of the house. The orientation and small area of the garden, along with the massive chestnut tree, clearly determined the overall atmosphere. It is essentially a paraphrase of the chestnut being extracted from its spiky green shell. Our Chestnut grew in a overgrown green garden, where the raw unprocessed wood combined with charred brushed cladding refers to the stately tree on the property.

The house itself consists of two volumes, the residential and the technical. Everything is connected by the roof, which partially covers the terrace with the entrance and also serves as parking for two cars. The covered entrance area has several functions. Primarily, it forms a protected entrance to both the house and its technical part, further serves as a woodshed, and last but not least, it is a small relaxation terrace for coffee.

Above the entrance hall and kitchen is a half-level for guests, which is connected to the main living space and dining area. This entire part is open up to the rafters, which is generously glazed on the eastern side, especially for the morning sun and also for the view of Štramberk's Trúba. A small hallway connects this main living area with the bedroom and wardrobe. From this space, we can access the bathroom and the toilet. On the opposite wall, there is an entrance to the children's room, which again has a sleeping half-level, giving the entire room a generous space on a small footprint.

Structurally, it is a frame wooden construction with an inserted steel skeleton, which is based on reinforced concrete strips and the cavity beneath the floor creates an accessible installation space known as a "crawl space". All materials were used as much as possible from local sources with an emphasis on the use of natural materials.

The entire house is compact, without unnecessary adornments and embellishments. A simple reference to the original Wallachian architecture built from local sources, natural materials, and as self-sufficient as possible. Simply Wallachian architecture of the 21st century.