Architecture studio Fránek Architects designed and built a house between the spectacular and peaceful mountains of Krkonoše, creating a perfect example of a home that seeks and finds the much-desired harmony between people and nature.

Volumetrically the house responds to the traditional construction of the area. However, due to the unevenness of the terrain and conservation regulations, the building is buried in the mountainside.

 
House in Krkonoše, designed by Fránek Architects, proposes a traditional house in a majestic setting. The use of wood for the exteriors allows the house to blend in with the surroundings, while the interior develops as a blank box, ready to be inhabited by a user who wants to live together and enjoy nature.

The ground floor is built with basement walls that support the land, while the rest of the floors are solved with wood from the area. While the exterior is covered with wood, the interiors are finished in white and pristine, thus creating a great contrast and comfort inside. The incorporation of large windows that frame the views of the sublime surroundings is essential.
 

Description of project by Fránek Architects

To design a house in a pristine nature of Krkonoše was an exciting challenge, especially when it was for my long-standing friend and his young family, for a person who loves nature, art and life. Moreover, the design of the house corresponds in size to the existing building, which has been standing in this protected area since ancient times and as the only structure as far as the eye can see. The responsibility towards the circumstances and strict regulation gave an archetypal form. In addition, the investor required a sophisticated approach towards the space, which would be spiritually focused, unusual, and pure.

The house is inserted in a sloping terrain so that the basement has an entrance from the lower floor facing towards the outdoor pool. The main entrance and driveway are on the ground floor in the upper part of the building. The basement is made of reinforced concrete and from the level ± 0,0 it is a timber structure. The truss consists of four frames - glued full bindings, into which the view is completed by three pairs of convexly curved pillows for better use of space, acoustic comfort, and lighting strategy. Whilst the exterior of the building is fully cladded with larch glued laths including the roof, the interior is white and pure, even the floors. It serves as a white canvas for incorporating art in the form of positive thinking. The investor himself perceives the house this way. The long journey in the forest evokes impatience and enhances the experience from the atmosphere. One of the advantages is the appropriate size of the house and its favourable economical use and maintenance of the place. Over time, a carport equipped with solar panels as well as a vegetable greenhouse will be added to the heat pump.

My experience with these formally pure houses is following, they are demanded by strong personalities who have their own idea of their direction, their place in this world and the values their family represents. The exterior of such houses is characteristic with its artistic beauty, the art of aging and immersing itself into greenery. It expresses a kind of harmony with the universe. The understanding of its inhabitants that nothing lasts forever, but also the inimitability and irreplaceability of the present moment.

The purity, in the interior of such houses, allows thoughts to flow and makes their personalities and intellect stand out, with whom they fill the space, inhabit, cosset and mark the interior while living.

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Architects
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Design team
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Lead architect.- Zdeněk Fránek.
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Collaborators
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Accountable designer.- Jiří Topinka.
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Area
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Built-up Area.- 225 sqm. Gross Floor Area.- 464 sqm. Usable Floor Area.- 376 sqm. Plot size.- 639 sqm.
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Dates
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Project date.- 2016. Finish date.- 2018.
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Manufacturers
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Windows.- Janošík Okna-Dveře. Construction.- Stavhost. Furniture.- Ikea. Floors.- Reno. Larch cladding.- Teichman. Stairs.- Klavix.
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Location
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Krkonoše, Czech Republic.
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Photography
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Zdeněk Fránek was born in 1961 in Boskovice. After his studies at Faculty of Architecture VUT in Brno he worked at the Chief Architect Institute in Blansko, establishing his practice Fránek Architects in 1989. He is recently involved in architectural design, publishing and educational activities at home as well as abroad.

He was acting as dean since 2012 to 2018 at Faculty of Art and Architecture at Technical University of Liberec.

During his career he realized multitude of exhibitions, among others Perspectives at Jaroslav Frágner Gallery in 2007, Insides of Architecture at Brno House of Arts in 2011-2012, exhibition at the CCC Gallery in Peking in 2012, Measure & Scale in Jaroslav Frágner Gallerey in 2016, Mental Relief in House of Art in České Budějovice in 2019 and Figures in Ladislav Sutnar Gallery in Pilsen.

Abroad he lectured at universities in Gent, Utrecht, Hildesheim, New Delhi, Peking and Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, New Orleans, Vien and others.
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Published on: February 4, 2021
Cite: "Looking at an extraordinary landscape. House in Krkonoše by Fránek Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/looking-extraordinary-landscape-house-krkonose-franek-architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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