Low-Energy Family House

foto: Andrea Thiel Lhotáková

The family house is a compact  low-energy single-level building with the flat roof.  The aim was to create a low closed object – a ring-like building set in the landscape without disturbing the beautiful hilly and woody surrounding panoramas. As the site area is spacious, we wanted to create an intimate space for every thinkable form of the life of this special family. We designed an elliptic-shape house with an interior open atrium. The ellipse is situated in the site mass center, with the orientation allowing the optimum use of sun and shape. The internal layout is strictly orthogonal. The house is wheelchair accessible.  The garage represents a volume „cut out“ of the house atrium and put nearby in the garden. The garden remains natural with minimum landscaping.
The structure of the house is designed as a reinforced concrete (cladding, ceiling tile) on the concrete base. Nonsupporting internal vertical structures are built from white plastered ceramic bricks. The material is applied to the interior exposed concrete in the contrast with plastered walls. The floor is massive oak bleached board. The cladding is ventilated sandwich construction, exterior cladding is made of corrugated metal with a slight wave painted with white gloss paint. This compact "shell" of the building is cracked by window openings running over the entire height of the building. The windows are designed as not-openable with hidden aluminum frames. The interior doors are solid, wooden and sliding.  Garage material is reinforced with glass parts, as well as the atrium.