Interior of a 3-room apartment

I first met the client in October 2010 in a partially constructed apartment building on Vodní Street in Brno. She had selected an apartment for purchase and needed to discuss its potential for her own housing needs with the architect. At that time, I did not recommend the apartment for several reasons, so she decided not to sign the contract and to continue searching in the real estate market. In November 2010, we met again, this time at the construction site of an apartment building in Královo Pole on Mojmírov Square. Here, we finally managed to find a suitable apartment. Although the building did not stand out architecturally, it met the client’s requirements in terms of layout and location. Additionally, there was a comfortable facility for the apartment available for purchase in the form of a separate garage and a brick cellar compartment.

Considering the pace of construction, we quickly started brainstorming modifications to the apartment's layout and selecting materials. The bathroom needed to be expanded at the expense of the bedroom, and the washing machine had to be moved from the closet to the bathroom. There was no need to intervene in the other parts of the apartment. By mutual agreement, we selected solid wooden mosaic flooring made from guaiac wood, which visually creates a similar impression to walnut but is significantly cheaper. A part of the floor is covered with a poured epoxy screed in a yellow-green hue. We chose steel door frames with a shadow groove detail. The doors are white solid or with round glazing featuring slightly industrial details. The wall tiles evoke the atmosphere of a concrete screed. Some walls are finished with a screed that resembles concrete. The heating radiators are smooth and white. The sockets and switches are silver. The basic furniture built to measure (kitchen, bathroom, closet, library, table, and chairs) is in a white-silver combination. The glass behind the kitchen was chosen at the client's request in a vivid green color. How it will proceed from here will probably only be shown by time.

At the beginning of the implementation process of any building, it is always very difficult to estimate the experience of the construction company and craftsmen who will carry out the project and to project this into the contract in advance. Sometimes one tries to avoid complications by recommending verified companies. In the end, however, one realizes that even those can have fluctuations in their performance. There are simply so many uncontrollable processes that can jeopardize the outcome that the architect has no choice but to be a chronic optimist to believe that they can visually elevate the Czech standard. The choice of some not entirely standard materials always requires personal courage from the client. In this realization, the client was not only brave but also assertive enough to achieve the desired result on the construction site. So, I thank her very much for that.