Ground floor house with a sunshade

photo: Robert Žákovič

The single-story family house is located in a small village near Mladá Boleslav. The plot is part of an area that has been developed into parcels for the construction of individual family houses. The plot is flat, slightly sloping to the south, and on the northern edge, it directly borders the street.
The rectangular floor plan of the house is covered by a nearly flat roof, except for the northern part of the house and the terrace, which are covered by a flat roof. The roof over the terrace, running the full length of the southern facade, also serves as a sunshade, protecting the terrace occupants and the adjacent room from overheating during the summer. The terrace roof is supported by wall elements that, in addition to their structural function, divide the terrace into sections corresponding to the width of the rooms adjacent to the terrace.
The core of the layout is a hallway running the entire length of the house, which forms the internal communication axis. At the same time, the hallway divides the house into two functional parts along its length. On the sunny southern side of the house, the living rooms are located along the hallway, which have direct access to the terrace. On the northern side, the operational rooms of the house, including the entrance vestibule and kitchen, are adjacent to the hallway.
The shape of the roofing, combining a flat and sloped roof, allows for natural lighting in the hallway with "basilica" lighting.
The building is structurally designed as a timber frame construction in a "two by four" system. The primary source for heating and hot water is a gas condensing boiler. Individual rooms are heated with underfloor heating. The house features controlled ventilation with heat recovery.
The initial design of the house was approved fairly quickly by the investors. The most significant change to the project occurred at the request of the building authority. Due to a violation of the only binding regulation, the flat roof had to be changed to a sloped roof of the prescribed pitch. The house was published in a mainstream housing magazine while still in the study phase, and based on the printed drawings and visualizations, it was built in a small village in Western Bohemia according to the original design with a flat roof.