Family house Preslova

Living, designing, and building in Brno's Masaryk District is inspiring. The vast majority of houses in this area originated from the drawing boards of leading interwar architects. This neighborhood has been, is, and will be associated with the residences of Brno's elite. The prices of villas and plots on the southern slopes of Pisárky are reaching dizzying heights. On Kalvodova Street, there is also the studio of architects Burian and Křivinka, who, in addition to the regulatory plan for this area, are the authors of the unfinished villa in the vicinity of Pilař's blue cubes on Neumannova Street. The probably most elegant villa in post-revolutionary Brno never saw completion, and today its remnants are an excellent example of the post-revolutionary atmosphere in the history of the Czech Republic.
With the gradual healing of our society, healthier projects are also emerging. A testament to this is another project for the Burian and Křivinka studio for a comfortable family house located on a street positioned several contours higher than the unfinished ruin. A generous horizontal composition of the early villa is contrasted by an ingenious play of volumes prompted by a more complicated situation. The southern slope is ideal for living, but access from the south is not quite as ideal. However, the generous plot allowed the house to be pushed as far back from the street as possible, improving the intimacy of the residents' lives.
The southern forecourt is reserved for the entrance and access to the double garage. According to my taste, a rather prominent concrete staircase leads into a hollow created by the red volume of the living room, dining room, and kitchen, plus the pea-green block of the bedrooms. Above the bedrooms is the silvery study of the master of the house. This mass solution gives the building a smaller scale, and the house fits better into the surrounding color palette of the villa district.
It wouldn’t be a comfortable villa if it didn’t have a swimming pool. It is situated in the northern part of the plot in such a way that it defines a residential terrace with the other volumes. The kitchen windows open onto it, allowing the mother to supervise her children’s play. The operation of the house is truly refined, indeed Burian and Křivinka. Especially successful is the social red floor filled with views and other interesting spatial experiences.
The realization of the family house on Preslova Street continues along a moderate conservative line of Brno architecture. We are not witnessing any contemporary manifesto or overstated formal exhibition. Burian and Křivinka, together with Lábus and Pleskot, are a safe bet. The calm strength of their architecture comes from the ingeniously composed interior space and masterful work with materials and details. The tranquil development of their work does not respect the chaotic world around them rushing towards disaster but offers an alternative traditional conservative path relying on proven elementary values. Personally, however, I prefer Möbius strips ;o)