This Home Serves As A Peaceful Sanctuary In The Czech Republic

Looking for a home to renovate outside of Prague, architect Jan Žaloudek and his wife, Jolanta Trojak, an art historian and writer, stumbled upon an exceptional plot of land where they could build one instead. The culturally protected parcel, located in Kamenná Lhota, Czech Republic, a tiny village about an hour’s drive southeast of the city, was once the garden of the neighboring baroque château, where famed violinist Oskar Nedbal composed his operetta Polska Krev in 1913. They immediately fell in love with the site. “We were captivated by the centuries-old trees, the crumbling stone border wall, the countryside views, and the favorable orientation,” Žaloudek recalls.

In dreaming up the creative couple’s longed-for refuge, Žaloudek abided by his philosophy that a home should be a temple for living. Accordingly, the structure, nicknamed Oskar House, was inspired by chapels. “My goal,” he explains, “was to create a space with a sacred atmosphere that could vary according to the mood of the moment—a space in which it’s possible to gaze into the landscape one minute, and, in the next, cocoon yourself in a closed, meditative environment animated by light and shadow play.”

Jan Žaloudek Dreams Up A Meditative Home In Czech Republic

The compact 1,660-square-foot two-bedroom is defined by its gabled form, drawn from the local vernacular, and its perforated facades. Circular and quatrefoil-shape punctures in the masonry structure and the ground-floor sun shutters invite ventilation and cast what Žaloudek describes as “lacelike shadows” on the concrete floors. Folding open the spruce-and-fir shutters, which line all four sides of the house, allows the interiors to switch between an open and closed posture; aluminum-framed glass sliders forge further connection to the elements.

The decor reflects the duo’s shared interest in fine art and a contemplative approach to living, with furniture and artwork thoughtfully curated to create spaces that feel at once ecclesiastical and gallerylike. The heart of the home is the double-height open-plan living/dining area, its gable marked by a 6 ½-foot-wide circular window. Here, contemporary furnishings pair with vintage objects, such as a Gabonese ceremonial mask and a 19th-century carved-wood Madonna. Echoing an altar, a vaulted niche backdrops the kitchen, with an island clad in Shivakashi granite from India. And in the main bedroom suite, also on the ground floor, an ash bed and black-granite nightstands by Žaloudek complement a 19th-century Japanese folding screen and a large-scale contemporary canvas by Czech painter Antonie Stanová.

Žaloudek conceived the second level as its own self-contained guest apartment. It’s an inward-facing contrast to the open lower level, a skylit retreat where sculptures by Vanda Hvízdalová rest on travertine pedestals. A staircase leads up from the sleeping area to a mezzanine study. “Each part of the house has a different purpose and atmosphere,” Žaloudek explains. “When you’re craving privacy, you can shut yourself away with a book in the study. Or, if you want to connect with the world, you open the downstairs shutters, and you’ll hardly know where the house ends and the landscape begins.”

Walk Through This Charming Home By Jan Žaloudek In The Countryside

PROJECT SOURCES FROM FRONT NORR11: TABLE, CHAIRS (DINING AREA), LARGE COCKTAIL TABLE (LIVING AREA), CHAIR (STUDY), STOOLS (KITCHEN). HAY: SOFA (LIVING AREA). CAPPELEN DIMYR: TAPESTRY. SYNESTÉ: SMALL COCKTAIL TABLE. MICHAL JANIGA: STOOL (LIVING AREA), TEA TABLE (MAIN BEDROOM). FERM LIVING: PENDANT FIXTURES (LIVING AREA), MIRROR (BATHROOM). BEGA: PENDANT FIX­TURES (KITCHEN, BATHROOM). TALKA DECOR: MARBLE PILLAR (GUEST BED­ROOM), SINK (BATHROOM). MARSET: SCONCES (MAIN BEDROOM). THROUGHOUT JOLANTA TROJAK: ART CONSULTANT. ATELIER ROUGE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. PROJEKTY S+S: CONSTRUCTION.

The Architecture of a Winery in Czechia Fosters Its Growth

Move over Napa, Bordeaux, and Tuscany. A new terroir, actually two, are experiencing a resurgence within the Czech Republic. Yes, you read that correctly. The zones, southern Moravia, where most of the country’s wine is produced, and Bohemia, both had a history of wine-making that fell off during the postwar era. Revival came after 1989, and “The industry is experiencing significant growth accompanied by architectural expressions of the ambitions of new winemakers.” This from Czech architect Aleš Fiala, who’s well-versed on the topic. For starters, his namesake studio created a superlative establishment in Kurdějov for Gurdau Winery—the label named after the village’s original German moniker, Gurdau—the structure a gob-smacking entity presumably like nothing wine aficionados had previously seen.

Simultaneously bold and stunning yet equally recessive, the building, at its most basic, is an arch of reinforced concrete and glass carved into the center of a landscape encompassing 17 acres of vineyards, the grapes ultimately transformed into Riesling, Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, and Merlot varietals. In a sense, the wine and winery’s launch and growth were entwined. Founded in 2012, Gurdau introduced its inaugural vintage in 2021, just a year prior to its building opening its doors following two years of construction.

Gurdau Winery Nods to Winemaking Traditions in Czechia

“Intervening in the landscape through construction is always a significant responsibility,” Fiala introduces his initial concept. “Regardless of the size of the building, we aimed to connect it with the old, local, modest cellars, often just adorned ‘holes’ in the hillside, yet full of life and fulfilling all necessary functions.” Rooted in tradition though it may be, Fiala’s contemporary creation taking form as a gentle curve or “a hill between hills” is anything but a humble hole in the hill. It stands at over 13,000 square feet on two levels as the ne plus ultra of production and hospitality.

One level, below-grade with its own separate entrance for shipments and deliveries, is dedicated to Gurdau’s annual production of 39,000 bottles fermented and matured in stainless-steel tanks and oak barrels. Here, too, is a room for tasting archive wines, plus a pair of intimate apartments for overnight guests. The accommodations, entered from the heart of the winery, “are situated within two elliptical, reinforced-concrete tubes” opening onto terraces, Fiala explains.

An Inviting Tasting Area, Plus Dining Room

The ground floor, though including some wine production, is primarily for customers. There’s no doubt about that with the blackened-steel bar standing front and center just past the entry. In the tasting area beyond, oenophiles can stimulate not only their palettes with samples of current production but also their minds, learning about soil profiles where the vines grow. Then, guests can transition through a pair of massive pivoting oak doors to the dining room. Up to 40 people can participate in dinners paired with Gurdau wines. The space spills over to an adjacent acacia terrace accessed via 33-foot-wide sliders, surrounded by vistas of the vineyards. Terraces, in fact, overflow from interiors throughout the project, including the apartments, “to bring a variety of natural moods and seasons to the experience of the space while further embedding the building in the terrain from which the wine comes,” Fiala waxes poetic. “The interplay of views, landscape, greenery, and wine is the most cherished aspect of Gurdau.”

Explore the Winery Design

aleš fiala: tomáš bílek; bronislav bureš; dalibor klusácek.

zdenek sendler: landscape architect.

daniela hradilová: interior details.

mylight: lighting consultant.

navlácil stavební firma: structural engineer.

category: mep.

drevostyl: millwork.

omelka: steelwork.

atelier originál horánek: custom furniture workshop.

bentglass: glasswork.

dedon: chairs (dining terraces, dining room).

hay: tables (dining terraces, deck).

living divani: sofa (deck).

vispring: beds (apartments).

ton: tables (dining room).

georg bechter licht: ceiling fixtures (storage room).

belevey: decking.

pozvek: barrels.

Inside the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic

Founded in 1873, the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, is among the world’s 10 oldest such institutions, although, as its director Jan Press acknowledges, “It took another decade before the building itself was constructed.” A handsome, three-story Renaissance Revival–style palazzo by architect Johann Georg von Schön, who was also the museum’s first director, the building’s interiors were lavishly decorated with frescoes, stucco, stained glass, and other quattrocento-inspired embellishments.

“From the start, it was clear the museum would expand,” Press continues, which it did almost immediately. “During a 14-month remodel in 1888, its total space doubled.” The building was largely reconstructed in 1945, repairing severe wartime bomb damage and making multiple additions and reconfigurations. In 1961, the museum merged with the Picture Gallery of the Moravian Museum to create the Moravian Gallery, a multisite art museum—the country’s second largest—that now comprises six separate structures including Von Schön’s palazzo and the bright-yellow house where Josef Hoffmann was born.

Architect Ivan Koleček Preserves Museum History Through Design

Between 2019 and 2021, Czech architect Ivan Koleček—principal of an eponymous practice based in Lausanne, Switzerland, specializing in the restoration and conservation of historical buildings—completed another major renovation of the museum. “The aim was to come as close to the original shape as possible,” Press says, “preserving historical motifs and restoring damaged decorative elements without resorting to the use of replicas. Koleček also utilized his own contemporary style, characterized by simple, minimalist forms, which creates an interesting contrast between the old and the new.”

A good example of these juxtapositions is found in the atrium flanking the main lobby. The architect created the three-story volume by removing the ground-floor ceiling, opening the space to the huge skylight above, and flooding the adjacent lobby with daylight via a colonnade of soaring archways—a classical architectural form rendered in Koleček’s signature pared-down aesthetic. Equally minimal, but completely contemporary, are several glossy-white catwalks that zigzag overhead, not only linking various galleries but also providing platforms for up-close viewing of site-specific installations suspended in the atrium. Clad in aluminum panels and supported on rolled-steel girders, the sleek footbridges evoke the dynamic power of bullet trains speeding toward the future.

Museum Standouts Include Catwalks and Cloud-Shaped Terrace Canopy

Designed by Prague’s Studio Olgoj Chorchoj, the catwalks are one of many attention-grabbing interventions—others include a robotic café, a cloud-shape terrace canopy, and a pair of massive floor-to-ceiling cases for displaying ceramics and glassware—commissioned from leading Czech firms. These individuated spaces, permanent installations, and bespoke structures reflect a reconceptualization of the renovated museum, now marketed under the rubric ART DESIGN FASHION. “We don’t focus exclusively on any one of them,” Press explains. “Our goal is that each is perceived not separately, restricted to itself, but rather as part of a triunity. Art can be found in design and be fashionable; design and fashion can be artistic.” It’s a multilayered, boundary-erasing approach in which the three disciplines are show­cased not only through exhibitions but also in the very look of the museum itself.

Arriving in the lobby, visitors are naturally drawn to the light and dynamism of the atrium glimpsed through its frame of monumental arches. There’s equivalent energy in another Studio Olgoj Chorchoj installation in which an icon of Czech aeronautical design—Karel Dlouhý’s L-13 Blaník glider from 1956—is suspended vertically next to the glass elevator. The sailplane remained in production for two decades and is still the most widely used glider in the world. Of course, Moravia and Bohemia are even better known for the fine glassware produced there since the 13th century. The museum, which has more than 11,000 pieces of glass and porcelain, commissioned designers Maxim Velčovský and Radek Wohlmuth along with edit! architects to create an open repository for the massive collection. The collaborators devised a system of stackable glass-and-steel display cases that spans two rooms—the glittering Light Depot, where walls, ceiling, and cabinet frames are stark white; and the moody Black Depot, with inky walls and obsidian metalwork—that offer dramatically contrasting experiences.

Graphics Chronicle Czech Product-Design History

The principal of Atelier Štěpán practices interactivity on a grander scale with The Cloud, a diaphanous multimedia canopy floating above the ground-floor terrace. Made of aluminum, steel, glass, and a galaxy of LEDs, the nebulalike installation glows, changes color, and emits sounds in reaction to stimuli from the immediate environment. “It also alludes to the surrealist works of painter Josef Šíma,” Press observes, referencing the artist’s use of clouds as a symbol of creativity, imagination, and communication—all qualities on prominent display throughout the dazzling museum.

Walk Through the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic

studio olgoj chorchoj (catwalks): michal froněk; jan nemecek

mmcité (respirium): david karâsek; michael tomalik

edit! architects (depots): maxim velcōvskȳ: qubus design studio; radek wohlmuth

atelier štepán (café robot, cloud): marek jan štěpán

cave, 2000+ fashion: tomáš svoboda

Pricefx’s Prague Offices by CollColl Draws Inspo from Pixels

For the Prague office of Pricefx, the standard workplace cubicle just wouldn’t do. The MO of the global software company, its products helping businesses price goods and services, is predicated on flux: The number and type of clients, which range from newly hatched start-ups to long-established corporations, shifts by the day and even the hour, requiring different spatial configurations intended to stimulate creative dialogue. It wanted smart, performative flex space that acts as a physical corollary to the dynamic digital environment in which its clients work and think on-screen.

In 2016, Pricefx hired CollColl—the interdisciplinary firm, its name a portmanteau of “collaborative collective,” founded by partner Krištof Hanzlík—to design an easily adaptable workplace on a half-floor of an open-plan office building. Hanzlík and his team mixed hot desks, coworking spaces, lounges, and open areas with phone-booth enclosures, offices, and small and large meeting rooms. Two years later, the architects expanded the footprint to occupy the full 9,000-square-foot floor. Then in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when the very concept of office space was in free fall, in a leap of optimism the company re-engaged CollColl to expand to the floor below. But with COVID putting the fundamental viability of such facilities into question, the mandate for flexibility was greater than ever.

CollColl Designs Pricefx’s Prague Offices for Flexibility

CollColl is a small, avant-garde group with a portfolio of both experimental and commercial projects. The success of the two previous efforts in shaping a flexible office landscape suggested the firm’s approach to the new lower level. “We wanted to create a fluid space in which there would be some separation but without distinct rooms,” says Hanzlík, who lead the team along with partner Šimon Kos. “Pricefx throws events for 30, 40, 50 attendees, and there’s a constant flow of people.”

A stainless-steel tubular slide linking the two floors spills into the new main entry, setting a tone that signals the importance of play in a workplace intended to stimulate creative ideas. The playfulness is reinforced by the reception desk, which not only doubles as a coffee bar but, thanks to a grid of LEDs behind its translucent solid-surfacing face, also functions as an interactive billboard on which pixelated images, including the company logo, appear. Nearby, a “gym” area equipped with a billiard table and a punching bag offers actual fun and games, further encouragement for informality and interplay.

The Office Includes an Expansive, Multi-Purpose Conference Room  

Perhaps the most challenging request on the client’s wish list was for a conference table that could seat 50 people during workshops—about twice the number possible previously. Rather than designing a single-purpose room, however, CollColl used seven pairs of glass double doors to partition off one end of the roughly rectangular floor, creating a building-spanning flex space with windows at both ends. This large light-filled area easily accommodates a row of six separate desks—each seating six—that extension leaves quickly turn into a continuous 50-person table: Close the doors and, voilà, an instant conference room. Folding wall panels allow the long space to be divided in half for smaller meetings.

CollColl Takes Inspiration from Video Games

The architects repeat the blocky landscape trope on the other side of the floor, next to the 50-person conference room, where the floor-to-ceiling geometric pile offers a welcome perch during meeting breaks or to people just wandering around with their laptops. And that points to yet another of the unique structures’ multiple functions, as reassuringly fixed landmarks in the floating world that constitutes Pricefx’s mutable workspace.

Walk Through the Pricefx Offices in Prague 

collcoll: adam kössler; libor mládek; mark kelly

sysloop: lighting consultant

av24: audiovisual consultant

olbert tomáš: woodwork

bauhanz: general engineer

capexus: general contractor

alfeko: custom slide (entrance)

molteni&c: armchairs (café)

Dupont: bar solid-surfacing

studio vono: chairs, barstools

Bosch: oven

XAL: pendant fixtures (meeting room)

lintex: whiteboard

vitra: tables, chairs (meeting room, conference room, av studio)

3deco: wall finishes (meeting room, conference room)

verti: glass partitions (meeting room, conference room)

av24: av equipment (av studio)

barrisol: concealed lighting (grotto)

common seating: ottomans (conference room)

freifrau manufaktur: swing seat

Interface: hard flooring, carpet tile

farrow & ball: paint

Mjölk Architekti Cofounders Build a UFO-like Observation Deck in Czechia

Mjölk, which has completed four other lookouts throughout Czechia in the last decade, addressed this challenge by wrapping the bottom of the Lookout Spike in mirror foil, which abstracts its form when viewed from below. Trees, rocks, and people are reflected on the structure’s underside so that, as is true of the vista from the deck above, you never get the same view twice.

KLAR Creates Open-Air Exercise Pavilions in Czechia

The Moravian-Silesian region in northeastern Czechia was once an industrial powerhouse known for its steelmaking capabilities and vast coal fields. But after the last of the fossil fuel was mined in 1994, attention shifted toward one of the land-scape’s other assets: its natural beauty. As part of an initiative to improve the area’s public spaces, the regional government worked with Václav Kocián and Zdeněk Liška of local firm KLAR to create simple structures where people can exercise in communion with nature.

The modest timber pavilions, called Yogapoints, are designedto be easily assembled throughout the area’s parks and naturereserves. “The object is the same, it’s just the location thatchanges,” Kocián says. Comprising a square platform, foursturdy columns, and a roof grid, the structures are made ofhand-sawed domestic larch fastened with galvanized-steeljoints. A top sheet of translucent polycarbonate allows sunshineto flow through the roof beams while keeping the heat andother elements at bay. “We love the games of light and shadecreated by the sun’s rays,” Liška adds. So far, five pavilionshave been erected in two sizes—90 or 295 square feet—thelarger of which can accommodate up to six yogis.

Clearly, the huts are named with yoga in mind, and the principles of the exercise practice—stability, lightness, simplicity—guided KLAR’s concept. But Kocián and Liška invite anyone, from playing children to hikers seeking a moment of shelter, to utilize their pavilions and connect with the natural world.

The Bor̆islavka Center by Aulík Fišer Architekti Reflects Prague’s History

Evropská, a major thoroughfare linking central Prague to the main airport, has seen a lot of development—corporate headquarters and other imposing buildings—over the last few decades. But in planning to add a new office and retail center to the broad street, KKCG Real Estate Group envisioned a facility that didn’t just satisfy commercial interests but also enhanced the livability quotient of the surrounding residential neighborhood, a heterogenous mix of family villas, mid-rise apartment blocks, and even a communist-era housing estate. “Besides the business functions of the complex, our main goal was to supplement public services and amenities in the catchment area,” CEO Petr Pujman says.

An international competition led the developer to engage a likeminded local practice, Aulík Fišer Architekti, to design the proposed center. “We considered the greatest strength of the brief was the ambition to reach out and help improve the neighboring areas,” acknowledges Jan Aulík, co-principal with Jakub Fišer of the firm. For client and architects, the common goal was to provide the community with a vibrant urban complex offering amenities, cafés, restaurants, and shops in the form of a refined public space—a contemporary reinterpretation of the small squares and intimate plazas that make the Czech capital’s famed historic district such a perennial delight.

The narrow 4.2-acre site’s positive aspects—a prime location directly above the Bor̆islavka metro station, for which the center is named, plus sweeping views of the city, including iconic Prague Castle—were offset by its awkward triangular shape and uneven topography. Aulík Fišer pored over historical street maps, which not only revealed how the quirky lot had evolved but also suggested ways its problems could be resolved. “We used the existing geometry, developed it further, and reopened passage through the site,” Fišer explains. “Then we subdivided the site into self-similar fractal segments”—treating it, in other words, as if it were a micro-neighborhood in an old town realized in modern architectural terms, which include meeting today’s environmental and sustainability requirements.

The resulting 751,000-square-foot complex comprises four faceted volumes sitting on a stone-clad, two-story plinth. The latter, which contains a partly subterranean shopping mall, addresses the changes in street elevation, integrating the center into the surrounding cityscape while providing a base for the quartet of glass-clad office structures. The irregular crystalline forms, up to seven stories tall, are carefully positioned to create narrow alleys and small open spaces between them, a permeable civic precinct that’s reassuringly familiar in scale and function while excitingly
modern in execution and style.

A tiny pre-existing square was transformed into a piazzetta, which provides barrier-free access to the whole complex and the metro station vestibule. Czech-Argentinian artist Federico Díaz created a monumental sculpture for this entry court, a towering assemblage of robotically engineered high-performance concrete that suggests ancient figures formed from sedimentary rock. It’s reflected in the multiangle facades’ structural glass, which is formulated to transmit ample daylight to the interiors while avoiding undesirable levels of solar glare on the outside.

The individual buildings are set into stepped green gardens, while entrance lobbies and public areas are filled with lush vegetation, including creepers growing up through atria and other soaring spaces. Inspired by tropical rainforests, an experimental form of indoor planting was specifically designed for the project: In the largest lobby, 76 rough-hewn acacia-wood posts the size of small trees rise in a gladelike cluster from a pool of shallow water, their trunks festooned with orchids, moss, and other epiphytic plants—a waft of the jungle that’s repeated on a smaller scale elsewhere in the complex. “It is not just vegetation, but an artwork that is alive and changeable,” says Zdenĕk Sendler, a landscape architect who collaborated on the project.

The abundant greeney is complemented by an extensive program of commissioned artworks and large-scale installations. Chief among the latter is The Iceberg, a diaphanous, light-filled arrangement of 120 fused-glass plates that emerges from the main reception area’s slatted wood ceiling like the softly glowing peaks of an inverted mountain range. Designed by Maxim Velc̆ovský, it’s the biggest piece the innovative Czech glass studio Lasvit has yet produced.

The Bor̆islavka Center is not all gardens and art, however. The four crystals house handsome office space, much of it occupied by KKCG Group and its associated divisions. (In a twist, the company sold the complex earlier this year and has become a tenant in its own development.) Aulík Fišer balances the interiors’ elegantly uniform fittings and furnishings—name-brand products characteristic of the modern corporate workplace worldwide—with custom elements and crafted pieces that bring a sense of individuality and surprise with them. And there is often a natural rawness to the materials, finishes, colors, and textures the team has chosen to use throughout.

The biophilia extends beyond aesthetics: Thanks to extensive green roofs, sophisticated rainwater management systems, elevator-energy recovery equipment, heat exchangers, and a slew of other environmentally friendly features, the whole complex has gained LEED Gold certification—affirmation that this crystal palace glitters in more ways than one.

Aulík Fišer Architekti: leoš horák; jakub hemzal; gabriela králová; david zalabák; alena sedláková; petra coufal skalická; eva mašková; jan dluhoš; ondrej cerný; petra merková; oleksandr nebozhenko; vojtech štamberg; kristýna zámostná

matouš hydroponie; zdenek sendler: landscape consultants

novecon; pbw group: interior outfitters

ruby project management: construction manager

feri; metrostav; zakládání staveb: general contractors

Dupont: desk solid surfacing (reception)

lasvit: ceiling installation

Studio Perspektiv: furniture (shopping mall)

spiral: glass facades

allegro; barrisol; kovprof: ceilings

llentab: skylights

exx; hormen; lumidee: lighting

jež: stone cladding, pavement

boca: carpet

hunter douglas; purstyl: window shades