My House, Our Street: Individual Housing and Its Coordinated Construction

“My House, Our Street” is the title of a new book about the coordinated construction of individual housing, developed by a quartet of architects: Michal Kohout, František Štáfek, David Tichý, and Filip Tittl. Nearly half of the population in the Czech Republic lives in family houses, which represent the majority of the housing units currently being built. Individual housing thus plays a significant role in shaping the character of the contemporary built environment. The publication from Zlatý řez publishing house offers a new perspective on this traditional topic in the Czech context. Many themes of the book are already foreshadowed by its cover: it depicts a tranquil street whose shared residential character is facilitated by collectively addressed parking. One can walk from the street to the essential basic amenities, and although each individual house is somewhat different due to decisions made by their owners, they were designed by a single architect and constructed by one company in cooperation with the community. The houses and the street create a unified whole, allowing for individual requirements of each house owner to be implemented.

The authors do not focus on exceptional architectural works of individual builders; rather, they concentrate on the residential environment as a whole with its urban, economic, and social contexts. Through realized examples, they demonstrate that the key tool for significantly improving the utility properties of the environment and creating a stable, collectively shared meaningful form is an adequate degree of coordination among individual projects. A well-structured environment allows for the individuality of its parts—from individual houses to entire neighborhoods—to be more easily expressed. At the same time, it enables to better and effectively support continuous societal changes without costly renovations.

Individual housing is often perceived as a counterpoint to urban living in apartment buildings. In contrast, the book introduces the reader to a much wider range of its possible forms. In addition to examples from rural or suburban environments, it also shows construction forms with a typically urban character. Commonly known individual housing in family houses is thus supplemented by examples of transitional forms with varying degrees or types of sharing, combining the advantages of family and apartment houses. In addition to the dominant form of a standalone family house, it presents alternative examples with a more effective delineation of private and public space, which can be an attractive and sustainable substitute for current suburban and urban development. The publication also discusses areas where current Czech building legislation—or often just its rigid interpretation—creates unnecessary barriers for many solutions that are commonplace in a European context.

Buildings for individual housing are often distinguished in regular practice only by their shape or volumetric form, while urban contexts are frequently overlooked. Yet, the quality of the environment as a whole is a significant factor in the property value that an individual builder can only with difficulty influence. Therefore, the book thoroughly analyzes different forms of individual housing from the perspective of their relationship to public spaces and the possibilities of their application within the overall built environment. It also includes richly illustrated examples of the most typical forms and their reference models, comparing the main spatial and capacity parameters.

This book, offering a new perspective on the issue of individual housing construction, can become a useful companion not only for individual builders and interested members of the general public, but especially for those who decide on the character of mid-scale development: mayors and councilors of municipalities, creators of land use and regulatory plans, owners of development companies as well as their future clients.

My House, Our Street: Individual Housing and Its Coordinated Construction
Authors: Michal Kohout, František Štáfek, David Tichý, Filip Tittl
ISBN 978-80-87068-11-3

Graphic Design: Jakub Vysoký
Project Coordination: František Štáfek, SUM. Architects
Print: Didot, Polygrafická společnost, s.r.o.
First Edition, 138 pages, 81 photographs, 25 schematics
Available for purchase at the editorial office of Zlatý řez publishing house, www.zlatyrez.cz

The publication was issued by Zlatý řez publishing house with financial support from Goldbeck Prefabeton s.r.o., the edition was supported by the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague and UNIT Architects.