Renovation of an apartment in a panel building

The apartment is located in a panel building in the Petřiny housing estate in Prague, built in the 1960s. The layout solutions of these buildings were limited by the structural design. The apartment consisted of three equally sized rooms, each with a uniform width of 3.4m and a length of 5m. In the middle room, a modular sanitary core was built in, featuring hygiene facilities, a kitchen, and an entrance hall. The individual rooms were accessible through an unlit hallway. From today’s perspective, this solution induces a feeling of confinement and closure, not to mention the inadequate dimensions of the bathroom and toilet.

The client’s requirement was to create an open and clear space to be used by one or two people.

In response to the above, we decided to remove the sanitary core and create three living spaces. These rooms are connected by a pair of openings cut into the panels. The dimensions and placement of the openings at the facade allow the trio of rooms to be perceived as one continuous space. A new bathroom was integrated into the structural module, which is also reserved for the bedroom. By shortening the bedroom, a logical hierarchy of dimensions of the individual rooms was achieved. We further aimed to unify the entire space through the design of built-in furniture and the selection of individual materials. The design of this furniture was a response to the owner's taste and the period in which the building was constructed.