2013Rodinný dům Libochovany III - dostavba
We are asking how to adapt a hundred years old and only little maintained house to everyday needs of a modern family (small floor space, technology and materials not functional anymore, lacking sanitary facilities ...). At the same time we do not want to break or violate soft, sensitive links and layerings created here over the time, as these generate a strong character of this place - magical (and familiar) atmosphere.
Usable area of the house (one floor has 30 m2) does not allow to add everything one needs inside. Therefore we leave the house layout almost unchanged, and everything necessary is added outside - instead of an old woodshed on the west side of the house (kitchen), at the southern facade instead of the ancient toilets (bathrooms) and in front of the east entrance (vestibule).
Form of extensions derives from the shape and proportions of the existing house, which is basically a set of cubes rising from a plan on two squares (vertical stairs and the residential part of the house).
As an analogy to this we add five cubes - two create additional horizontal of a kitchen, two added vertically, form new sanitary facilities, one becomes a new vestibule.
Everything added to the original house is clearly distinguishable. New surface is made of oiled spruce. Additionaly there is a hierarchy distinction among the new parts, created by the colour of oil - black kitchen / white hygiene / raw entrance.
We wish the added parts worked kind of like lichen. Like a symbiotic form of mushroom (for us wooden structure), and algae – that ensure photosynthesis, thus life (for us functional filling of extensions) and that are at same time harmless for the carrier. On the contrary – in colour and structure together they can create unexpectedly strong relationships.
We would like the newly added parts to gradually become natural and integral element of a living space.