House in Prague

The proposed building is located on the border of two different worlds: the urban and the natural. From the northwest side, a wedge of the bio-corridor cuts into the site. The corridor is enhanced by the distinctive exposure of the Hlubočepské Rocks.
Urban surrounds the site on the south and east sides. It is a haphazard and random development.
The form and spatial layout of the house is a direct response to this context.
The house seeks to extend the natural context inside the site and interiors. From the other side, the house is then separated from the „urban world“, for which it becomes an abstract object that corresponds in form and scale to the rocks in the background.
The form of the building also addresses the need for natural light, the issue of the „narrow“ entrance and the problematic location of the neighbouring building from the south.
In the first steps, we designed the house that was created by a method of terrain deformation. The terrain from the north was to transition smoothly into an artificial hill in which the house was to be located. From the south, the hill was to be undercut, allowing for an entrance patio, created in a different, rectangular geometry.
Due to the need to limit the budget, it was necessary to significantly reduce the previously designed building. We opted for the risky method of directly cutting off „unnecessary“ elements, which significantly affected the final result. Such a consciously primitive and direct cut-off had surprisingly good effects in places, while in others the effect was worse. The changes concerned almost exclusively the organic, rear part of the building and had little effect on the interior spaces, which, according to the original concept, were created by the clash of two geometries: organic and rectangular.