2003

Summer pavilion, Křivoklátsko

The GRAND PRIX 2004 - National prize for the best piece of Architecture.

The structure is located in Křivoklátsko region, on a woody hill. The inspiration was drawn from fields stone walls, summer-pavilions and fortresses, vistas and pilgrimage places, typical for Czech countryside. However, the most inspiring was the Genius loci of the place itself, location where 2000 years ago there was a Celtic opidum.

The layout is conceived as a minimalist one. Rectangular room with sidelong service premises (beds recesses, mini-kitchen and utilities, mini study-room with library and storage space) opens into the landscape via sliding glass wall covered by wooden shutter on metal frame. When tilted out, the shutter - transcript of drawbridge - serves as a balcony.

During summer, the southern sliding door disappears in a thickness of a wall and the interior becomes sort of deep loggia. The northern part of the space, with declining roof - copying the outdoor stairway to roof terrace - is equipped with grand round table and hearth stove and it is mostly used during winter time. By the sides of chimney shaft there are recesses for wood storage. The shape of granite plates above them is projected into openings in the ceiling which illuminate the middle part of the dwelling space. On the roof, there is sightseeing terrace accessible via exterior stairway which is used as an auditorium during music sessions on round glade. Basement, sunken into steep land and accessible from the exterior, serves a cellar, wood and tools storage place.

Minimum terrain adaptations consisted only in shaping the highest contour line of the hill into the shape of grassy circle in which the structure is erected. The banks by the outer shell of the circle are brisked up with thyme and heath, the colour impact of which will grow as time passes by. The surrounding forest has been left untouched.

The bricked structure is hulled with rough-treated sandstone. The roof residential terrace with a view has a stone pavement. Chimney unit from cast bush-hammered concrete, framed with a bench, is supplemented with round glass "lenses" which also illuminate the interior. The floor in the interior is made from spruce planks. Terrazzo has been used in utilities.

Summer house in the Šumava mountains (1980)

Designed on ruins of an old farmhouse, this is the predecessor of the Summer pavilion, Křivoklátsko.