Architects LOXIA and David Vávra are building a new family center for the NF Klíček

The aim of the Klíček Foundation is to simplify the situation for seriously ill children and their families and to ensure that their lives are as natural and "ordinary" as possible. In short, these families should be able to experience as many normal things as possible. However, the foundation also focuses on education, opening public discussions on issues of illness, dying, and death, and removing barriers between the world of the "healthy" and the world of the "sick."

To this end, a new four-story family center with a gross floor area of 1180 m², which will also serve as a children's hospice, is being developed in Košíře. The architectural and design studio LOXIA, along with architect David Vávra, is also involved in its creation, having decided to provide the study of the building and the subsequent project documentation as a gift to the foundation. "We see the activities of the parenting center as extremely worthy and meaningful, and we are glad to be a part of it," says Jana Mastíková, the chief architect of the architectural and design studio LOXIA.

There’s a chapel and a café

"The proposed building does not need to define itself against its surroundings; it is enough for it to be strong and unique. A proud vessel, which is itself, does not elevate itself nor is it trampled upon. An immaterial glass-changing façade of the chapel is placed in the street as a message that life is finite and that there is a force that transcends us," describes the author of the building study, architect David Vávra.

The design naturally considered that the center would serve as many activities as possible. Therefore, its ground floor contains a lecture hall, a community room that can also serve as a gym, a publicly accessible café equipped for baking one’s own bread, as well as a library, reception, and even a chapel that can be connected to the lecture hall if needed.

"The entire body of the house extends from the chapel, which is lined with a welcoming arcade at ground level, where people can find shelter from inclement weather, and this space also opens the house to passersby," adds David Vávra.

Care for children, support for parents

On the upper floor, there are 15 individual rooms that can be used for short-term accommodation by parents from outside Prague whose children are hospitalized at the nearby Motol hospital. On the last, or fourth above-ground floor, there is a shared kitchen with a terrace and a space for final farewells in case any of the children spend their last moments here, and the worst comes to pass.

The architects of LOXIA, along with David Vávra, have not underestimated the pleasant and elegant appearance of the center. "In the eastern part, recessed loggias rhythm the façade and provide most of the rooms with quiet privacy. Nautical windows evoke sailing. The northern façade, with its glass shell, reflects the state of nature during the day, while in the evening, it becomes a touching lantern, a lighthouse for passersby. The southern façade is friendly and directed towards the garden, which is part of the complex," explains Vávra.

The shape inspiration for the entire building is the Christian cross, highlighting the importance and character of the place.