Under Vršek

The southern slopes of the first large suburbs of Prague have always attracted noble residential living. However, the romanticizing delusions of typical construction with steep roofs, ostentatious stone foundations, and excessive brick cladding were, in their time, a source of laughter for modernist architects dreaming of strip windows, flat roofs, and central heating. Many prophets of the great industrial world gave them no hope for more than one generation.

Unlike many avant-garde modernists, we do not even know the authors of the original generic nostalgia of late First Republic villas, but even after more than a hundred years, we understand them. People built their homes here in historicizing styles simply because they wanted to feel as if they had always been here. So they could also take root more easily, along with their households.

Today, that original dream is a reality. The villas have been here for over a century, and many generations have grown up in them. From struggling seedlings in the streets, they have become majestic rows of trees. Gardens teem with life, fences disappear beneath the waves of vegetation. And today, it is even possible to insulate these houses, install a heat pump with underfloor heating, use recuperation to shade the dangerous radon escaping from the ground, stabilize capillary rising moisture with injection, etc. A contemporary modernist critic would probably be astonished in this regard.

However, when we first approached this particular house, it did not look like a noble residence. Although a complete renovation was necessary, we didn't directly compete with it or the garden. Instead, we cleaned up the house, re-sewed it, and unified the asymmetrical patches. We tailored the cut, added a new lining, replaced buttons with a zipper, and extended the entire thing. It is still clearly recognizable in the closet – on the street – what coat – what house this is. It just suddenly isn't cold inside, and it wears wonderfully.

The quiet air-water heat pump takes care of warm water for washing in three bathrooms, as well as the heating. The thermal stability and comfort of the ground floor of the house is ensured by underfloor heating, while in the basement with fitness facilities and on the floor with bedrooms and a dressing room, individual and quick regulation is possible with heating bodies. Of course, there is also the management of collected rainwater or a sophisticated electrical installation that includes safety and user comfort.

In addition to complete technical modernization, the building underwent a change in layout, obtaining direct connection from the kitchen to the garden and was extended with an addition in the original spirit, adding two more rooms and a bathroom. The interior gently incorporates individual life experiences and inspiration from Japan on one side and, at the same time, the world of Great Britain on the other, along with an understanding of the original architectural intent. As a tribute to the original builders, we added one special door to the child's world of imagination, where every adult can only humbly enter on their knees.