Prague studio Plus One Architects has restored the "original splendour" of this 1902 apartment in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, by reinstating some of its original features.

Located in a turn-of-the-century apartment block, the two-bedroom flat was renovated by Plus One Architects, who exposed the original paintwork present on the walls and ceilings.

The studio also streamlined the circulation inside the apartment by removing doors to open up pathways, as well as undoing dated additions that had been installed over the top of the original walls and floors.

"We think the first renovation was probably done in the late 70s," architect Kateřina Průchová told Dezeen. "It was full of wooden cladding on the walls, a lot of doors and carpet that covered the original floors."

The revamped interior has a bright, airy atmosphere, as natural sunlight comes in through the large unobstructed windows and continues deeper into the rooms thanks to the addition of transom windows on some of the interior walls.

Remnants of colourful mottled paintwork appear on the walls and ceilings alongside brown and beige sections of plaster.

Neutral-coloured paint and plasterwork feature in the kitchen and living room, where Plus One Architects retained the apartment's original masonry heater clad in glossy brown tiles.

Painted details are also apparent on the ceiling, with concentric bands of red, blue and yellow delineating the perimeter of the room.

Pink paint appears in the corridor and smaller bedroom while blue paintwork can be seen in the primary bedroom, complementing the restored wooden floorboards.

In the bathroom, white tiling lines the walls, interspersed with iridescent tiles and sections of exposed paintwork.

The rooms are sparingly furnished, allowing the paintwork to be the interior's focal point.

Plus One Architects brought in furniture with minimalist forms by Czech design studio Janský & Dunděra alongside decorative pieces from local design brand Todus.

"I hope we managed to return the apartment to the original splendour of the period, in which the house was built," said Průchová.

"You can feel how the building looks from the outside – it is an old house in the historic part of a spa town."

Kateřina Průchová and Petra Ciencialová founded Plus One Architects in 2019. The studio is based in Prague and works on projects across the Czech Republic.

Other apartment interiors that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a home in Milan centred around a monolithic green marble partition wall and a pastel-decorated apartment in Kraków.

The photography is by Radek Úlehla.

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Architecture studios in Central Europe have been chronically overlooked, claims Chybik + Kristof co-founder Ondřej Chybík in this interview.

Chybík, who says his own studio is the largest in the Czech Republic, is on a mission to put architecture from his home country – as well as Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – firmly on the global design map.

"No-one can name anybody" from Central European architecture scene

"If I go somewhere and I talk about Czech architecture or Central European architecture, almost no-one can name anybody," he told Dezeen.

"I think there is a huge opportunity to show off a bit," he added. "I'd like to work on that for the next decade – not just to promote our studio, but to explain what our generation is about to the general public all around the world."

To that end, Chybik + Kristof will next month open an office in London, sharing a space with local studio Haptic.

That is partly because Chybik + Kristof has become a big fish in a small pond at home, he explains, but also to raise the international profile of its peer group.

"The true motivation was to offer the opinion of our generation to other territories – our right to be a voice in the contemporary architecture discussion," Chybík said.

In an attempt to contribute to that discussion, Chybik + Kristof is accompanying the opening of its London outpost with the launch of its inaugural monograph, titled Crafting Character.

The book spotlights in detail 14 of the studio's projects, organised around eight themes that it considers important to contemporary architecture including adaptive reuse, affordability and materiality.

"The profession is changing"

Chybík explained that the book's central concept picks up on the changing nature of the architecture profession in a world where the built environment is beset with issues, chiefly sustainability and affordability.

"We believe that buildings should have a certain character, but not in one direction," he said.

"Previous generations of architects were very proud of their very strong formal style. I think that's not the case today, because the profession is changing from making design into solving problems – the architectural form should represent the quality of the solution."

As a result, he argues, the idea of studios maintaining a trademark house style that they apply to all projects is losing relevance.

"Each project is different, and I believe that there's no common architectural language for such diverse topics – that's very fundamental."

"I think we should still care about the beauty, about proportions, about materiality, and those classical aspects of architecture," he added.

"But on the other hand, or on top of it, we should also be aware that there are other issues we have to take into consideration."

"We were competing against each other"

Chybík traces his own interest in architecture back to childhood memories of visiting the Faculty of Architecture at Brno University of Technology, where his father was a professor.

"I saw the corridors full of sketches and models, and architecture students smoking in the corridors with long hair, and it impressed me a lot," he recalled. "Since then I knew that I wanted to be an architect."

Later studying architecture at Brno himself, he was successful in landing several student competitions – working up a healthy rivalry with classmate Michal Kristof.

"We were not working together, we were competing against each other," explained Chybík. "It motivated me a lot, because there was some young Slovak guy doing the same competitions as me, and we got a certain monopoly in student competitions within the country."

In 2010, soon after graduating, the pair were talking in a Venice bar during the architecture biennale in the early hours of the morning when they decided to open a studio together.

Having been established later that year, Chybik + Kristof now employs 60 people, including, Chybík claims, more architects than any other Czech firm.

But Chybík says Chybik + Kristof is just one of a number of architecture studios in the region doing noteworthy work.

"Particularly in my country, there's something very interesting happening, because we are not the unicorns," he said.

"We are maybe the largest, but there's lots of like 30-40 people architecture studios – I can count like 10, maybe, 15 this size," he added. "It's becoming a hotspot of contemporary architecture, in my opinion."

Unique historical perspectives

In the Czech Republic, Chybík namechecks Mjölk Architekti, Bod Architekti and OVA, as well as the Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning in Prague.

Then there is Gut Gut, Plural and Sadovsky & Architects in Slovakia and Hungary's Archikon and Paradigma Ariadné.

A wave of Czech architecture studios were founded during the 1990s as the country underwent rapid transformation following the fall of the Iron Curtain, appointing themselves the moniker "the Golden Eagles".

Though this generation of architects rose to prominence within the Czech Republic, a language barrier meant they struggled to promote their work abroad, according to Chybík.

"So I'm very happy that my generation is able to communicate and is also willing to present their projects internationally," he said.

"If I open Dezeen today, I can see lots of Czech architecture firms publishing their projects, and many of them are my age."

Now, the region's unusual recent history – from communism to the capitalism of the 1990s – in combination with a significant need for new infrastructure, means Chybík believes it is fertile ground for new modes of architectural exploration.

He points, for instance, to Chybik + Kristof's transformation of a brutalist bus station (pictured top) constructed in the 1980s under communism but already in a dilapidated state due to a lack of investment by its private owner, as well as its project to build an ice-hockey arena in Jihlava.

"There are always tools to achieve a positive perception among users"

Meanwhile, he cites the studio's Lahofer Winery as the very epitome of Chybik + Kristof's "crafting character" concept.

Completed in 2020, it features an undulating roof bearing a publicly accessible amphitheatre that was not part of the brief.

"The amphitheatre is a magnificent tool, not just for the promotion of the brand of the winery, but to bring people together and to let them enjoy a cultural event every Saturday in the middle of vineyards," said Chybík.

"Even though the winery has this very contemporary architectural language and I was afraid about if the community will take it or not, they're always telling me that they experience lots of great moments in this particular place, it's great," he added.

"There are always tools to achieve such a positive perception [among] the users of architecture."

This type of approach, Chybík argues, is key to making the building industry more sustainable – though he resists using that term himself.

"The average age of a commercial building in Europe is around 40 years, and that's something that is extremely unsustainable," he said.

"I think one of the major [reasons] why we demolish those buildings is that they are lacking a character, and they are not flexible enough for future transformation."

"Our mission is to create buildings people like and will maintain," he added.

"I don't want to say sustainable – I hate this word, it's overused. I don't want to be another architect talking about sustainability. Every building we design should be designed in this way."

The photography is by Alex shoots buildings unless otherwise stated.

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Czech architecture studio Neuhäusl Hunal has renovated a prefabricated apartment in Prague, turning it into an open-plan home and workspace for sculptor and glassworker Vladimír Bachorík.

Neuhäusl Hunal opted for curved translucent glass partitions in place of doors to divide the interior spaces and create a sense of openness and fluidity.

In order to maximise floor space, the studio removed all non-load-bearing elements, leaving just a single load-bearing concrete wall that cuts through the living and workspaces.

Three U-profiled glass partitions were then used to enclose a cloakroom, storage space and kitchen, while the remaining floor space can be used flexibly.

A centralised, curved bathroom, raised by a small platform for waste management, is similarly enclosed by translucent glass panels and protrudes into the main space.

The bathroom interior was lined extensively with white ceramic tiles and features a walk-in shower.

Meanwhile, matching ceramic tiles were also used in the kitchen, which doubles as a work area for the artist.

"To design the maximally open and flowing space without doors, infrastructure, besides statics, was a key constraint, which defines the location of the single-almost-enclosed space: the bathroom," studio architect and founder David Neuhäusl told Dezeen.

"Therefore we emphasized [the bathroom] as the most prominent element in the apartment to create a strong spatial experience," Neuhäusl continued.

The interior material palette was defined by the stripped concrete wall as well as the translucent panels and ceramic tiles, set on a background of white plaster walls and grey-toned rubber flooring.

Metal furniture and shelving was used throughout the minimalist interior, with cubic plinths used to display Bachorík's glasswork around the space.

Daylight shines through the existing windows at either end of the apartment and penetrates the glass partitions to create a brightly lit interior, while carefully positioned strip lights and spotlights provide artificial lighting.

"These translucent glass blocks of high order ensure the penetration of light and create identity of the apartment," Neuhäusl explained.

"Their materiality and character naturally refer to the client's lifelong work. They can be naturally composed in curves to formulate the softly shaped partitions."

Neuhäusl Hunal is an architecture studio founded by David Neuhäusl and Matěj Hunal in the Czech Republic.

Other projects recently completed in the Czech Republic include a winery topped with a sweeping concrete roof and an angular black extension to a neo-gothic church.

The photography is by Radek Úlehla.

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Presented at this year's Designblok festival in Prague, Cake Houses is a modular home concept that allows clients to design bespoke homes via an online configurator.

Founded by Matyáš Švejdík, Pavel Špringl and Šimon Marek, the team behind the Cake Houses project describes it as an "architectural recipe for modular wooden houses".

The project was conceptualised as a pitched-roof house that can be adapted to suit different needs. It aims to be an alternate option to "catalogue projects" that feature standard designs that are quick to build but lack the tailor-made aspect.

Cake Houses was presented at Designblok with an interactive model display that visitors could play with, rearranging physical room modules to create different home layouts on a digital screen.

"The main idea of Cake Houses stands on the belief that if you come up with good basic space and construction principles, you can then plot variable and individual designs fast and reliably because of the standardisation," Švejdík told Dezeen.

When adapting the design, the house maintains the same overall shape but becomes longer or shorter with different internal layouts to suit the client's needs.

According to the Cake Houses team, hundreds of different layouts and internal and external finishes can be achieved using the online configurator. The design is then translated into a wooden construction made from prefabricated parts.

To date, one Cake Houses project has been completed. It features the pitched roof and timber cladding typical of each Cake Houses design, which aims to be an affordable way to create bespoke homes in the Czech Republic.

"The mainstream look and overall design quality of family houses in the Czech Republic is mostly poor – the reason being the fact that these houses are catalogue projects usually without identity and deeper creative thought," Švejdík said.

"But for most people, this way of building their home is easier, cheaper and more certain than working with an architect on multiple levels," he added. "We decided to design a project that brings the advantages of good architecture and standardisation together."

"We then came up with the basic principles of the construction and used our programming knowledge to create a system of assembling parts, and now we are able to create various configurations suitable for different people, families or budgets."

Some design considerations are maintained throughout all the different configurations, such as avoiding long dark corridors and including large windows that connect the internal spaces to the garden.

The first Cake Houses project was completed this year in Okrouhlá u Nového Boru, Czech Republic.

According to Švejdík, this "prototype" was made by preparing the timber building material on site. In the future, prefabricated elements will be used to reduce cost and construction time.

"One thing we will do differently in the next house is we will develop all the construction with a manufacturing company from the beginning, so the costs and overall effectiveness will be on a higher level," Švejdík said.

"But on the other hand, we think it turned out quite well and the house turned out as we imagined it – at some points even better."

The Cake Houses project was created with Czech residents in mind, but Švejdík explained that more typologies and types of houses can be created in the future to suit different environments.

"We decided to design the first type of Cake House in a traditional way for the Czech environment but with modern aesthetics, which was meaningful for us because such a house can fit into multiple Czech contexts," he said.

"We would certainly like to design more types of family houses or different typologies that can also be customisable. We can imagine wide possibilities, from tiny houses to row houses and even skyscrapers, or maybe even variable space constructions or refugee camps."

Cake Houses was awarded the Grand Prix prize in the Designblok Awards. Elsewhere at the design festival, the Made by Fire exhibition displayed glass, ceramics and porcelain objects by 40 Czech designers.

Other Czech homes that share a similar pitched roof form include a larch-clad home overlooking a lake and a home informed by traditional rural Czech buildings located in a nature reserve.

The photography is by Alex Shoots unless stated.

Cake Houses was on show at Designblok from 4 to 8 October at the Trade Fair Palace, National Gallery Prague. See our London Design Festival 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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The form of a traditional rural Czech dwelling is contrasted with modern pine-lined interiors at Casa de mi Luna, a home designed by architecture practice Studio Circle Growth.

Due to its location on the edge of the Česky Kras nature reserve southwest of Prague, the project was required to visually blend in with the local vernacular, with regulations specifying a simple gable-roof form with rounded eaves.

Adopting these requirements, Studio Circle Growth then subverted them on the interior, which eschews the traditional compartmentalisation found in rural homes for open, bright living areas.

"When we got the paper with morphological regulations for the area, I thought gee, what a drag, a symmetrical gable roof with a prescribed pitch between 35 to 45 degrees, prescribed length-to-width ratios, prescribed colours and so on," said Studio Circle Growth's founder Martin Zizka.

"But then we kind of completely embraced them, especially when we saw the finished symmetrical red gable roof protruding in the landscape amongst the other similar houses, it began to feel right," Zizka told Dezeen.

"The interior, however, is anything but traditional, in its lightness, openness and organic organisation," he continued.

Casa de mi Luna is constructed from prefabricated straw and timber panels, which were quickly assembled on site.

Attempting to use as many local materials as possible, Studio Circle Growth finished the exterior with a base of larch planks and lime render above. Meanwhile, the roof is lined with traditional tiles called bobrovka.

Inside, the home is organised around a large open-plan living, dining and kitchen area with a staircase and glazed tile-clad fireplace.

"The entire central bay of the house is open, allowing the place where it is connected vertically to breathe and bathe in light," said Zizka.

"The staircase thus becomes a central feature which not only connects the two levels, but separates the ground floor into distinct yet open and interconnected functional zones," he added.

The internal walls of the ground floor are finished in white stucco, and the upper level is almost entirely lined in pine-plywood sheets, which also cover the arched apex of the roof.

Other homes in the Czech Republic recently featured on Dezeen include a red timber-clad cabin by Byró Architekti, and an undulating, grass-topped home on the edge of a forest by RO_AR.

The photography is by Fredrik Frendin.

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Architects Petr Tej and Marek Blank collaborated with engineer Jan Mourek to create this minimalist bridge across the River Vltava in Prague, which is intended to resemble marble.

Spanning 300 metres, the concrete bridge for pedestrians and cyclists connects the banks of Prague's Holešovice and Karlín districts, giving it the nickname HolKa.

Tej and Mourek, who work together as part of Atelier Bridge Structures, and Blank of Blank Architekti also incorporated a ramp that leads to Štvanice, a small island that is home to a park and sports areas.

"Holešovice and Karlín are two completely different parts of the city," Petr Tej told Dezeen.

"Karlín is a new developing residential and administrative centre, in contrast to Holešovice, an area with lots of services, small shops and young galleries," he explained.

"The park on Štvanice island makes urban wilderness accessible to both districts."

The slim and minimalist profile of the Štvanice Footbridge is formed of a continuous beam of white concrete with an H-shaped profile, chosen to evoke a white marble sculpture.

Its design also draws on other low-lying bridges across the capital of the Czech Republic, which are designed to limit the disruption to views of the city.

"The silhouette of the bridge reacts to the Prague skyline in particular by the fact that its structure is not high, with no pylons and tie rods that would disturb views of the city," said Tej.

"All Prague bridges are structures with a lower structure, and the choice of full parapet beams responds to parapets on most Prague bridges," he explained.

"The character of the surface should evoke white marble – the bridge should act as a large sculpture in the city, a white, minimalist line," added Tej.

A series of simple rectilinear columns support Štvanice Footbridge from below, fitted with a hydraulic system that allows the entire walkway to be raised in the event of extreme flooding.

Fluted metal handrails run along either side of the walkway, finished at their ends with a variety of bronze animal sculptures by artist Aleš Hvízdal that reference the history of the area.

These are accompanied by a sculpture called The River by Jan Hendrych, which sits at the foot of the ramp on Štvanice.

"The animal motifs are actually a kind of monument to the animals that suffered on different sides of the bridge," explained Tej.

"There was a cavalry regiment on the Karlín side, hence the horses, hare hunts were held on Štvanice island, hence the hares, and the market area in Holešovice was originally used as a slaughterhouse, hence the bulls," he continued.

Other bridges recently featured on Dezeen include the Jiangxi River Bridge by Zaha Hadid Architects, which features sculptural steel arches, and a concrete bridge across the Aare River in Switzerland by Christ and Gantenbein.

The photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

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Czech studio Atelier-r has refreshed the Red Church in Olomouc, the Czech Republic, adding an angular matte-black extension and public spaces informed by neo-gothic design.

The renovated church, along with the added black volume, holds an information centre and cafe as well as an events venue designed to host small concerts and exhibitions.

Built in 1902, the original church was closed to the public and has been used as a private storage space for the library next to the site for the past sixty years.

Despite its poor condition, Atelier-r aimed to open up the listed building for public use, opting to partially reconstruct the church and add an extension that reflects the existing structure's neo-gothic style.

"The building itself was preserved as a whole but in a very poor condition," studio founder Miroslav Pospíšil told Dezeen. "We had to do a complete makeover with maximum effort to retain the original elements."

"We designed the renovation with deep respect to the neo-gothic atmosphere of the place," he added. "First, it was necessary to strengthen the foundations, mend the damp and salty masonry, repair the stucco and plaster, and tidy up and fill the gaps in the facade cladding,

"The floors were a complete redo, including the layers all the way down to the terrain base."

Due to damaged trusses, the studio entirely reconstructed the roof of the church, cladding it in copper squares that resemble the concrete tiles of the original roof.

Modern decorative elements created by local sculptor Jan Dostal were added to the roof to replace the original damaged features.

"The original roof was clad in asbestos cement tiles, but it is a very fragile material and most of them were damaged by falling ice from the church tower," said Pospíšil.

"So we decided to use copper tiles of the same size as the original ones," he continued. "Copper's colour changes gradually to a dark grey colour, which will be very similar to asbestos cement tiles in a couple of years."

Inside the church, exposed brick structural elements stand out against white walls, while a large ring-shaped lighting fixture is suspended over rows of chairs. A raised platform at the end of the building holds a sculptural arrangement of staggered bookshelves.

To hold additional spaces, including a reception and a cafe, Atelier-r added a new structure between the church and library, connecting it to both existing buildings with glazed walkways.

Surrounded by a patio area with outdoor seating, the building features a roof and walls made from black aluminium and has an angular form informed by the geometry of the church.

"The crystal-like mass of the annex responds to the neo-Gothic form of the church; it derives from its geometric shape, volume, and layout, " said Pospíšil. "The floor plan is a cut-out of the part of the church floor plan, only moved outside of the original platform."

Entering through a glass door set within walls of full-height glazing, guests are met by a double-height cafe and reception space finished with a pastel pink concrete floor.

To one side of the room, a tall accent wall featuring shelves filled with old books acts as the centrepiece of the space, while a glass lighting fixture by Lambert & Fils hangs over the dining tables.

"The elegant and minimalist glass elements float in the air, suspended on the nylon ropes high above the visitors' heads," said the studio. "If you look at them from specific angles, they reflect the houses in the street or the church."

At the back of the space, a pink concrete reception desk reflects the angular form of the building and sits beneath a bespoke lighting feature that follows the shape of the desk.

Designed in collaboration with local interior design practice Denisa Strmiskova Studio, the interior spaces across the new and existing building feature chairs made from walnut wood, as well as coffee tables that draw upon the traditional design of the church.

A storage space branches from the main hall, featuring a wall of black lockers and a cloakroom set behind a blocky pink counter.

An additional accent wall of shelves is arranged around the large opening to the space, providing further storage for the old books from the library.

Other renovated churches recently featured on Dezeen include a cathedral in Manhattan that Ennead Architects has refreshed with a copper dome and a community hub added to a 19th-century church.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Czech studio Chybik + Kristof has completed the Mendel's Greenhouse exhibition space in Brno, which celebrates the work of 19th-century biologist Gregor Mendel.

Positioned alongside the existing Mendel Museum, which occupies St Augustin's Abbey, the pavilion commemorates the 200th anniversary of Mendel's birth.

The former monastery building was historically an academic centre for developments in the study of genetics and where Mendel – considered the "father of genetics" – became the first person to discover the inheritance of genetic traits.

The site of Mendel's Greenhouse was chosen by Chybik + Kristof based on an original greenhouse that once stood in the monastery's courtyard, which was the site of the biologist's early experiments before being destroyed by a storm in the 1870s.

"Our goal was to create a structure that would represent the historical significance of the original greenhouse where Mendel conducted his first pioneering experiments and laid the foundations of genetics," the studio told Dezeen.

"The reinvented greenhouse integrates into the courtyard area and preserves the essence of the original building, which was highly significant within the realm of genetics," it continued.

Informed by the original greenhouse, the new pavilion has a steeply sloping, mono-pitched form and a lightweight steel frame. An open interior is sheltered by the large overhang of its glass roof.

Its exposed structure is defined by a series of steel branches connected by nodes, which was designed by Chybik + Kristof to echo the diagrams used to depict Mendel's three laws of inheritance.

Inside, the single multifunctional space features a glossy concrete floor and large bowl-shaped planters suspended from the ceiling. Full-height sliding doors on either side open out onto the grass courtyard.

Primarily dedicated to a permanent exhibition exploring Mendel's legacy, the space is also intended to be used for lectures, conferences and other cultural events.

The roof is fitted with automatic blinds that allow the light level and temperature inside the greenhouse to be closely controlled, adapting to changes in the weather. They can also be closed for projections or screenings.

"Our efforts were devoted to maximising the openness of the floor plan, ensuring a continual and barrier-free environment," said the studio.

"Furthermore, its fully open side walls also allow for unobstructed views and eliminate any visual barriers," it continued.

Based in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava, the architecture studio Chybik + Kristof was founded by architects Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof in 2010.

Its previous projects include a modular research centre in Visovice that doubles as a prototype for prefabricated construction and a pop-up marketplace in Prague that was created using reclaimed materials.

The photography is by Laurian Ghinitoiu.

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Mjölk Architekti aimed to embed Montessori ideals of learning through play and self-determined activity in this nursery extension in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic.

Built in the small town of Jablonec nad Nisou, the project was designed by Prague-based Mjölk Architekti in collaboration with Projektový atelier David.

Mjölk Architekti founding partner, Jan Mach, carefully considered his own recollections of preschool and what it represents in a young child's life when designing the extension.

"Kindergartens are buildings where small children develop the most fundamental relationships with the world," Mach told Dezeen.

"Unlike home, it is a place where one is on one's own for the first time, outside the safety of family and where one makes individual connections with people and the environment, often for the first time in one's life," he continued.

"We believe that kindergartens should be extraordinary buildings whose primary function is to give children a sense that the world is a wonderful and fun place to live in."

Mjölk Architekti upgraded the original building, a large early 20th-century former rectory set over four floors, and added an extension.

The studio also created an outside play area at upper ground floor level that wraps around the old and new buildings, linking the two buildings, while creating a covered parking area at lower ground level.

Linked to the main building by passageways across two floors, Mjölk Architekti designed the extension as a cuboid "simple prism" that echoes the proportions of the main building while creating a contrast through its pared-back, ultra-minimal form.

"We were looking for a suitable shape to match the mass of the original nursery building, using monolithic reinforced concrete," Mach told Dezeen.

The block-like form was punctuated by several protrusions including the tubular structure of a stainless steel slide that children can use to descend down through the space, and a glass-fronted cantilevered box jutting out on the second floor, creating a unique play area.

"We connected the floors inside the kindergarten with a slide, which the children use to leave the building for a moment without asking and then return to it giggling," said Mach.

At the top of the building, an outdoor play area is contained within a framework of metal poles that continues the lines of the building.

"We wanted to make it possible to climb out of the extension onto a large concrete terrace, where the children are safe and at the same time have as much freedom as possible," said Mach.

The stainless steel mesh that encloses this area is extended to wrap around the whole extension.

"This net creates a transparent softer surface around the hard prism of the building. In the future, the net will be used to support climbing plants, growing to around half the height of the building," Mach continued.

"The mesh surrounds the building and defines places where the children can go out of the nursery on their own and are in a safe environment where they cannot fall anywhere and can play in peace."

Inside, rising above the main ground floor space is a central void, surrounded by a series of mezzanine levels, each one rising half a flight of stairs from the last.

The layout aims to encourage child-driven exploration enabling the child to place themselves in the environment that feels right for them.

"The interior space is in fact one large room split vertically into four levels," said Mach.

"On the intermediate floors, there are spaces for children to spend time, each intermediate floor has a different atmosphere and form, to stimulate the children's minds in a different way."

The interior material palette features raw concrete walls that are offset by a yellow linoleum floor that casts a warm glow in each space, along with birch ply elements that introduce a sense of tactility.

"In the interior, we used concrete simply to help the children make friends with it from a young age. Because the Montessori system uses a lot of different things to teach, we designed the interior to be a simple background to that," said Mach.

"For the floors, we chose a rich yellow natural linoleum which, when lit, lights up the openings in the façade with a golden colour."

Occupying the central void and defining that volume, a cluster of differently-sized white globe lights, one of which has planetary rings, creates an abstract version of a constellation and references the endless fascination that many children have for space.

Likewise, another playspace features a map of the world moulded directly into the concrete wall, to encourage learning through both sight and touch.

Mach consulted with his young children to find out what they thought would be best for themselves.

When designing for children, you need to have done your homework in terms of safety, efficiency, and everything else, but remember that the only reason to design is to encourage the children to play.

"At the time we were designing the kindergarten, my two children were aged three and five and we consulted with them," added Mach.

"The better the design, the more you allow them to do and the harder they can play."

Mjölk Architekti recently created a gabled mass-timber headquarters for a Czech timber company that has solar panels fitted to its roof. In 2022, the studio also built an animal-like lookout on the Stráž mountain.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice

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A sweeping, grass-topped concrete roof creates an artificial hill to conceal the Gurdau Winery in the Czech Republic, which has been designed by local practice Aleš Fiala Studio.

The winery is located in a rolling green landscape of fields and vineyards outside the village of Kurdějov, which has historically been one of the region's most important wine-growing sites and subject to a recent growth in wine tourism.

Seeking to carefully blend the new building into this landscape, Aleš Fiala Studio used a sweeping green roof and concrete tunnels dug into the site to create "cultivated encounters and connections between man, wine and landscape," the studio said.

"The landscape context is addressed in the form of a gentle curve – a wave in the landscape, a hill between hills...great care has been taken to incorporate the building into the terrain and its connection to the cultural and natural greenery," architect Aleš Fiala explained.

"Embedding the building in the terrain creates a feeling of a welcoming background and a natural blending with the place from which the wine comes," he continued.

Where the sloping roof meets the ground, it blends with a series of winding concrete walls supporting planters around a paved patio. At the rear of the building, large concrete columns frame a parking and delivery area.

Large, circular cut-outs in the roof align with areas of glazing on the ground floor, flooding the winery's reception and tasting rooms with natural light.

At the front of the building, the wine barrel room opens out onto a large terrace, accessed through a glazed facade sheltered from the sun by areas of wooden slats and a small steel canopy.

Below, the basement level contains processing areas and two apartments for visitors that have been dug into the hill, looking out towards the landscape through two tunnel-like forms that shelter small, private terraces.

"The production areas are located under the terrain, while the customer areas are open to the sun through a glass facade, thus making use of passive energy," explained Fiala.

"The spaces of the wine house are changeable and conducive to social, and romantic moments as well as quiet contemplation over a glass of wine," he continued.

Inside, the concrete of the roof structure has been left exposed to create raw ceilings. These are contrasted by wooden slats that cover the walls in the reception and tasting room, which features a concrete and steel fireplace at its centre.

In the apartments, a central bed sits behind a timber-clad bathroom block, framed by a tunnel of exposed concrete that curves around to form the walls and ceilings.

Other recently completed wineries include a barrel-vaulted visitor centre in Spain by British studio Foster + Partners, and a winery in California designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson sheltered by a large timber roof.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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A curved roof tops Byró Architekti's Cabin Above the Town, a red timber-clad cabin informed by the surrounding Czech hills.

Situated on the border between the city and the countryside, the cabin is nestled into the side of Svatobor Hill, a forested site in the foothills of the Czech Republic's Šumava mountains.

Taking inspiration from the local landscape, Prague studio Byró Architekti designed the home to have a sweeping form following the curves of the surrounding landscape.

"Thanks to the curved roof, when viewed from the garden or from a distance, the curve of the house follows the horizon of the landscape and symbolically closes the row of surrounding cottages," studio co-founder Jan Holub told Dezeen.

Red-painted timber battens line the walls of the home, extending beyond either side of the path-facing facade to form fences that offer extra privacy.

Beyond one side of the home, a gate hidden within the fence leads to the main entrance, while a courtyard is concealed by the fence on the other side of the building.

"The principle of the house-fence is reinforced by the consistent use of red colour, inspired by the foundation red colour that appears on most fences and cottages in the area," Holub explained.

The battens of the fence become more spaced out as they get further away from the cabin, offering views of the surrounding nature while maintaining a level of privacy.

"The battens gradually become sparser, leaving a visual connection between the courtyard and the surrounding trees, while also providing privacy from passers-by, as they form a non-transparent wall at an angle," said Holub.

Designed for one resident, the home features an open-plan kitchen, living, and sleeping space along with a guest bedroom that is suspended over the main level of the home.

The studio aimed to keep the interior as open as possible, with the bathroom being the only space closed off to the rest of the home. The walls of the bathroom provide additional privacy for the sleeping space, which sits behind it in the corner of the home.

A sloping ceiling covered in plywood panels adds warmth to the interior, reaching its highest point above the mezzanine-level guest bedroom accessed by a ladder.

Throughout the interior, Byró Architekti made use of low-cost furnishings including laminate storage units, bespoke furniture, and cupboards with handmade plywood doors, to keep construction costs to a minimum.

"The house was built essentially from the cheapest materials available," said Holub. "The interior is mainly furnished with custom-made furniture, which helps to efficiently arrange the modest space and provides ample storage space."

"The facade of the house is made up of randomly laid and oriented unplaned roof battens, the floor is made up of simple concrete, and the windows are plastic," Holub continued.

Built within a period of three months, the home was constructed almost entirely by the studio itself.

"This small house offered us a unique experience," said the studio. "In addition to the complete project design we – the architects - also participated in its construction, which we carried out almost entirely on our own between two people."

"The project thus became an experiment for us in every way, and we think the project proves that it is possible to achieve something unique despite a lack of money."

Other Czech houses recently featured on Dezeen include a modern extension of a 1920s villa in Prague and a curved timber-framed home in a Czech forest.

The photography is by Ondřej Bouška.

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An undulating concrete roof topped with grass covers this house in the Czech Republic, designed by local architecture studio RO_AR.

Located alongside a wildlife corridor at the edge of the Hlubocepy district in Prague, the family home is designed to be a "bridge between the urban and the natural".

To achieve this, RO_AR designed the house as a "clash of two geometries": a rectilinear form facing the city that is clad in thin oak slats and a hill-like, grass-topped form facing the garden and natural landscape beyond.

"Urban space surrounds the site on the south and east sides," explained studio founder Szymon Rozwałka. "It is a chaotic and random development, often adversely affecting the value of the terrain."

"We designed a building that was created by the method of land deformation. The terrain was to transition smoothly from the north-west side into an artificial 'hill' into which the house was to be placed," he continued.

On approach, the ground floor has been carved out to create a garage and entrance sheltered by the overhanging first floor. Here, a paved path leads around the side of the home into the garden.

While the front of the dwelling is more austere, finished in white render and clad with oak battens for privacy, the rear opens onto the garden through fully-glazed facades beneath the curving roof.

"The home seeks to extend the natural context into the interior of the site and into the interiors," said Rozwałka. "It becomes an abstract body that, through its form and scale, corresponds to the surrounding rocks in the background."

A paved patio outside the living area overlooks a small pond, and on the first floor, one of the bedrooms opens onto a small terrace that is concealed from the adjacent properties by a section of concrete wall.

Internally, the home's undulating roof is expressed as an exposed, board-marked concrete ceiling, with large skylights created in the areas where its curves intersect.

The concrete structure has also been left exposed for the internal walls, contrasted by wooden ceilings and staircases and black-metal frames, fittings and furniture.

Based in Brno, RO_AR was founded in 2011 by Rozwałka and operates in both the Czech Republic and Poland.

Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, local studio Architektura recently completed a brightly coloured kindergarten that is intended to echo childhood playfulness.

The photography is by Viola Hertelová.

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Slovakian studio Grau Architects has used spruce, plywood and white fabric to build the lantern-like Tea House Pavilion, which offers a place to rest for visitors of Hrabinka Lake in the Czech Republic.

The building, which is located next to the lake near the town of Český Těšín, was designed as a contemporary take on traditional Japanese architecture.

It has a low table at its centre that can be used for tea ceremonies or for quiet contemplation.

The pavilion is made from locally sourced spruce wood, helping to blend the structure into the treeline behind it while working within the project's practical and budgetary restrictions.

"We decided to use a subtle spruce profile from a local source, aligning the design, our own requirements, budget and the current market offer, which was also significantly limited after the Covid-19 pandemic," Grau Architects told Dezeen. "Wood ages naturally and we naturally accept it."

Plywood clads the lower part of the nine-square-metre building, while thin white fabric protects its upper half and creates a decorative gauzy roof.

Though the pavilion's design was informed by traditional tea houses and can be used for tea ceremonies, its main function is to offer a resting place next to Hrabinka Lake – located in the eastern Czech Republic near the Polish border.

"The pavilion was designed for unknown visitors but at the same time for anybody who would like to take time by the river and contemplate for a while," the studio said.

To enter the four-metre-high pavilion, visitors have to bend down to pass under a low horizontal beam in a nod to Japanese niriji-guchi doors, which symbolise the equality of all participants in tea ceremonies.

The pavilion has a square floor plan measuring three by three metres, providing enough space for six people to comfortably sit around the low table. At night time, the building is lit up to create a lantern-like feel.

"The subtle and light open construction refers to traditional Japanese interiors but brings modern elements into it," the studio explained.

The pavilion was designed as part of the 2022 Mood for Wood international design workshop for students and young designers.

Other recent Czech projects include a gabled wooden headquarters for a timber company and a trio of mirror-clad installations.

The photo is by Matej Hakár.

Project credits:

Architects: Grau Architects – Andrej Olah, Filip Marčák, Jana Filípková and Alexandra Májska
Client: Mood for Wood
Co-creators (students, workshop participants): Julia Kurnik, Alicja Łosik, Alexandra Gospodarek, Katarzyna Owczarska, Maria Pawłova, Maciej Kuratczyk, Michał Teodorczyk, Jan Chmurski

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Czech studio Mjölk Architekti has created a mass-timber building with a gabled solar-panelled roof for the headquarters of timber and forest management company Kloboucká lesní in the Czech Republic.

With its oversized timber gable, the four-storey structure in Brumov-Bylnice nods to traditional architectural forms. But the studio also wanted to underline the possibilities of timber buildings.

"We wanted the new building to be made from local materials and we wanted to know how far we could go with it in terms of design and, more importantly, in terms of construction," Mjölk Architekti architect Filip Cerha told Dezeen.

"The result then is the monumentality of the gable, which gives us a beautiful space of a covered terrace planted with pots of greenery, but above all refers to the magnificence of the possibility of using wood in buildings that can help to build sustainably."

The building's frame is made from glued laminated timber (glulam) and designed as a modular shell that would create a flexible interior for the building and allow for future adjustments to the space.

The glulam was made using spruce from Kloboucká lesní's own forests surrounding the building and manufactured by the company just a hundred metres from the site.

The 1,034-square-metre Kloboucká lesní headquarters comprises office spaces as well as workshop and relaxation spaces on the ground and first floors, while the top floor will host lectures, company events and presentations.

Inside the headquarters, timber and concrete ceilings match the exposed concrete floors.

Glulam timber profiles, wood panelling and wood-glass acoustic partitions were used in lieu of solid walls to create a light, spacious interior.

"These partitions give the interior an open feel," the studio said. "All the glazed walls and the bio-board cladding have sliding bearings in relation to the movement of the timber building."

Mjölk Architekti designed the building's interior to show off its inner workings.

"The building itself reveals the design principles on which it is based, how it is plotted and how it is connected," Cerha said.

"In the dark, as the ribs of the structure itself recede into the background, we perceive the individual internal arrangements within the building," he added.

"That is why we have tried to make every functional thing immediately obvious and legible at a glance, not obscured by anything. We think that everyone should be able to see the essence of the whole house."

Kloboucká lesní aims to manage its forests sustainably and replant trees when they are harvested for use in its timber products.

To reflect this, Mjölk Architekti incorporated a number of sustainable features into the building. This included covering the roof with solar panels that produce enough energy to meet the building's energy needs and create a surplus that can be used for the company's production.

Glass covers the parts of the roof where the sun doesn't reach and there are no solar panels. Open ponds near the building are used to store rainwater runoff from the roof, which is then used for irrigation and for cooling during the summer months.

The building and surrounding facilities are heated from a central boiler house that uses wood chips from the company's own production as biomass to make it independent from other fuel sources.

"The building is designed to set the direction for the future," Cehra concluded. "For us, this means taking into account ecological considerations, simplicity and frugality combined with the latest technologies."

Mjölk Architekti has designed a number of recent projects in the Czech Republic, including four animal-like lookout towers and a "glittering glass extension" to a centuries-old cabin.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

Project credits:

Chief engineer: Pavel Srba
Structural engineering: Lostade CZ
Construction supervision: Petr Vlček
Concrete contractor: Michal Drga
Wooden construction contractor: Pukýš Drevostavby
Electric engineering: Elseremo
Mechanical engineer: Ladislav Stružka
Heating and plumbing: Mont SA
Steel construction: KL Techstage
Interior partitions and claddings: Woodyglass
Lighting solutions: Konvičný – Lampárna Lighting
Landscape architecture: Atelier Partero
Garden contractor: GISarch studio
Flat roof solutions: Izolplast Zlín
Pavement contractor: Strabag
Wooden terraces contactor: Pavel Fojtík
Sheetmetal products: Petr Zimáček
Graphic design: Lenka Mičolová

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Czech studio Atak Architekti has added a metal-clad extension to a former rectory building to create a library and multifunctional community spaces for the city of Liberec in the Czech Republic.

Designed for the local municipality in the southeastern district of Vratislavice, the IGI Library was designed to create a new public hub for the area.

Looking to maintain the character of the existing building, its deep foundations were used to carve out a semi-recessed basement level, housing reading rooms and spaces to be used by local clubs.

Excavating more of the southern half of the site also allowed for the creation of a new public square, flanked by large ramps that provide access around the building and lined with large windows that allow light into the basement spaces.

"The idea of the design is to create a new public place that will connect to the existing vibrant centre of Vratislavice, defined by public buildings and the château garden," said the studio.

"A new piazzetta is created, inspired by the rhythm of small squares in the vicinity of the public buildings," it continued.

The ground floor of the main building contains the majority of the library areas with a dedicated children's library above, accessed via a central staircase.

Both a first-floor glazed link bridge and a skylit basement corridor connect to the new four-storey extension, which has been constructed from exposed concrete.

The extension houses further library spaces as well as a basement auditorium and ground floor reception, and is topped by an open reading room with stepped timber seating underneath a curved concrete ceiling.

"In the reading room, the contact with trees through the panoramic window is so close that readers feel like they are sitting inside the tree crowns," said the practice.

While the original timber structure was in too poor a condition to retain, the masonry work was preserved and largely unaltered, with the brick and stonework finished in white plaster in some areas of the interior and left exposed in others.

Against this more rustic backdrop, the library's shelving and seating has been made out of pale timber, with both the base of shelves and deep window sills doubling as seating areas for visitors.

"The exposed concrete and the brick and stone masonry of the interior are softly lined with wooden seats and booksheves, [creating] all sort of hiding places and nooks where the visitor can constantly discover something new," said the practice.

While the exterior of the existing building has been restored and re-plastered, the concrete extension has been finished with folded metal panels, clearly standing out as a contemporary addition.

Other library projects recently featured on Dezeen include the updating of a 1970s Brutalist library in Oregon by Hacker Architects, and the completion of the 15-year transformation of the National Library of France by Bruno Gaudin Architectes.

Photography is by Tomáš Souček.

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Design studio Loom on the Moon has created three mirrored structures that combine lighting and audio to celebrate the heritage of the city of Zlín in the Czech Republic.

Named Mirrors of Zlín, the installation was made up of three distinct audiovisual exhibits arranged around Zlín Castle to memorialise 700 years since the city's founding.

The three elements – Encyclopedia, Imerse and Statements – are all clad in highly reflective polished steel sheets. Through these, visitors are encouraged to reflect on the city's heritage both physically and mentally.

"The park is unused, almost forgotten as the people just pass through," Loom on the Moon told Dezeen. "The mirrors reflect the people, who are pulled to the installation, making the visitors part of the changeable image of the park."

Statements manifests as a series of puddle-like mirrors arranged between the trees on the lawn to the north of the castle. The mirrors were made from polished steel and are durable enough to be stood on and walked across.

They are slightly raised off the ground to allow for the LED lighting components that are affixed to each, giving them a glowing halo of warm-toned light at night.

As well as the lighting component, the waterproof housing on the underside of each mirror contains a speaker that plays a soundscape made up of tolling bells.

"The basis for the music composition that sounds through the park in various phases of the year was a careful mapping and study of the sounds of bells in the belfries of the Zlín Region," said the studio.

"Thus the park rings with the vibrations of bells, which creates a scaled-down geographical imprint of the Zlín Region."

Encyclopedia is situated on the south of the castle and takes the form of a curved, roofless structure with a gap to allow visitors to enter and exit.

Its convex side is clad in mirror-polished steel sheets and its concave side has white text and illustrations applied to a dark background made from waterproof plywood.

The 40-metre-long and three-metre-tall structure was informed by the work of Czech writer Pavel Kosatík and presents a timeline of Zlín's history through a sequential layout of text and images depicting significant moments in time.

"[Encyclopedia shows] the evolution of the city and its surroundings, which we subsequently complemented and summarised with illustrations," said Loom on the Moon. "This resulted in an intergenerational dialogue between text and image, which are sometimes in harmony and sometimes in contrast."

The final element, named Imerse, is situated closest to the castle and presents an immersive audiovisual presentation in the form of an animated film projected onto a plywood screen.

The projector is situated inside one of the castle's windows, and the speakers are contained within the wall's plywood frame.

The narrative display presents the viewer with different phases of the city's history, including through different seasons, at significant industrial milestones and in the present day.

"[Imerse] allows visitors to inhabit past moments of Zlín," explained the studio. "It is a frame by frame painted animation that treats each frame of the film as a painting."

Encyclopedia and Imerse were designed as long-term installations, however Statements was intended to occupy the site on a permanent basis. Each of the installations were prefabricated before being delivered and installed, to avoid disruption to the site.

Loom on the Moon is a multidisciplinary design studio that creates multimedia installations, exhibitions and experiences for the cultural and public sectors.

Other exhibitions that have been recently published on Dezeen include an egg-shaped visitor centre that appears to float on a Norwegian Fjord and an installation that explores the concept of sustainable architecture and agriculture.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Brightly coloured volumes and angular forms characterise this nursery in the Czech Republic, which was designed by Czech studio Architektura to echo childhood playfulness.

Located in Říčany, a town in the Prague-East District, the Větrník Kindergarten features a gym, garden, classrooms and a playground, spread across coloured blocks that branch out from a central white structure.

Its design is informed by childhood, with an arrangement that aims to evoke playfulness and spontaneity, and forms that emulate dens and tents.

"The jagged floor plan draws upon the absence of geometry in the child's mind, a different order, playfulness, and spontaneity," Architektura director David Kraus told Dezeen.

Each of Větrník Kindergarten's brightly coloured blocks holds a classroom, while the rest of its facilities are contained within the main white cube.

"The children themselves were essential – their games, movement, vision, and scale," added Kraus. "Children's spontaneity, disorganisation, unpredictability, purity, curiosity, and optimism impacted the design."

Větrník Kindergarten's street-facing facade has an entrance that is intended to resemble a spaceship, alongside a living wall that Architektura hopes will grow and thicken to cover the entire elevation.

Through the entrance, visitors and students are welcomed by an atrium in the white central structure. Offices and other practical facilities are also included in this central block.

A large net for play spans the entrance atrium, supported by tree trunks. The area underneath this serves as a community space that can accommodate music, theatre, and exhibitions.

Branching out from the atrium are the individual classrooms, which are connected to the garden and topped with square-shaped skylights.

Větrník Kindergarten's classrooms also feature triangular windows, some of which are bordered by coloured frames. Angled columns and brightly coloured floors allow the playful design of the building to continue inside.

Outside, a playground with climbing frames and other equipment is designed to mimic an amusement park. While it is currently under construction, the studio hopes it will become a nature-filled space that will encourage imaginative play.

"The effort was to design a living area, full of entertainment attractions, climbing frames, game elements, a kind of landscape of children's fantasy, maybe even an amusement park," said Kraus.

"We wanted to build an object for children that is not an institution, it is playful and will enable the development of creativity."

Other nurseries recently featured on Dezeen include a nursery and forest school made from natural materials and a Paris nursery made from adobe.

The photography is by Filip Šlapal.

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Czech architecture studio A8000 has renovated a stepped pavilion in the Czech Republic adding a partially glazed facade and a versatile black-and-white interior.

A8000 restored the original proportions of Pavilion Z, which is located in the city of České Budějovice, to create a versatile space suitable for a wide range of events, from farming rallies to orchestral performances.

"The original pavilion has been stripped to the bone," said A8000.

"The basic idea and the investor's brief was to create a multifunctional and maximally variable space, not a single-purpose hall."

Pavilion Z is one in a series of alphabetically labelled function spaces in the České Budějovice exhibition area.

It was constructed in the 1970s with the same stepped profile but prior to the restoration was covered in orange, purple and grey cladding that was punctuated by small plastic windows.

The architects stripped back the facade to highlight its unusual composition – three volumes stacked one on top of the other, which increase in size to project over the edges of the level beneath.

Areas of the building's now bright white facade – constructed from metal cassettes and white roofing foil – were punched out and replaced by large windows and planes of translucent glazing.

"The atmosphere of the interior is softened by the soft light permeating through the walls, which also show the outlines of the events on the exterior," said the studio.

There is a covered walkway leading up to a revolving door at the entrance, which opens into a wide hallway arranged around the side and back of the central hall.

The function space has a capacity of 850 seated and 1500 standing users and features a polished concrete floor, offsetting the rest of the monochromatic interior.

A wide staircase leads up to the mezzanine floor, which looks down into the function space and has access to the pavilion's storage, technical and dressing rooms.

A8000 left the building's functions and services – including HVAC ducts and red fire system piping – exposed. These add visual interest to the otherwise plain interior.

Black curtains separate the hall from the walkways on the ground and mezzanine floor, isolating the function area when in use and preventing natural light from entering.

"The pavilion can be modified by a system of draperies – curtains from the exhibition or gallery space to the closed concert hall," said A8000.

"When the curtains are opened, the surrounding greenery flows directly into the interior of the hall, while when they are closed, a perfect blackbox is created."

The free plan was facilitated by a stepped box attached to the side of the pavilion, which neatly contains the ancillary services away from the main function areas.

"The pavilion should be used for various events such as trade fairs, exhibitions, congresses, but also balls and concerts," said the studio.

"It can adapt to the various challenges and technical requirements of the organisers."

A8000 was founded in 1990 by architects Martin Krupauer and Jiří Střítecký and has offices in České Budějovice and Prague.

Other pavilions on Dezeen include a pavilion made of stone and decorated with Islamic motifs by AXIA Design Associates and Arriz + Co and a structure featuring pink hempcrete by Overtreders W.

The photography is by Ondřej Bouška.

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Czech studio No Architects has renovated and extended a 1920s villa in a Prague suburb, adding bespoke joinery and modern details that complement the original architecture.

The studio headed by artist Daniela Baráčková and architect Jakub Filip Novák oversaw the modernisation of the property in the Smíchov district on the left bank of the Vltava river.

The extensive remodelling and extension aimed to retain the character of the house, which was built in the 1920s in a romantic style that references the steep-pitched roofs and brick cladding of arts and crafts-style English villas.

No Architects removed all of the existing floors, ceilings and non-load-bearing walls of the semi-detached property and added a side extension to accommodate containing a ground-floor guest suite and a bedroom on the first floor.

The extension utilises the same palette of clay roof tiles, painted brick and a pumice stone plinth in order to produce a timeless aesthetic that is in keeping with the original architecture.

"Other contemporary extensions in this neighbourhood got very old very quickly and don't fit in well anymore," Jakub Filip Novák told Dezeen.

"Our addition refers to the original facade details and is hardly recognisable as separate to the original house. The connection between the new and old parts is not just via design, but it seems seamless even by structure and same ageing of material."

The revamped interior has a contemporary layout, with an open living and dining area linked to the adjacent kitchen. A new doorway in the rear elevation provides direct access from the kitchen to the garden.

A custom-built unit next to the back door discreetly conceals a pantry and toilet, along with plenty of storage and space for the refrigerator.

No Architects designed bespoke joinery added throughout the house to make optimal use of the available space and to create a sense of aesthetic consistency between the various rooms.

"The living space consists of many details and we like to frame them because it helps connect plenty of technology and infrastructure which surround us in any house," said Novák.

"It's also an economic decision," he added, "because every square metre of living space in Prague is expensive so it is rational to use it sensibly. We see joinery as part of such thinking, uniting architecture, construction and technology."

Some of the interventions were painted in pastel shades that add a distinctive character to the spaces. The upper floor and staircase feature green woodwork, while the ground-floor joinery is painted a shade of duck-egg blue.

The clients spent part of their lives working in Japan and the United Kingdom, so some of the colours and details reference these experiences.

The decorative panelling and exposed radiators on the first floor recall traditional British houses, while the minimal bench seating in the living room and the tiled porch evoke Japanese living.

A small door on the first-floor landing provides access to a previously unused space above the entrance that now contains a private play area accessible only by the children.

Throughout the project, No Architects adapted existing features to give them a new purpose or to enhance the character of the building while ensuring it meets the client's requirements.

"We work with intuitive 'memory of architecture' and aesthetics which belongs to the original era but we don't follow it directly," Novák added, "we just use it to make a nice place that makes the most of the potential which is in the atmosphere of the house."

No Architects' founders met while studying at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. The studio combines the disciplines of art and architecture to produce detailed-oriented solutions that reflect their clients' requirements and personalities.

The photography is by Studio Flusser.

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Austere concrete block walls conceal a timber-framed structure that fans out to overlook a garden and pond at House that Opens up to the Sun in the Czech Republic, designed by local studio Stempel & Tesar.

The dwelling replaces a cottage in the village of Malé Kyšice, and was oriented to not only provide expansive views but also to enable the interiors to be passively heated by the sun for a large part of the year.

"The building's story began to be written before the world was paralysed by the pandemic and before Europe was gripped by an energy crisis," explained the practice.

"The building opens up to the sun's rays like a fan, soaking up its energy and seeking to use it economically," it continued.

Presenting a blank corner of concrete block walls to the village to the north, the home's curved southern side overlooks the garden and woodland with a fully-glazed wall, wooden terrace and balconies sheltered by an overhanging roof.

These blockwork walls are insulated to absorb and retain heat and have been designed to be gradually covered by climbing plants over the years.

"The views from the house would interfere with the privacy of the neighbours, therefore, we closed the house completely and prepared a space only for climbing plants," practice co-founder Jan Tesar told Dezeen.

"We think that within two years the wall is going to disappear. Precast concrete under plants does not degrade like a plastered wall," he added.

Supported by the two blockwork walls, the structure of the home is predominantly timber, with large, exposed roof beams laid radially around a steel staircase at its centre.

"The building's construction respects its shape and reveals the construction principles literally to the last detail, including steel joints and tie rods that add a finishing touch to the interior and exterior," said the practice.

The ground floor is filled by a semicircular living, dining and kitchen space, organised around a wood-burning stove and bookended by storage areas and a bathroom closest to the concrete block walls.

On the first floor, the bedrooms fan out from the central stair, giving each the benefit of garden views and access to a shared balcony.

The scale of these rooms and the organisation of their fittings is defined by the exposed timber beams, between which has been inserted large areas of white built-in storage, desks and beds.

"The built-in furniture has been placed between the beams in such a manner that the rooms resemble ship cabins," said the practice.

At the front of the home, a paved terrace is dotted with bright orange repurposed shipping containers used for storing bicycles and garden tools, and underneath the garden is a prefabricated cellar made from recycled plastic.

Other homes recently completed in the Czech Republic include a timber cabin in the Bohemian Forest by Les Archinautes and 3AE and a cork-clad home by Atelier SAD and Iveta Zachariášová.

The photography is by Filip Slapal.

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Czech studio Mjölk Architekti has created The Guard Patrol, four viewpoints on the Stráž mountain above the town of Rokytnice that reference the figures in its coat of arms.

The four towers represent three animals – a fox, bear and sheep – as well as a miner, which are all characters from the Rokytnice coat of arms and based on the names of the four Czech villages that were combined to form the town.

The Guard Patrol lookouts, which are accessible via a hiking trail, are located on the Stráž mountain and designed by Mjölk Architekti to let people appreciate the surroundings.

They were commissioned by the municipality of Rokytnice nad Jizerou and give better access to areas that were previously difficult to reach.

"Part of the philosophy of this and other similar projects was to draw people to less frequented places like this and away from the over-touristed areas of mountains," Mjölk Architekti senior architect Tobiáš Hrabec told Dezeen.

"Since the completion, it has become a more frequented place by both visitors and locals," he added. "Several wedding ceremonies already took place at the lookouts as well."

The first of the lookouts is The Fox, which measures 17 square metres. It sits on a cliff overlooking Rokytnice and has a long body with a "tail" that sticks out into the valley.

It also has a smaller viewpoint next to it, known as The Cub.

The Fox is followed by The Bear, which can be found in the woods nearby. The 14-square-metre viewpoint has a square body on four leg-like pillars, depicting a bear midstride.

Further along the trail sits the nine-square-metre platform called The Sheep, which also has four legs but seems to be standing still, overlooking the forest.

After seeing The Sheep, visitors need to cross a footbridge to reach The Miner.

This measures 10 square metres and is the tallest of the lookouts at nine metres high. It also sits 782 metres above sea level, which is the highest altitude of all the structures.

As well as creating better views for walkers, the project also nods to historical buildings in the area. The Stráž mountain was one of the places where invasions by enemy armies were signalled from lookout towers to warn people.

"(A) more philosophical point is to 'inhabit' the landscape with objects and thus make it more coherent, joining in with the long tradition of building lookout towers in the Jizera and Krkonoše mountains which goes back to the nineteenth century," Hrabec said.

"Finally, the reference to the town's heraldry and history aims to strengthen the local identity of the local municipality and its citizens."

The locations of The Guard Patrol lookouts, which have steel structures with oak cladding, were mostly inaccessible by car or heavy machinery.

To solve this logistical issue, Mjölk Architekti designed the four towers to be built from smaller parts that could be carried from the nearest road.

The steel structures are placed into the rocks using special steel anchors and sit in drill holes that are up to eight metres deep.

"The terrain at the site was a bit of a challenge," Hrabec said.

"The contractor was a company, STRIX Chomutov, that specializes in working in complicated terrain such as stabilizations of rocky slopes, and their professional approach was absolutely essential."

Mjölk Architekti has previously designed another lookout, the Cucumber Tower, for a rural site along a Czech mountain range called the Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge.

The studio also recently added a "glittering glass extension" to a wooden cabin.

The photography is by Boys Play Nice.

Project credit:

Architecture: Mjölk Architekti and Pavlína Müllerová
General contractor: Strix
Statics: Recoc

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Mjölk Architekti has renovated a 130-year-old dwelling in the north of the Czech Republic, adding a glass extension, sunken living area and domed skylight.

Czech architecture studio Mjölk Architekti left one side of the cottage, which is situated in a meadow near the Jizera Mountains, in its original state to increase the visual impact of the new elements.

The studio preserved the cottage's original 19th-century timber and granite structure as well as its thatched roof and contrasted these by installing an extension with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and a flat roof. This levels off at a 90-degree angle from the steeply pitched existing roof.

"We've complemented [the existing cabin] with a new quality that doesn't seek to compete with the past," said Mjölk Architekti. "Behind the curtain of the original cabin, a glittering glass extension has sprung up."

This sense of contrast continues throughout the interior, in which the designers aimed to use modern and playful finishes alongside traditional materials and furnishings.

"We didn't want to forcefully place pieces of global design into the house," said the studio. "The new pieces are complemented with old furniture lovingly selected by the clients themselves."

One of the most dramatic additions is in the extension's living space, which features a ceiling clad in glossy bronze sheets.

Reflections in the ceiling give the space an increased sense of height and echo the playfulness of the sunken living area below. This is surrounded by a ledge with built-in bench seating.

The reconfigured layout of the ground floor revolves around a large volume, clad in glossy white tiles, that contains an oven and stove.

This unites the kitchen, which is characterised by its sleek fittings and concrete surround, with the dining space that has dark timber walls, floor, ceiling and furniture.

A domed skylight illuminates the hallway and landing area in the heart of the house, which has been fitted with a contemporary steel staircase.

Where some of the interior walls and floors could not be salvaged during the restoration process, the structure has been reconstructed by inserting plywood panels, as well as glass panels both between beams and on the floor.

The structural history of the house is easily visible in the four bedrooms, which share warm red-painted walls and exposed rafters, one of which doubles as a children's playroom.

The glass walls allow daylight to reach into the first floor from the small windows in the original front and sides of the cottage's facade.

The studio also added an "almost invisible" sauna on the grounds of the cabin, which appears to be sunken into the earth – similarly to the kitchen and living room inside.

"We refurbished the house with the future in mind, but at the same time, we didn't feel like letting go of all the wonderful, wild and unwieldy aspects of its past," summarised the studio.

Other remote cabins featured on Dezeen include a wooden hut in Chile informed by vernacular fishing huts by Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados and a holiday retreat on an English farm above a track used by sheep by Akin Studio.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Timber interiors and larch cladding reference the surrounding Bohemian Forest at this pared-back cabin in the Czech Republic, designed by French practice Les Archinautes in collaboration with local practice 3AE.

Overlooking Lipno lake close to the Czech Republic's border with Germany and Austria, the cross-laminated timber (CLT) cabin was designed to provide a rest stop for people who come to ski and hike in the nearby mountain ranges.

Informed by a wooden dwelling that once stood on the site, the cabin's simple design drew from the architecture typical to the area, which Lyon-based Les Archinautes describes as "wooden, compact and cozy."

"The morphology of the house stands on several principles of Bohemian Forest architecture: rectangular floor plan, compact shape, orientation along the contour line, creation of a covered porch and more pronounced articulation of the gable," said the practice.

Clad in thin larch planks, the cabin is raised on a low wooden platform, which extends to create a terrace along two sides of the home sheltered by the oversized eaves of the roof.

Seeking to bring the surrounding forest into the cabin as a "material, smell, and colour," the CLT structure has been left exposed throughout the interiors, which are organised to capture views of the landscape.

The focal point of the cabin is the ground floor living and dining space, where a large table, kitchen counters and concrete fireplace sit underneath wooden beams and overlook the lake through a large square window.

Alongside this space, the main ground-floor bedroom and two smaller first-floor bedrooms tucked beneath the roof capture glimpses of the forest and mountains through skylights and small, round windows in each gable end.

"The view of Lipno lake, with two major peaks in the background, becomes the main point of the project, centred around the dominant gabled square window facing toward the lake," said the practice.

"Wooden walls in the interior create a pleasant and warm atmosphere. The exposed wood is painted with hard wax oil, white pigment and a UV filter, ensuring the wood retains its fresh colour for decades to come," it continued.

Complementing the exposed CLT walls and ceilings, the minimal interiors are finished with oak flooring, simple light fittings and white tilework in the bathrooms.

Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, architecture studio Atelier SAD and interior designer Iveta Zachariášová recently completed a cork-clad home set in a rural landscape and local studio KLAR created a V-shaped timber house in the Czech countryside.

Photography is by Petr Polak.

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Architecture studio Atelier SAD and interior designer Iveta Zachariášová have created a cork-clad family home in the Czech Republic, which was embedded into a grassy ridge.

Atelier SAD and Zachariášová chose to clad the rural house in cork due to its thermal and weather-resistant properties, which it benefits from in its exposed setting.

The house is orientated along a contour line at the foot of the Ještěd Ridge, overlooking the Bohemian Paradise Protected Landscape Area.

"The landscape is open, dominated by flowering, unfenced meadows," said the designers. "The view and the integration of the interior spaces into the landscape was one of the main motifs driving the house design process."

The house is partially set into a grassy embankment, which is topped by a road that allows part of the roof to act as a parking space. It was surrounded by an irregular cluster of vernacular pink granite stones.

"The slender mass of the house cuts diagonally into the steep slope of the road, and the ridge seems to slope down into the garden," the designers added.

The remainder of the roof is made from pitched aluminium sheets and features a gable that projects out at one end to create a covered terrace overlooking the unfenced garden.

Areas of the facade which are not glazed are clad in Portuguese expanded cork applied in vertical strips of varying widths – the first application of its kind in the Czech Republic, according to the designers.

A triangular glazed partition that echoes the form of the gable extends to separate the terrace from the interior, wrapping around the front of the space to open up a view over the meadows.

The glass panels can slide to open the space physically as well as visually.

An open-plan kitchen, dining and living space was orientated around a suspended fireplace and is overlooked by a secondary living space on the mezzanine floor.

The concrete walls and floors are punctuated by furnishings sourced primarily from furniture companies Konsepti and Ligne Roset, providing a playful edge to the otherwise functional space.

Bedrooms, bathrooms and storage areas share the pared-back look of the main area, and are arranged along a straight corridor towards the front door.

"The interior design of the house with the internal layout of the rooms may have been created earlier than the house itself," said Zachariášová. "Many of the functional aspects were clear from the outset, and we basically only dealt with their alignment."

"This is how the entire project was gradually born – with respect for local traditions, history, materials and the surroundings," added the studio.

Other homes in natural settings published on Dezeen include a house that frames its views of the Suffolk countryside by Norm Architects and a renovated 1960s house that frames its Californian coastal views by Fuse Architects.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

Project credits:

Construction: Ještědská stavební společnost
Landscape architect: Partero
Interior construction: MY76

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Italian architect Matteo Thun looked to the work of Czech artists Alphonse Mucha and František Kupka for the interior design of this Prague hotel, which features pastel colours and natural materials.

Located in an art deco building in the city centre, The Julius Prague has apartment suites with kitchenettes as well as smaller hotel rooms that were designed to have the feel of a home-away-from-home.

"In exploring new forms of living, we had to think about how to create that home-away-from-home feeling – providing privacy and independence, whilst also offering flexible communal spaces such as co-working areas, meeting rooms, and open lounges," Thun told Dezeen.

"The rooms are designed as apartments, and the public areas are conceived as an extension of the rooms."

The interior design of the colourful hotel was influenced by the way in which Czech Art Noveau painter Alphonse Mucha and Czech abstract painter František Kupka used colours.

Mucha's soft, pastel hues were used for the guest rooms, many of which overlook a central courtyard with a light-filled conservatory, while Thun looked to Kupka's brighter colour palette for the communal areas.

"Inspired by Mucha's work, we selected a pared-back palette and pastel hues for the guest rooms, working with natural materials and soft textiles to create a calming and welcoming atmosphere," Thun said.

"Meanwhile in the communal areas we chose a more vibrant colour palette, drawing on Kupka's abstract pieces, for a more energetic atmosphere," he added.

"For lighting, we were inspired by the bohemian art glass work, emitting a warm ambient glow."

Tactile natural materials were used throughout the hotel, including in the bathrooms, which are clad in a striking marble-effect ceramic tile.

"We used ceramic tiles with a marble effect from a leading Italian tile producer for the floorings of the public areas and the kitchens and bathrooms of the residences," Thun said.

"We love to work with natural materials and have used oak-flooring for the serviced residences, featuring spacious living environments with open kitchen and generous smart-working spaces," he added.

"Throughout The Julius, custom-made furniture and pieces ensure every space arouses curiosity."

The Julius Prague is the first hotel from the Julius Meinl family, a gourmet-food retailer and manufacturer based in Vienna that Thun has previously worked with.

"We have enjoyed a rewarding relationship over the last 15 years and their flair continues to be invaluable in channelling design towards authentic, novel and inspirational projects," Thun said.

"In this case we have contributed our experience to their first hospitality project, designing a timeless scheme in tune with new expectations: a contextually aware nomadic way of living," he added.

Other recent projects in Prague include a pop-up market with a turquoise scaffolding design and a spa with curved-cement walls and glass detailing.

The photography is by Gionata Xerra.

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Architecture studio Atelier38 has converted a former furniture store in Olomouc, Czech Republic, into a broadcast centre arranged around a light-filled atrium. 

Atelier38 refurbished the building, which was built in 1911, to give it the necessary technical and acoustic fixtures needed for a modern radio broadcaster.

The Czech Radio broadcast centre occupies a narrow plot in the middle of Olomouc and is characterised by its exposed reinforced concrete frame and long skylight window that can both be seen in the cavernous central atrium that spans four storeys.

Throughout the 20th century, the building remained a furniture store, but the skylight was closed off with mineral wool to keep the building insulated.

The studio reopened this central atrium and made it the heart of the building. It added additions that highlighted the existing concrete structure to avoid detracting from the original fabric of the building.

"We tried hard to preserve the visible supporting structure and not to destroy the integrity and sculptural quality of the central space," said Atelier38.

A monochromatic scheme was chosen for both the circulatory and private areas to unite the interior – regardless of function and era – and highlight the building's unique original structural details.

Glass partition walls allow the ample natural light from the atrium to reach into the side rooms, which contain meeting and conference spaces, studios, offices and editing rooms as well as archives and storage facilities.

"The shape and proportions of the broadcast studios, control room, and self-service studios arose from the possibility of building into the existing skeleton structure," the studio explained.

"[The installed elements] form an artistic technological dialogue with the original supporting structure without suppressing it."

The studio also upgraded the thermal, sanitary and electrical services needed to meet contemporary standards and to ensure the smooth running of broadcasts.

Other adaptive reuse projects published on Dezeen include a retreat for professionals inside an abandoned girls' school by Artchimboldi and Emma Martí, and a former prison in Berlin converted into a hotel by Grüntuch Ernst Architects.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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A pair of intersecting timber-clad wings contain communal living spaces and private sleeping areas for different generations of one family at this house in the Czech village of Rybí.

House with In-Law Suite was designed by local architecture office KLAR for a family of four and their grandparents, who wanted to live together but retain a degree of separation.

The building's V-shaped plan makes the most of a buildable area determined by minimum required setbacks from existing underground gas storage tanks and the nearby forest.

Responding to the clients' request for a simple timber structure that could be partially self-built, the architects settled on a pitched-roof profile that references the typical single-storey dwellings of the Beskydy region where the house is located.

"After considering the budget limitations, programme requirements, and the preferred choice of a wood structure building, our final decision was to adopt a rational approach with repeating structural elements," KLAR explained.

The two gabled volumes intersect at the house's entrance and extend along either side of a triangular south-facing courtyard with views towards the forest.

Extended eaves along the inner elevations shade wide decks that stretch the full length of the building. Steps lead down from the decks to the gently sloping garden.

The house's front door opens into a vestibule with views along both wings as well as out onto the courtyard through a large picture window.

A door on one side opens into the main living area, while a corridor on the other side leads to a mechanical room, small bathroom and the grandparents' bedroom.

The family wing contains a double-height, open-plan living space, with a kitchen and dining area positioned at the end closest to the entrance vestibule.

Carefully placed windows provide specific views, with a horizontal opening above the kitchen countertop looking onto the driveway and a built-in window bench in the living area providing a seating nook for gazing out at the landscape.

A corridor leads from the sitting room to the private areas including the children's bedroom, the main bathroom and the primary bedroom. Each room has direct access to the adjacent deck.

The house was constructed using a timber frame and structural sheet-wood panels, with different types of foundations used for the two wings.

"The in-law suite uses reinforced concrete strip foundations while the family home is raised from the ground on thin steel stilts," the architects pointed out.

"This gives a certain lightweight quality to the building, reducing its scale and impact on the soil."

The building's exterior features two contrasting timber treatments, with dark, charred boards cladding the external elevations and a lighter natural finish used for the inner walls and soffits.

KLAR is a studio founded by Václav Kocián and Zdeněk Liška in Kopřivnice. The office aims to reflect the context of the local Moravian-Silesian region in its projects for commercial and residential clients.

Other recent projects in the Czech Republic include a house that incorporates a "secret garden" and a cottage with burnt-wood cladding.

The photography is by Václav Novák.

Project credits:

Architect: KLAR
Structural engineering: Martin Wünsche
Fire safety engineering: Pavla Tvrdá
Contractor: Richard Kovář
EPC: Tomáš Brückner

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Czech studio Chybik + Kristof has completed a pop-up marketplace in Prague with a modular structure of pastel-blue scaffolding that can be easily modified or relocated.

Located in the city's Andel district, the project is the third in a series of temporary food markets in Prague designed for the hospitality brand Manifesto Market.

It was built by reusing and adapting materials from the previous iteration in Smichov, which was also designed by Chybik + Kristof.

Each of these markets has aimed to reinvigorate a neglected site with new activity.

The Andel market sits in an "under-utilised gap" alongside a carpark in the district's shopping, business and entertainment area. It comprises 13 restaurants, two bars and a culture zone with a stage.

Raised on wooden decking that conceals its technical services, the structure's blue scaffolding supports a series of corrugated metal kiosks organised around small courtyards, seating and a shallow pool.

The scaffolding also incorporates lights, signage and speakers, while doubling as an elevated terrace overlooking the market below.

Simple cut-outs create serving hatches in the metal kiosks, and purple and neon tube lights attached to the scaffolding activate the courtyard spaces at night.

According to Chybik + Kristof, Manifesto Market's form "draws from the courtyard typology, specific to Prague's urban fabric".

"Each of the courtyards, characterised by unique components such as furniture, lighting, and greenery, provides meaningful experiences for visitors and the local community," explained the studio.

"In the heart of the market, the scaffolding serves as a terrace that floats above the containers, overlooking the vibrant event spaces of the lower levels."

To limit the environmental impact of the project, it is powered by renewable energy and designed to be reversible. Its scaffolding can be easily disassembled and adapted to future sites once the Andel market closes.

The design also incorporates several reclaimed materials, including corrugated aluminium sheets, lighting and furniture recovered from the previous pop-up market in Smichov.

"Manifesto Andel is an example of reversible design, and the philosophy of reuse is crucial to its concept," said the studio.

"The market operates the whole year and is powered by clean energy from renewable sources. The modular concept makes it compatible with various spaces, allowing for its reuse in future locations," it added.

Alongside the previous Manifesto Market in Smichov, Chybik + Kristof's other recent projects include the redesign of a brutalist bus terminal in Brno and an undulating concrete building for wine producer Lahofer.

The studio also recently revealed designs for what will be the tallest skyscraper in the Czech Republic, the Ostrava Tower.

The photography is by Studio Flusser unless stated otherwise.

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Curved cement-screed walls with embedded rows of vertical glass bars characterise this spa in Prague designed by local studio Formafatal.

The Cellularium spa is located in the Institute of Natural Medicine, where it occupies one curved corner of a floor in the Main Point Pankrac building, which has a glazed exterior broken up by vertical aluminum sheets.

The spa's main treatment area features three rooms that are delineated by rows of perpendicular glass bars, in reference to the vertical design of the building's facade. These transparent rods are lit according to the function of the space inside.

"There is no need to describe the purpose of the room to customers," explained Formafatal. "The colour itself defines the content: sauna as fire (red), cryosauna as ice (blue) and air flow as wind (gray)".

The 155-square-metre interior comprises an entrance foyer and a waiting room, doctor's office, locker rooms and treatment areas. The spaces were strategically placed around the building's inclined structural columns.

"You can hardly find a flat wall in the floor plan," said the architects, who acknowledged the confines of the existing space by using curved subdividing walls.

A convex divider decorated with metal fins separates the doctor's office from the waiting area and nods to the exterior of the building in which the spa is located.

"The outer shell of the surgery is lined with vertical steel plates, which gradually fold down to a flat smooth cladding with integrated doors," the team explained.

An undulating ceiling punctuated by square, solid oak dowel rods of varying lengths unites the different areas in the spa.

Formafatal used a toned-down colour and material palette in the scheme to focus the attention on the curved shapes of the interior.

"Dark tones and smooth screed on surfaces together with daylight significantly underline the playfully modelled space," the studio said.

"We left the nurse's and the doctor's office in soft light shades that do not distract the visitor," it continued.

Locker rooms feature mirrors with bespoke backlighting housed within perforated metal sheet backing.

"We lit up the small circular locker rooms into a play of light and shadow, again with a grid of vertical strips," Formafatal said.

"We repeated all these principles and materials in other modified forms throughout the interior to achieve a harmonious whole," it concluded.

Formafatal is a Prague-based architecture studio founded in 2015 that works across the residential, leisure, hospitality and commercial sectors.

Other projects by Formafatal include a villa in the Costa Rican jungle made up of monolithic concrete volumes.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Arches and undulating surfaces fill this small ice cream parlour, which Czech studio Holky Rády Architekturu has designed in the city of Brno.

Called Ještě Jednu, the shop has a footprint of just 29.5 square metres but accommodates a kitchen, ice cream bar, freezer and coffee corner.

Local practice Holky Rády Architekturu – meaning "girls who like architecture" in Czech – said it wanted to make the interior a "fun" environment using the building's arched openings and ceilings as a starting point.

This motif is picked up throughout the shop in the form of sweeping lighting fixtures and stainless steel sinks, where staff and customers can wash their sticky hands.

The prep kitchen is separated from the main ice cream bar using a glass partition, which reflects the shop's pendant lights and makes the space appear larger.

"People behind the glass become the alchemists who prepare the frozen delicacies," said Barbora Kudelová and Kristýna Sirováa, founders of Holky Rády Architekturu.

A calming palette of desaturated pastel colours was selected to allow the ice cream offering to stand out, while cool stainless steel surfaces reflect their surroundings.

The studio also incorporated subtle design references to the local area and to Italy – the birthplace of gelato.

These include the serving counter, which is fronted by a fluted white concrete panel that recalls both classical columns and the pillars of a 13th-century church nearby in Brno.

Similarly, the shop's stainless steel sinks nod to the water fountains that are often found in the streets of Italian towns and cities.

Other ice cream shops featured on Dezeen include Little Sky in Melbourne, which was designed to capture the "theatre of gelato", and an Instagram-friendly store in central London that features cloud-like ceilings and neon signage.

The photography is by Barbora Kudelová.

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No Architects repeated rounded beveled corners, royal blue and numeric details throughout an apartment in Prague, which was informed by two contemporary paintings.

The apartment in the Czech capital's Žižkov district, takes cues from the two modern artworks belonging to the owners – an unnamed piece by Vladimír Houdek and Cesta domů by Josef Bolf.

Houdek's unnamed painting, featuring the number sixty-nine, is hung between the dining and kitchen areas.

The rectangular piece is displayed in portrait orientation and divided into four sections with a pair of reflected sixes and nines in a greyscale, gradiented typeface.

The frayed edges of the artwork are referenced on the bottom edge of the kitchen wall cabinets, a tactile detail that contrasts the sweeping curves of the base cabinet opposite.

Rich royal blue, the central colour in the composition, is found in the kitchen, corridor, bathroom and master bedroom manifesting as large planes of lacquered MDF, tile and velvet upholstery.

The number 69 becomes a pattern when minimised and embossed on the perforated screen in the living area, and in a larger format on cupboard doors in the second bedroom.

A second painting, Cesta domů by Bolf, is hung in the living area on a grey-toned wall directly opposite the piece by Houdek.

The contrastingly melancholy artwork, whose title translates to "way home" or "road to home", shows a street scene with buildings, trees and figures obscured by a dark palette of greys and black.

The emotive painting is referenced by the teardrop-shaped pendant lamps above the kitchen island and dining table. They also recall a waterfall mural by artist Patrik Hábl on the side a neighbouring building, which is visible from the living room window.

"It is a simple living space for a family who understands art and wants to appreciate and enjoy it" summarised No Architects.

"[An] interior where contemporary art is not just replaceable decoration".

Bespoke built-in furniture is found in each room, backed by a neutral palette of wooden oak and whitewash finishes on floors, walls and ceilings.

The apartment is situated in a 1990s attic extension of the original building, which dates from the first half of the 19th century.

No Architects is a Prague-based architecture, design and planning studio founded in 2009, which previously designed a nursery in Prague that aims to ease separation anxiety in young children by incorporating plenty of internal windows, cubby holes and clear sightlines across the space.

The photography is by Studio Flusser.

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Czech studio Chybik + Kristof has designed a 56-storey skyscraper in Ostrava, Czech Republic, which will become the tallest building in the country.

Named Ostrava Tower, the 235-metre-tall skyscraper will be built for developer RT Torax Group in the town of Ostrava in the east of the country.

When complete it will be more than twice the height of the AZ Tower in Brno, which measures 111 metres and is currently the Czech Republic's tallest building.

Ostrava's 85-metre-tall New Town Hall, built in the 1930s, is the city's current tallest building.

Set to be built near a shopping centre and former steelworks, the skyscraper will have a distinctive form composed of two stacked triangular forms.

The lower triangle, which narrows towards the centre of the skyscraper, will be topped with an inverted triangle turned 90 degrees to the base.

"Our intention was to create a simple but powerful form that acts as a beacon into the city center," said Chybik + Kristof co-founder Michal Kristof.

The mixed-use building will contain retail and office space on its lower 11 floors with a hotel and restaurant on the four floors above.

Flats will occupy the tower's upper stories.

The skyscraper's top two floors will contain a cafe and bar, topped with a publically accessible rooftop viewing platform.

"Rethinking the typology of the skyscraper and its function to serve the public and activate the urban environment, one of our core missions was to create a positive social impact in the heart of Ostrava," said Kristof.

The skyscraper will be built near to the city's 1960s modernist House of Culture, which is being updated by Steven Holl Architects and Architecture Acts. The studios are adding a cantilevered zinc-clad concert hall over the existing building.

The renders are courtesy of Chybik + Kristof.

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Czech studio Kuba & Pilař Architekti has refurbished a brutalist 1980s canteen building at Prague's Charles University, creating new learning spaces arranged around a light-filled lobby.

The firm headed by architects Ladislav Kuba and Tomáš Pilař was tasked with overseeing the conversion of the former canteen into a headquarters for the Faculty of Humanities.

The original building was designed by architect Karel Prager, who was responsible for other modernist and brutalist buildings in the Czech Republic including the National Theatre and Federal Assembly in Prague.

The canteen and adjacent dormitory towers form part of an unfinished plan for the university campus, which is situated on the banks of the Vltava River to the north of the city centre.

The canteen was never fully used as intended and was in need of a radical redesign in order to meet the faculty's requirements.

Kuba & Pilař architekti recognised the architectural merit of the existing building, which was constructed using an innovative lift slab technique that involves pouring concrete floor slabs at ground level and lifting them up using hydraulic jacks.

The architects sought to retain the structure's character and form whilst reorganising the internal spaces to accommodate the required teaching and administrative spaces.

"The conversion project preserves the external shape, height and proportions of the original canteen building," said the architects.

"The main intervention is the creation of a generous central hall, illuminated from above, with daylight coming in between the trusses of the skylights."

A large concrete plateau surrounds the faculty building and connects it to the two dormitory blocks. The building is arranged over three floors plus a basement, with the entrance on the middle level.

A new glazed curtain wall suspended from the existing facades helps to improve the building's acoustic and ecological properties while referencing its structural form.

"The external structural glazing is designed primarily as an effective acoustic protection against the noise from a six-lane ring road in the immediate vicinity of the building," explained Kuba & Pilař architekti.

"A double-skin facade allows for natural ventilation and regulated sun shading of the interior space," the studio added, "while the rounded glass corners are a link to the original architecture."

Inside the building, an existing central stairwell was expanded to create a void that visually connects all three levels. A pair of differently shaped staircases at either end of the new lobby lead to the floors above and below.

Cantilevered galleries surrounding the central hall provide access to seminar rooms and staff offices, with two lifts and fire-escape staircases positioned on either side of the building.

The lower level accommodates large lecture halls, an auditorium, a library and the dean's office. These spaces are lined with full-height glazed walls and curtains that provide privacy when required.

A pared-back material palette dominated by exposed concrete is used throughout the faculty. The concrete is complemented by metal mesh ceilings and black cement flooring.

Modular foam furniture from Belgian brand Sixinch creates a strong statement across the two main levels of the central hall. The lobby level features circular elements in white, with bright orange benches used to define spaces on the floor below.

Elsewhere in Prague, Sporadical built a reflective, domed sports hall that is covered in aluminium shingles.

Along the city's waterfront, Petr Janda transformed a number of vaults on the banks of the Vltava River into public spaces.

The photography is by David Korsa.

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Architect Petr Janda has transformed a series of vaults on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague into versatile public spaces as part of a project aimed at revitalising the embankment.

The project to transform approximately four kilometres of the Czech capital's riverbank was initiated in 2009, by which time the former quayside had been deserted for many years.

The embankment area was being used for car parking, with the vaults containing storage units. Janda's studio Brainwork helped develop a proposal to create a waterfront promenade that reactivates three separate sections of the embankment and introduces new public functions.

The project's completed first phase represents Prague's largest investment in public spaces since the end of communist rule in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1989. It has been shortlisted in the rebirth project category of Dezeen Awards 2021.

According to Janda, the conversion of 20 vaults set into the existing embankment aims to optimise the connection with the riverfront area by maximising the scale of the openings in the wall.

"The interventions symbiotically merge with the original architecture of the riverside wall, into which they naturally fuse," the architect pointed out. "By using the acupuncture strategy, they re-create a monumental whole."

There are three main types of vaults which are each used for different functions: large glass-fronted vaults contain shops and galleries, vaults with steel doors house cafes and workshops, and other spaces are used for public toilets.

The application of a consistent design language and material palette creates a sense of cohesion throughout the project. The architects also aimed to combine preservation with the latest sustainable technologies in each of the interventions.

Six of the vaults on the Rašín Embankment feature elliptical windows with a diameter of 5.5 metres. The windows can be opened mechanically and pivot on an offset axis to provide access to the interior spaces.

The original arched openings were adapted to incorporate the round windows, with new stepped stone details at the base hiding the air-conditioning units and flood-control features.

The 14 vaults on the Hořejší Embankment feature sculptural steel entrances that visually connect the vaults with the riverfront area.

Some of these house public toilets and feature curved walls that extend inwards to direct visitors towards the facilities, forming partitions that seamlessly incorporate the cubicle doors.

A standardised system was developed to handle all of the technical services required inside the vaults. This includes integrated air conditioning and heating, which are concealed within the walls and floors.

A versatile, freestanding furniture element was also created to allow the vaults to adapt to different uses. This flexible unit can be moved around within the spaces, acting as a bar counter in the cafe vaults or as a reception desk for galleries.

Brainwork helped to oversee the fit-out of each vault to ensure the overall architectural vision was retained, while allowing each tenant the freedom to tailor the space to their needs.

During the restoration process, internal walls were insulated and refinished, and a uniform palette was applied throughout the spaces to maintain consistency. Each vault features sandblasted concrete walls and ceilings, cast concrete floors and monolithic cast concrete staircases.

Doors and hatches are finished with blackened steel, while black titanium-coated stainless steel creates reflective surfaces within some of the vaults that evoke the ever-changing surface of the river.

Future phases of the revitalisation project will include the design of street furniture, freestanding toilets, a floating pool and a floating terminal for cruise boats, along with the completion of the remaining vaults.

Other Czech projects shortlisted in the rebirth category for this year's Dezeen Awards include a bus station by Chybik + Kristof and a Corten tourist route around a castle, designed by Atelier-r.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Architect Martin Neruda has completed a single-storey house in the Czech town of Lanškroun featuring translucent polycarbonate walls that conceal living spaces arranged around a secluded garden.

The property is located in a residential area of Lanškroun and was designed by Neruda to occupy the site of a demolished two-storey terraced house.

The brief for the project was to create a house that allowed the clients to live in close contact with the garden.

Neruda responded by proposing a single-storey dwelling featuring a cascading sequence of indoor and outdoor spaces that follow the plot's sloping topography.

Polycarbonate panels form a screen that separates the main part of the building from the street. The translucent volumes house a garage and garden storage either side of a folding gate.

A large concrete roof shelters a path that leads from the entrance through the garden towards the main living space at the southern end of the site.

"The life of the house takes place around this secret garden," claimed Neruda, "and from there, the inner spaces can be entered."

The living areas at the rear of the plot can be opened up to gardens on either side during summer to create a social space for cooking and relaxing that merges with the outdoors.

A sequence of bedrooms, bathrooms and a utility area are positioned along the western edge of the site. These rooms step down gradually to follow the existing slope and each look onto the garden through large openings.

The architect described the open-air spaces lining the garden as an "atrium" that is protected from sun and rain by the reinforced-concrete ceiling slabs.

The overhanging roof extends to shelter concrete benches that hover above the ground. The landscaping features irregular paving slabs that contrast with the building's rectilinear forms.

Internally, a muted palette uses natural materials to balance the raw, textural finishes of the brick walls and exposed concrete ceilings, lintels and window sills.

Lime-stained bricks salvaged from the demolition of the original house are repurposed both inside and outside the building. Along with the brick, the materials used for the exterior include beige wooden window frames, steel columns and the polycarbonate sheeting.

Neruda's hope is that the house will age gracefully through everyday use, while the garden will mature and gradually merge with the architecture.

"In the future, perhaps the walls will grow green, the steel columns will rust, a patina will appear on the concrete and silhouettes of stored items will peek behind the polycarbonate," he suggested.

"The atrium house will merge with the garden and turn into a small living landscape."

The photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

Project credits:

Studio: Martin Neruda Architektura
Architect: Martin Neruda
Collaborators: Petr Hanzal and Vít Formánek
Structural engineer: Tomáš Novotný
Construction company: Stavitelství Drážka
Garden: Jan Kocourek
Woodworks: Zdeněk Škvára
Floor: FLODE
Lights: Uni Light
Manufacturers: TON, M&T

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Czech studio Chybik + Kristof has completed its redesign of Brno's Zvonařka Bus Terminal, a brutalist building that the architects fought to preserve in a self-initiated project.

Chybik + Kristof first reached out to the site's owners ten years ago with a proposal to restore and redesign the 1988 building by architect Radúz Russ in Brno, Chezch Republic.

Though it was still in use, the structure wasn't being maintained and was increasingly falling apart.

After picking up attention for the project on social media and drawing the public authorities and private stakeholders into dialogue, Chybik + Kristof received funding for the work in 2015 and have now seen it through to completion.

Without their intervention, the station would likely have continued to decay and eventually be at risk of demolition, like its internationally renowned brutalist counterparts in Prague, the Hotel Praha and Transgas buildings.

The architects are ardent campaigners for the preservation of architectural heritage, and try to foster appreciation for the intriguing aesthetic and raw material qualities of brutalism.

"Demolitions are a global issue," said studio co-founder Michal Kristof. "Our role as architects is to engage in these conversations and demonstrate that we no longer operate from a blank page."

"We need to consider and also work from existing architecture – and gradually shift the conversation from creation to transformation."

For Chybik + Kristof, bringing the Zvonařka Bus Terminal into the 2020s meant improving transparency and access.

They removed internal walls and structural additions made to the terminal in the 1990s, allowing more light to come in and making the space feel more connected to the city.

Their chief addition is a red-painted "wave" structure that rises up from the ground to form a sheltered area containing the ticket kiosk, waiting area and refreshments.

It also provides a point of contrast to the angular brutalist roof and is meant to evoke the "seamless flow" of vehicles and passengers moving through the station.

"The wave enables transparency and allows the people to view the bus terminal and its travel activities from all angles," co-founder Ondřej Chybik told Dezeen.

"Before our intervention, the temporary stands obstructed the view and disabled the unification of the city and one of its major transport hubs."

To bring contemporary aesthetic appeal to the original steel roof structure, they repainted it white and installed and added new light fixtures.

"The light installation lights both upwards into the structure and downwards into the terminal, thereby connecting the architecture and the space the underneath," added Chybík.

Other new additions to the Zvonařka Bus Terminal include a second entry at street level, new platforms and an accessible wayfinding system.

The architects pride themselves on taking a holistic approach to projects that extends beyond the construction process.

"Fully understanding the social dynamics at play in every project is at the heart of our practice," said Chybik. "With this in mind, we as architects assume a crucial role in both the inception and materialisation of a project – we are here at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end."

Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof founded their studio in 2010 and their recent projects include the concrete Lahofer Winery and the Mendel Greenhouse, commemorating the site of a major discovery in genetics.

Photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

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Architecture studio New How has created an angular holiday home called Weekend House in Nové Hamry, Czech Republic.

The house sits within a forest in the Ore Mountains and is constructed from cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels clad in black aluminium.

New How designed the three-storey house to act as a lookout tower, with a square window on the upper floor that frames views of the tree-covered landscape.

"The idea of a 'lookout tower' determines the height of the house from the inside," said David Zámečník, architect at New How.

"It should resemble a tower rather than a house and should also serve as a hideaway."

The lookout is on the top floor, which is within the angular roof that was designed to reduced snow loads during the winter.

This floor contains a studio, library and relaxation space.

Below the lookout, the middle floor contains three bedrooms along with a bathroom and double-height open gallery space.

Within this double-height space is a netted area designed as a playful addition to the house. While sitting upon it, visitors can look down to the ground floor.

"The floor is partly formed by a net that establishes a connection with the lowest level both visually and acoustically and functions as a rest area," explained Zámečník.

"It's a place where you can unleash your imagination."

On the ground floor, there is a dining area with timber seating below the net, along with a kitchen and a dining area arranged around a central fireplace.

Throughout the holiday home, the CLT structure was largely left exposed. The interiors were finished with a palette of grey, brown and black materials that mirror the earth-coloured tones of the local tree trunks, granite and basalt rocks.

Other residential projects in Czech Republic include a glass house built alongside historic buildings for Lasvit's HQ and a cottage covered in charred-timber cladding situated in the Czech countryside.

Photography by Petr Polák

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No Architects has incorporated plenty of windows, places to hide and varying floor levels into this welcoming nursery in the Czech capital of Prague.

Located in the city's Karlin district, Malvína Day Nursery is arranged across the 130-square-metre ground floor of a larger kindergarten. Previously an office space, the nursery caters to young children between nine months and two years of age.

Local firm No Architects was asked to convert the space into an environment where children would feel safe and secure while giving them the freedom to explore their interests.

"We truly believe that design informs the way people behave and develop relations, and with kids it works completely visibly," No Architects co-founder Jakub Filip Novák told Dezeen.

"We wanted to create an atmosphere that would be helpful for children's development and that would challenge them in a positive way."

The nursery rooms are organised around a central space with large windows so that there are clear sightlines across the floor plan.

Bright blocks of colour were used to highlight important areas such as the kitchen counter, lockers and play areas.

"The space itself was quite dark – it's deep and there wasn't too much daylight," said Novák, who started No Architects together with Daniela Baráčková in 2009.

"So we chose a lot of white and light finishes, natural oiled plywood and warm colours that correspond with the nursery's branding."

Everything was designed to be easily visible and within reach, so day-to-day operations can be streamlined to allow the carers to spend more time with the children.

For kids who find it difficult to part from their parents, the studio installed windows near the exits where they can wave goodbye while being held up by their carers.

"We wanted to help the children get over separation anxiety in a positive and constructive way and help teachers to stay calm and focused," Novák explained.

"We achieved this through a clear articulation of space and by creating a sense of playfulness in the design, including quiet corners, places to hide and different levels so that the kids can feel more in control of the environment."

Windows were also integrated into the sleeping and playroom areas as well as the unisex toilets, to allow kids who are old enough to safely use the bathroom with carers on hand in case assistance is needed.

A series of steps were installed in the cloakroom to raise children up to an adult's height and prevent carers – particularly grandparents – from having to bend over to help them with their coats and shoes.

An open kitchen allows the children to observe the food preparation process before dining at the kitchen counter to create a more "collective experience".

The kids can also access snacks from a lower kitchen counter if they are hungry outside of allocated meal and snack times.

Stepped seating and platforms with mats are used throughout the rooms to create varied landscapes while keeping children easily visible to the carers.

Other playful features such as slides and dens were introduced to encourage exploration.

"We made hidden corners on purpose to make it more challenging and more playful," said Nóvak. "It creates more interactions and takes longer for the children to discover the whole space."

Desks and chairs in three different sizes enable children of all ages and heights to easily play together, while small-scale toys that encourage motor skill development are hidden around the space.

A quiet sleeping area includes a row of cots for younger children and a series of mats for the older ones.

In Japan, architect Takaharu Tezuka designed this Tokyo kindergarten as a continuous space complete with an oval roof deck, allowing for unfettered learning and play rather than imposing physical boundaries on the children.

Elsewhere, architecture firm BIG installed curvaceous wooden reading dens and lily pad-like cushions in the first school of co-working company WeWork.

Photography is by Studio Flusser.

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A translucent structure made from salvaged waste materials sits at the heart of this coffee shop and roastery in Prague, designed by Czech architecture studio Kogaa.

Located in the city's Karlín neighbourhood – a former industrial district on the banks of the Vltava river – Grounds Coffee Hub is tucked inside the inner courtyard of a residential street.

The 120-square-metre cafe serves coffee from its own roastery and is the brainchild of Rene Kralovič, founder of roasting company Rusty Nails.

"The idea here was to expand the concept of a roastery to the public, as well as being a platform for baristas and coffee experts to educate themselves and be part of a community," Kogaa explained.

"In order to cut the costs but also learn how the architecture and spaces relate to their production processes, the construction was made hands-on and designed by building together with the coffee community running the place."

The studio estimates that 80 per cent of the interior fit-out was built using materials salvaged from a previous project, which would otherwise have been scrapped.

Plastic panels, corrugated metal and timber were all sourced from a project in Brno, where the studio converted a former distillery into a co-working space in 2018.

These were used to erect a volume at the centre of the cafe's main space, topped with greenery and a mezzanine wrapped in clear, corrugated plastic.

The structure's ground floor is multi-functional, housing coffee-testing facilities, hosting educational workshops and acting as a showroom for professional barista machines.

The side nearest to the entrance houses a serving counter, while on the structure's far side a suspended, tangerine-coloured staircase leads up to a shared workspace.

This mezzanine level is fringed in an undulating plastic wall and a ledge that accommodates an abundance of potted plants. According to Kogaa, this greenery serves as a natural air purifier and dust collector while helping to maintain the balanced humidity levels needed for coffee-making.

The cafe's seating area is positioned next to the entrance and opposite the serving counter. A series of smaller spaces leading off the main space are dedicated to different steps in the coffee production process, from raw bean-storage to packaging.

Recovered and painted industrial lamps from an inactive weapons factory illuminate the space while the concrete coffee tables, wooden benches and display shelves were all handmade on-site.

The bar is made from uncoated, corrugated metal sheets and the custom metal desk was designed to fit all of the coffee fixtures needed for serving.

Based in Prague and Brno, Kogaa was founded in 2015 by Tomas Kozelsky, Alexandra Georgescu and Viktor Odstrčilík. Last year the studio made the long list in the emerging architect of the year category at the Dezeen Awards.

Photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

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Czech Republic studio Petr Hájek Architekti has created a pet crematorium within an abandoned concrete bunker on a 1980s military site near Prague.

The crematorium occupies a semi-subterranean bunker at the former Drnov Air Defense Site, which was built to defend Prague during the Cold War.

While the site's main bunker has been turned into a military museum, Petr Hájek Architekti converted one of its smaller service bunkers and added a mirrored facade as a nod to its previous camouflaged nature.

"The camouflaged bunker gets a new layer simply by the addition of an immense mirror overlay," Petr Hájek Architekti founder Petr Hájek told Dezeen.

"The original exterior elements, such as greenery and paths, remain in the original state. The whole area seems to be untouched at first glance."

Although the bunker is largely underground it had an open main concrete facade, which the studio covered in small hexagonal mirrors to create a reflecting wall over six meters tall and 11 meters long.

Along with making the structure blend in with the surrounding trees that have taken over the former site, the studio describes this facade as a symbolic "mystic window" that reflects memories.

"Countless realities are perceived by an observer," explained Hájek.

"Considering the limited speed of light, the reflection in the mirror shows the past," he continued.

"The visitor approaching the crematorium perceives the ever-changing former state of the world. Nobody can live forever, nor the visitor neither his dog friend."

A door within this mirrored wall was created for the delivery of dead pets, while the main entrance is built into the supporting side wall.

This entrance leads to a small office and reception area alongside a small room for final farewells. The remainder of the bunker is filled with the cremation area and facilities for staff.

Within the bunker, Petr Hájek Architekti aimed to only make minimal interventions, retaining the majority of the existing features and only adding a few additional walls to divide the space.

"All the original structures were preserved where possible," said Hájek.

"In the exterior, the mirror installation arose. In the interior, new walling was created in some places to make the office, toilets, anteroom and display room."

To create the simple internal finishes, walls were whitewashed with doors and other pieces of furniture made of plywood.

Benches made of wooden planks were placed in the entrance hall and waiting room.

Other crematoriums on Dezeen include a concrete and grey marble facility designed by Kaan Architecten in Belgium and a curvaceous concrete crematorium by Plan 01 in northern France.

Photography by Radek Úlehla/Coatmanunless stated.

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Charred-timber cladding covers the facades and roof of this cottage in the Czech countryside, which local studio Mjölk Architekti modernised by adding new openings and improving the layout.

The cottage is located near the village of Jiřetín pod Bukovou to the east of the city of Liberec, where Mjölk Architekti has its offices.

The clients owned an older cottage nearby that was too small for their living requirements, so they began searching for a more suitable property that would allow them to remain in this picturesque rural region.

This 1980s building occupying a woodland site on the slopes of the Horská Kamenice valley provided the necessary space in a good location, but was in need of significant refurbishment.

Mjölk Architekti was tasked with updating the cottage, both externally and internally, to create a modern home with practical living spaces that fits in with its natural surroundings.

The existing grey render covering the exterior was replaced with timber panelling, which the owners charred themselves using the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique.

This process of lightly burning the surface of the wood creates a carbonised layer that is waterproof, fire retardant and provides protection against insects.

The architects playfully explained that "the whole process [of charring the wood] took quite a long time, so we were afraid that it would have psychological consequences for the client."

The panelling is applied across all of the cottage's facades and extends onto the roof and chimney, resulting in a monolithic form that appears to be composed of intersecting geometric shapes.

Similar burnt timber cladding was used by Mjölk Architekti for a house near Prague, where it was chosen to reference the client's love of cooking.

At the house in Jiřetín pod Bukovou, the architects also worked with photography studio BoysPlayNice to produce a playful series of images incorporating flames and smoke to capture the essence of the project.

"We always try to enjoy the photography process with the boys," studio co-founder Jan Vondrák told Dezeen. "Sometimes we change into crazy costumes, other times we involve pets, this time we played with fire and smoke."

The blackened facades are punctured by new windows, including a large glazed opening that replaced several smaller windows and provides a view over the landscape.

Circular windows on each of the gable ends add a quirky detail that the architects suggested makes the building "look like an overgrown birdhouse".

The large opening in the front of the house incorporates a sliding door that opens onto a new wooden terrace raised above the sloping ground.

Vondrák explained that the terrace "is the best place to observe deer that often visit the garden and offers the most beautiful views of the landscape and the setting sun."

Inside the building, the original layout was significantly altered to suit the needs of the new occupants. The living space remained in place but the ceiling was partly removed to create a double-height space that exposes the wooden rafters.

New sleeping areas have been created on the upper storey. One bedroom is accessed using stairs hidden in a closet and another, smaller bedroom is reached using a ladder from the kitchen.

A sleeping platform incorporated next to a window opposite the fireplace provides a spare bed for visitors.

Mjölk Architekti also designed a smaller cottage alongside the main house that contains a sauna and a guest bedroom. This building features a steeply gabled form with cladding and circular openings that match the larger cottage.

Jan Vondrák and Jan Mach founded their practice in 2008, claiming that their goal is to "create state-of-the-art architecture and make our clients happy."

The studio's previous projects include a barn-like gabled house in the Czech countryside that features living spaces reaching nine metres in height.

Photography is by Boys Play Nice.

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Architecture studio Atelier-r has added a series of Corten steel bridges and platforms to provide tourist access to the ruins of Helfštýn castle in the east of the Czech Republic.

The studio carried out the major renovation of the visitor attraction, which is the second-largest castle complex in the Czech Republic after its deteriorating state had forced parts of the building to be closed to the public.

The majority of work was carried out on the castle's keep, which its owners and Czech Republic's national heritage institute wanted to be preserved as a ruin.

Atelier-r created a series of glass roofs that sit below the original walls so they can not be seen from outside the building to enclose some of the rooms.

"Our team strived to complement the historical building with the contemporary architecture that would fit the purpose and focus on both practical use as well as gaining an aesthetic appeal," said Atelier-r's principal architect Miroslav Pospíšil.

"We aspired to go beyond the core task of creating a suitable roof solution because we wanted to involve the visitors in the historical development of the palace," Pospíšil told Dezeen.

"This intention sparked a great idea of incorporating the contemporary architectural elements into the historical building and connecting the existing ground floor with the newly accessible higher levels of the palace."

Along with the new roofs, the studio added various stairs, bridges and platforms, all made from Corten steel, to create a visitor route through the ruins.

The weathering steel elements allow visitors to see the upper levels of the castle that were previously inaccessible, with bridges passing through rooms and passages built alongside the battlements.

Atelier-r chose to use the orange Corten steel so that the additions made to the ruin would be clearly identifiable.

"We believe that easily readable architecture is honest and that is important for us," said Pospíšil. "Therefore, we wanted to acknowledge and accentuate the contrast between the historical building and modern elements."

"Our concept draws from the respect towards the historical building and it pursues a major effort to preserve the castle's authentic character," Pospíšil continued.

"New contemporary elements do not compete with the historical building, rather they create a cohesive unit in which all the elements, old and new go hand in hand."

The studio also believes that Cortenl was an appropriate material due to the castle's history of ironworking and the way it weathers over time.

"It was crucial to choose a material that would be timeless," explained Pospíšil. "Corten is a special alloy that undergoes corrosion, matures and matches the texture of the old historical walls.

"Moreover, Helfštýn Castle is well-renowned for its iron craftsmanship tradition, therefore it made a perfect sense to choose Corten to work with."

Overall the studio hopes that the project will allow visitors to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the historic castle that dates back to the 13th century.

"The renovation created an attractive sightseeing route that brings the public closer to the construction details of the original palace than ever before," said the studio.

"Standing on the modern bridges, looking up the walls, you can feel the legacy of the sight as well as understand the purpose of the modern architecture within it."

Previously William Matthews Associates and engineers Ney & Partners added a bridge to the ruins of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, UK, while Max Dudler created a restaurant inside Heidelberg Castle in Germany.

Photography is by BoysPlayNice.

Project credits:

Design team: Robert Randys, Lucie Rohelová, Adéla Tomečková, Milena Koblihová, Daria Johanesová / Atelier-r
Author: Miroslav Pospíšil, principal architect 
Co-author: Martin Karlík, principal project manager
Structural stability of historical constructions: Ladislav Klusáček
Structural stability of newly inserted constructions: Jan Lukáš

Rehabilitation of the damp parts of historical walls: Pavel Fára
Contractors: Hochtief and Archatt Památky
Steel and corten construction: Zámečnictví Sloupský
Glass construction: Bubeník 1913

Concrete floors: AAP hranice

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 creates Corten tourist route around ruins of Czech Republic castle appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture platform RSAA designed Urbania, an immersive exhibition about city planning, for the Prague Institute of Planning and Development in the Czech Republic.

The installation at Prague's Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP) has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the exhibition design category.

Trained guides took visitors on a guided tour of the exhibition, which featured light, sound and interactive installations.

Visitors were invited to pedal a bicycle, call their grandmother from a phone booth, sit on benches and walk around a stylised scale model of a factory filled with objects framed by cutouts.

Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Praha) set up Urbania to teach residents of the Czech Republic's capital about urban planning and change negative perceptions of civil servants.

As well as educating guests, the guides also debriefed them and gathered their responses to feedback to IPR Praha to help the institution with research.

"Urbania is part an audio-visual experience, part a platform for debate, which using an immersive setting demonstrates some of the typical situations that come up in city development," said IPR Praha.

"Urbania is accompanied by a photo installation throughout the city, which prominently displays photos of civil servants and their actual quotes, which aim to challenge the often negative perception of public sector employees," the organisers added.

"The intent is to humanise their challenges while also showing the positive impact they can have and the necessity of the role of the civil servant."

RSAA designed eight different interactive stations for Urbania, themed around the topics of participation, inter-sectional cooperation, organisation, pilot projects, strategy, communication, failure and adaptability.

Technology experts 3dsense designed a light and sound show to create a different backdrop for each section and an overall engaging experience.

A 60-minute-long soundscape featuring a story narrated by the fictional character of Urbania played over the timed visitor experience.

Urbania was originally scheduled to run from January to February 2020, but was extended to March due to the popularity of the exhibition.

RSAA was founded in 2009 by Bronislav Stratil and Jan Roháč and is based in Prague.

Other exhibitions shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 include an exhibition on the history of video games in Madrid and an interactive installation about ASMR in Stockholm.

Urbania took place from 16 January to 13 March 2020 at IPR Praha's Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Czech studio B2 Architecture designed office interiors for DDB Prague with coloured walls that project the company's logo as an optical illusion.

The office in Prague is occupied by a creative advertising agency that has a logo of a stylised B formed of two stacked D shapes.

Using anamorphosis, a perspective technique, B2 Architecture painted sections of colour on the walls and floors appear random and distorted unless viewed from a particular point – the front door.

"The viewers entering the DDB Prague offices enter at the unique vantage point from which the DDB logo is visible in its perfect form," explained B2 Architecture.

"As their journey continues, the viewers can see that the illusion was formed by colour applied throughout the whole space of the agency."

A striking black covers most of the walls and floors, providing a contrasting backdrop for another version of the agency's logo picked out in neon behind the front desk.

The opening from the lobby to the rest of the office is surrounded by abstract geometric shapes of white and blue the form the logo when looked at from the doorway.

White floors and walls continue through the open-plan office, with a slice of black in the corner adding to the graphic and dynamic vibe.

The white wall next to this entryway is covered in two rows of the DBB Prague logo formed of colourful fabric-covered benches resting in slots carved into the wall.

When employees gather for meetings they can grab a D-shaped stool and pull up a seat informally.

In the centre of the L-shaped office sits the agency's "war room", a freestanding room shaped like a circular sector in plan and painted bright yellow inside and out.

The interior of the room features amphitheatre-style stepped seating around the curved side, facing a floor-to-ceiling glass corner.

Black cushions and beanbag chairs provide comfortable places for colleagues to sit and hold brainstorming sessions together.

The glass walls can be used as surfaces to draw on or screened off with dark curtains to create a private room for meetings and presentations.

Shelves along the exterior are also painted yellow and are used to display books and objects from past campaigns.

Following a consultation with the staff at DDB Prague, B2 Architecture incorporated a cafeteria and lounge area for staff to socialise in and hold workshops.

"An office landscape has been created to promote communication and teamwork with a mix of open spaces, retreats and collaboration areas," said B2 Architecture.

"It also assures both transparency and discretion, enables rapid orientation within the space and reflects the agency’s creative character."

The office is designed to encourage creative work

B2 Architecture is based in Prague and was founded by Barbara Bencova.

The office for DDB Prague has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the small workspace interiors category, alongside micro offices clad in corrugated aluminium in the Netherlands, and a timber music studio in a Finnish back garden.

The winners of Dezeen Awards 2020 will be announced on 23 November.

Photography is by Alexander Dobrovodsky.

Project credits:

Architect: B2 Architecture
Lead architect: Barbara Bencova
Clients: DDB Prague

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Czech Republic studio Atelier Štěpán has built a circular church in a housing estate in Brno that is topped with a panoramic, rainbow-hued window.

Dedicated to nurse Maria Restituta Kafka, who was born around 600 metres from where the building now stands, the Church of Beatified Restituta completes the Brno-Lesná housing estate that was designed by Czech architects František Zounek and Viktor Rudiš in the 1960s.

The circular church and its adjoining triangular tower were built alongside an existing spiritual centre designed by Zdeněk Bureš.

Atelier Štěpán designed the concrete church to be a place of contemplation away from the bustle of modern life.

"I wanted to make a church for the people of today," said Atelier Štěpán co-founder Marek Štěpán. "The question of the perception of a church is a question of the contemporary perception of the world."

The church's walls have been left bare with the only decoration being the light that comes through an 80-metre-long, rainbow-coloured stained-glass window that wraps around the top of the concrete drum.

Light coming through these windows illuminates the concrete dome with various patterns depending on the time of day.

"In the baroque period, the church interior was completely covered with religious depictions," said Štěpán. "It served as a kind of comic book because the visitors were not able to read, so the life of Jesus and of the saints and the stories of the Old Testament were depicted in the church in various forms."

"Today, the situation is reversed," he continued. "We live in the world full of easily accessible information, of visual and other sensations attacking us on every front, so the church should serve as a space for contemplation – a space stripped of superfluous visual, and other, sensations."

Aside from a small stage with a triangular-shaped door leading into the sacristy and a series of small square windows, the main auditorium is only broken up by the entrance and a staircase that provides access to two balconies on the first floor.

These curved-concrete balconies provide seating for the choir and additional seating for worshipers.

Atelier Štěpán chose a circular form for the church as the shape stands as a religious symbol of heaven and eternity. According to the architect, the concrete dome above the ring of windows represents heaven above the city.

Within the auditorium, it is not possible to see the windows at the top of the building, as the architect wanted to create a sense of the unknown within the building.

"There surely are matters that transcend us and that are veiled because they lie on or beyond the very limits of our human perception," said Štěpán.

"If there is any way to interpret them architectonically, I attempted that in the form of the Lesná church dome," he continued.

"The light falls inside the church but the source cannot be seen. The windows are hidden behind a wide ledge. The source of the light is veiled. On both conscious and unconscious levels, the light in the church represents the existence of the world beyond our physical experience and the existence of God."

Alongside the church, the concrete triangular bell tower also acts as a viewpoint across the city of Brno.

From the tower, a bridge connected to the church leads to a gallery above the main auditorium alongside the stained-glass windows.

Brno-based Atelier Štěpán was founded in 1994 by Marek and Vanda Štěpán. The studio previously built a cylindrical church in the village of Sazovice, which was based on the circular Romanesque churches built in the 10th century.

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Architecture studio Chybik + Kristof has topped the Lahofer Winery in the Czech Republic with a walkable roof with an open-air theatre.

The concrete winery in a vineyard near the villages of Dobšice and Suchohrdly, was designed for Lahofer – one of the largest wine producers in the Czech Republic.

Chybik + Kristof drew on the region's archetypal Moravian wine cellars when designing the building.

It measures 3,900 square metres and is formed of three interconnected structures: a wine-making facility, an administrative space and a visitor centre with an adjoining tasting room.

The studio added stairs leading up to the sloping, walkable roof of the visitor centre to create an amphitheatre between the public spaces and the parts of the building used for production.

The wine producer plans to use the amphitheatre as a community space that will host cultural events, including theatre performances and grape harvest celebrations.

Its contoured structure was informed by the agricultural landscape surrounding it, where the grapevine grows in neat rows.

"The building is integrated within the landscape in a way that the distance between the vine rows determines the structural elements," said Chybik + Kristof co-founders Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof.

"This series of structural elements forms the space of the visitor centre and the administration part of the complex," they told Dezeen. "This relates to the archetypal shape of the wine-tasting spaces of the region, that of a long-arched gathering room."

Inside the visitor centre, concrete arches are designed to fit the specific angle of the ceiling and spaced to match the distances between the rows of grapevines outside the Lahofer Winery.

This guides the visitors' gaze across the fields, which can be seen through the glass facade that forms one wall of the wine-tasting space.

"We used raw natural materials inspired by the location, concrete, wooden finishes, and a large glass facade opens to the view," Chybík and Krištof said.

"The ceiling is decorated by an art piece that reflects the colours of the terroir, by local contemporary artist Patrik Hábl."

In addition to following the layout of the grapevines, the triple-glazed building was also oriented so that it would receive as much natural light as possible.

The spaces that focus on production, storage and bottling – including the fermentation room – were given their own access and exterior space and adapted to suit their various functions.

"The fermentation rooms are not lit naturally as this would greatly affect the temperature and subsequently the wines, whereas the bottling spaces and the areas where workers are present during the day are," the architects said.

The studio spread out the production spaces over two halls, with the lower hall hosting wine-making production and employee facilities and the other home to a wine press, cellar and wine store.

Chybik + Kristof was founded in 2010 by Chybík and Krištof and has offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava.

It recently designed a greenhouse-style pavilion for a Czech abbey and also looked to traditional Moravian wine cellars for its House of Wine wine bar in Znojmo, Czech Republic.

Photography is by Alex shoots buildings unless stated.

Project credits:

Architects: Chybik + Kristof
Team: Ondrej Chybik, Michal Kristof, Adam Jung, Lenka Vořechovská, Hanin Al-Gibury, Karolina Holankova, Martin Holy, Vojtech Kouril, Ondrej Mundl, Matej Strba, Zuzana Zathurecka, Zuzana Pelikanova, Victor Cojocaru, Laura Emilija Druktenytė, Zuzana Lisoňová, Gabriela Voláková.

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Old church buildings in the Czech Republic have been converted into a modern primary school with brightly coloured interventions by architecture studios Public Atelier and FUUZE.

Called Elementary School Vřesovice, the project involved building new classrooms and restoring the decaying roof trusses of the original complex.

A former rectory and parish building in the village of Vřesovice was transferred from church ownership to the local council in 2013 when it began being used as a school.

However, the roof was in desperate need of repair and the school needed more classrooms and better circulation.

"As far as the needs of the school are concerned, the historical building had several limitations," said Public Atelier and FUUZE.

"New architectural elements not only improved the conditions for the children and teachers but also transformed their time spent at school into an experience of the space."

Copper cladding and colourful facades of blue, yellow and red clearly mark the new boxy volumes added to expand the school complex.

"It brings a playfulness to the complex not only with its colours but also with new possibilities of operation and movement," explained the studios. "Children are free to choose which entry to school and which colour they will use."

The existing Baroque-era buildings have been restored, and are unified by their plaster facades, red-tiled roofs and copper plumbing.

A terrace has been built into the sloping site on one side, and the central courtyard was also re-landscaped to make a pleasant outdoor playground.

Most of the school facilities have been moved to the first floor, where the classrooms can enjoy views of the nearby Church of St Peter and St Paul.

Classrooms now sit under the eaves of the restored timber roof structure. The first floor has also been extended by a long classroom on green stilts.

Circular windows in the doors of the new classrooms add another cheerful element to the school. Hardwearing and colourful Marmoleum covers the floors.

The primary colours of the facades are picked out in the accents of the school furniture, such as the table and chair legs and bean bags.

For the final stage, an old gymnasium will be converted and modernised when the municipality has the funds.

Public Atelier was co-founded by Jiří Markevič and Vendula Markevicova in 2019 and is based in Hlučín, and Jaroslav Sedlák set up Studio FUUZE.

Colourful architectural elements have also been used in a school with yellow playgrounds in Croatia, and these classrooms with roofs that collect rainwater in Thailand.

Photography is by BoysPlayNice.

Project credits:

Client: The Municipality of Vřesovice
Architects: Public Atelier and FUUZE
Design leads: Jiří Markevič of Public Atelier, Jaroslav Sedlák of FUUZE
Project engineers: Zdeněk Opletal, Dana Opletalová
Outdoor improvements: Vendula Markevičová
Graphic design: Radim Lisa + Marie Štindlová

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Architecture studio RicharDavidArchitekti has built a greenhouse on top of a single-storey family home within an orchard in the town of Chlum, Czech Republic.

Built in the Hořice district of Czech Republic, the aptly named House with a greenhouse consists of a single storey home with a roof-shaped greenhouse on top.

RicharDavidArchitekti placed the greenhouse on the roof of the house so that the home could enjoy 360-degree views of the surrounding orchard.

Its position also allows for the owners to reach it without going outside, meant separate foundations did not have to be constructed and that residue heat from the house could warm it.

The home and the greenhouse were designed to be two visually and structurally distinct elements. The single-storey home was built with masonry walls with concrete columns and clad in larch, while the greenhouse has a steel frame.

"Each of the two functions was designed in the simplest possible form and remained that way in implementation," said David Kazický, co-founder of RicharDavidArchitekti.

"We have never made a combination house and greenhouse. It has always been a standard greenhouse laid on a residential house," he told Dezeen.

The roof of the greenhouse is made from four-chamber hollow translucent polycarbonate and overhangs the house to shelter a terrace that runs around all sides of the home.

All of the home's rooms can be accessed from the terrace and this, not the greenhouse roof, is the most unusual element of the home, believes the architect.

"I think there are two things that make a house different," said Kazický. "The greenhouse on the roof is not a usual solution, but more important is the layout of the house, where residents enter individual rooms directly from the outside."

"This is definitely not typical in this part of the world. On the contrary in some Asian countries it is quite common," he continued.

At the centre of the home, which has interiors designed by Jana Medková and Hana Medková, is a large open-plan living and dining space, which can be accessed from the terrace on both sides of the house.

On one side of this central space is a bedroom suite, while a study and bathroom are located on the other side.

Kazický believes that although the home's arrangement is unusual, it follows principles used in many projects before.

"Of course the principle of a vertical mix of functions while maintaining functional forms is the principle used in many buildings, especially on a larger scale," he said.

"Here, of course, was a completely unique client who wanted a unique solution."

Other larger buildings to greenhouses include an office in Oberhausen, Germany and a Japanese restaurant in Denver, Colorado, which are both topped with greenhouses.

Photography is by Jiří Hroník.

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Prague studio Ov-a Architekti has built a translucent house and restored a group of 19th-century timber buildings for the office of glass company Lasvit in Nový Bor, Czech Republic.

The architecture studio renovated a pair of existing houses and added black and white house-shaped additions to form the glass brand's headquarters.

Lasvit wanted to continue and build on the history of the existing buildings, which were formerly used as glass workshops, and use the contemporary extensions to communicate the brand's identity.

"The client's task was to create a company headquarters that continues a strong glassmaking tradition and combines glass and light in a contemporary language," project architect Štěpán Valouch told Dezeen.

"The two traditional buildings from the early 19th-century were completed with another two similarly sized and shaped abstract black and white volumes to create a harmonic and functional compound," continued Valouch.

With the existing buildings stripped of adornments that were added in the 1980s and refurbished to create suitable offices, it is the new white house that is the clearest identifier of the company.

Clad in translucent glass tiles, this building connects the two renovated offices and contains a cafe on the ground floor with a meeting room and library of samples under a concrete domed roof on the level above.

The overall form of the building, along with the imprint on the tiles, is designed to be a reinterpretation of slate-shingle-covered houses found in the Česká Lípa region.

In total, the facades are made from 1,400 tiles, which are supported on a steel frame connected to the building's concrete structure. Each of the square tiles is eight millimetres thick and weighs 7.5 kilograms. The system has been designed so that it can be utilised on other projects in the future.

"The mantle and roof are covered with glass stencils, which were developed in collaboration with Lasvit," explained Valouch.

"It is based on the proportion and laying of slate slabs used on gables and roofs in the region. Also the texture of the glass template is based on the fracture of slate slabs."

The second house-shaped addition, which is also derived from the houses in the region, is entirely clad in black metal plates.

This building contains a four-storey space for the display and testing of the company's chandeliers and light-sculptures, which can weigh up to five tonnes.

Lasvit intends on constructing two further buildings on the site to fully enclose the courtyard and complete the city block. One of these buildings will contain a public cafe and further offices, while the purpose of the sixth block is yet to be determined.

Czech glass brand Lasvit has previously collaborated with design firm Yabu Pushelberg to create an illuminated glass Christmas tree and made a set of miniature monsters from glassware for Milan design week in 2018.

The brand also previously collaborated with Kengo Kuma to create a collection of crackled glass lighting.

Photography is by Tomáš Souček unless stated.

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Architecture studio Chybik + Kristof has revealed its design for a pavilion on the site of the greenhouse in Brno where Gregor Mendel discovered genetics.

The greenhouse is located in Brno in the grounds of St Thomas' Abbey, an Augustinian monastery built in the 14th century.

Gregor Mendel, a scientist and abbot of St Thomas' Abbey, conducted a series of experiments from 1856 to 1863 growing pea plants in his outdoor laboratory, which lead to his groundbreaking discovery of inherited characteristics.

The original greenhouse structure was swept away in a storm a few years later, leaving behind only its foundations.

Chybik + Kristof is building a new greenhouse-style pavilion on the site.

Due to be completed in 2022, the Mendel Greenhouse will be a part of the commemoration of 200 years since the scientist friar's birth.

The pavilion will host conferences and lectures at the Abbey, which still continues a programme of scientific research under its current abbott, Cyrill Napp.

The architecture studio decided to combine the greenhouse's original design with elements that allude to the site's scientific importance.

The Mendel Greenhouse will match the original building's size and shape, with its distinctive slanted roof. Chybik + Kristof consulted material from the archives, including old photographs and plans.

Its contemporary steel structure will reference Mendel's three laws of inheritance.

"The nodes and branches constituting the steel supportive framing are in direct dialogue with his laws of inheritance, in particular that of hereditary segregation," said Chybik + Kristof founder Ondřej Chybík.

"Building on this notion as well as Mendel’s original drawings, the resulting, highly complex structure pays homage to his legacy," he added.

Large panes of glass will cover the steel frame to form a roof, with the tallest side left open to the surrounding monastery grounds.

Underground heating will keep the Mendel Greenhouse warm in winter, while blinds and shades will prevent it from getting too hot in the summer.

Chybik + Kristof was founded in 2010 by Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof, and has offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava.

Recent projects include a Prague food market made of shiny metal cabins, and a Czech wine bar in a 19th-century brewery.

Images by Monolot Studio.

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