Apartment building Smíchov city
The design of the apartment building is based on the urbanism of a new urban district on the original brownfield site of the former freight station. The new district honours the proven principles of urban design in the form of streets, squares and parks. It builds on the distinction between livelier streets and quiet courtyards, on the quality of public space and clear orientation in the urban fabric.
We design the house in the spirit of the urbanism begun by contemporary building means for contemporary housing requirements. However, our perception of modernity, or contemporary, does not exclude traditional elements and practices that are time-tested and work well.
Row section SM7-08 is located on the northern street frontage of the block, on a quiet street. Therefore, the house does not have retail space on the ground floor, but has a proposed raised residential ground floor. In addition to a light-filled vestibule and lobby overlooking the courtyard, the ground floor contains two apartments elevated above street level and one loft studio with an inset mezzanine. The upper floor is accessed by an elevator and a naturally lit double staircase on the northern (street) façade. The ground floor apartment facing the courtyard has a defined private front garden slightly elevated above the surrounding courtyard terrain.
| Authors: | Pavel Hnlička, Jindřich Blaha |
| Cooperation: | Theresa Kjellberg |
| Client: | Sekyra group |
| Project study: | 2022 |
| Gross floor area: | 1 650 sq m |
SM7-08 is the smallest section of the block in plan. As a result, there are no more than three apartments on the normal above-ground floors clustered around the elevator lobby, illuminated by a large window through the connecting staircase. Two of the three apartments are oriented across the entire layout and thus have light from two sides and the possibility of cross ventilation. This innate quality of the apartments is further supported by the generous connection of the rooms with the exterior.
All rooms are equipped with large windows without a window sill. The living rooms on the southern facade to the courtyard are extended by large loggias. Loggias are accessible by lifting and sliding portals across the entire width of the room. In the interior layout of the apartments, emphasis is placed on the possibility of connecting the living rooms through the hall into one flowing space with a view across the entire layout.
One above-standard atrium apartment is designed on the top floor. The idea of connecting the interior with the exterior is enhanced here by arranging layouts around two partially covered gardens/atriums. In addition, each living room is equipped with a private covered loggia. The main living rooms thus acquire the character of garden pavilions surrounded by greenery and attractive views of the surroundings.
The character of the facades is predetermined by the layout solution as contemporary, significantly glazed, but this, in our opinion, does not necessarily mean that the house cannot refer to the values of a traditional city followed by the urban concept of the territory. The building block of the facade are abstracted archetypal elements - column, wall and lintel. In the arrangement of the elements, the theme of the game with the depth of the elements is to be used, so that significant plasticity is achieved.
Great emphasis is placed on highlighting the leeward entrance. There is also the classic tripartite - parterre, body of the house and second floor, although this motif is incorporated here in the form of accents in the single mass of the house, rather than as a more traditional way of stacking masses on top of each other. The dominant motif of the northern (street) facade is the staircase, which is treated as the acknowledged backbone of the house. The entire area of the south facade is made up of a loggia wall, which, in addition to the quality of living and the intimacy of the living rooms, also provides the apartments with a significant ratio of passive shielding.
The designed facade shell for the street is considered in a combination of light brick strips (vertical part) and concrete prefabs (cornices) in connection with wooden opening fillings. The projecting plinth on the ground floor and the riser in the place of the staircase are designed as a ventilated facade lined with solid facing bricks that match the strips in appearance. The entrance door with a skylight and the subsequent cover of the electrical junction box are designed as a light perimeter shell with visible elements in a finish close to bronze. The loggia wall on the south side of the house is designed as a self-supporting cold structure made of exposed reinforced concrete.
