Apartment Building Kapitulská

Prague, Czechia

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Apartment Building Kapitulská

Prague, Czechia

Firm

Martin Cenek Architecture

Type

Residential › Multi Unit Housing

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2019

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

$10K - 50K

The new tenement building was built on a vacant lot in the historical urban context of Michle in the wider centre of Prague. The building was conceived as an apartment house with 8 flats of different sizes.
The project has been brought to life by a private client. In the current situation, there is a huge lack of tenement houses (i.e. apartment houses with flats for rent) in Prague, most apartments are sold directly.

On the north side, to the street, the building is characterised by a simple façade with contrasting ground floor and smaller window openings placed within the modular grid applied throughout the design, and is topped by a sloping roof. In the courtyard, the volume reacts to different depths of the neighbouring houses. Contrasting light steel balconies are hung on the significantly glazed south facade. Vegetation is used on the roof of the garage and serves as an extension of the living area of the two apartments on the first floor.
The house was built with the parameters of a "near zero energy" building.

The shape of the new apartment building reflects the existing conditions in the area and the functional requirements for the building. As it is a vacant lot development, i.e. an addition to an existing urban tissue, the height of the edifice attempts to connect both neighbouring apartment buildings.
The shape of the plot is almost rectangular and given that the courtyard is surrounded by high walls and one-storey utility yard extensions, the ground floor was partially embedded below the surrounding terrain so that the existing boundary walls are not surpassed but the whole site is used. Thanks to this, the edge of the street facade above the entrance floor follows the line of the decorative bossage of the ground floors of neighbouring older houses. The roof of the garage provides the missing garden in the courtyard.
The ground plan of the upper residential floors reacts to the varying depths of neighbouring buildings. The courtyard façade is turned 25 ° so that neighbouring residential buildings have untroubled
sunlight exposure and at the same time their footprints are linked by the new volume.
The building is topped with a traditional sloping roof to the street, while in the courtyard the last floor recedes to create a terrace.

The façades are designed in a restrained manner – most surfaces are finished in white render. The last recessed storey is lined with vertical strips of aluminium sheeting. The same material is used for the street roofing. The façade of the entrance floor to the street is slightly inset and has a smooth anthracite finish, used equally on the garage doors. The aim was to visually uplift the mass of the upper floors. Glazed entrance door is recessed to create a protected porch.
The windows in the façades are distributed irregularly within a fixed modular grid of 550mm. To the street these are mostly smaller-sized windows reflecting the context of neighbouring buildings as well as the building´s layout - these are the windows from bedrooms and from the common staircase. Large windows from living rooms open to the courtyard. Part of them is supplemented by lightweight suspended steel balconies.
Wooden window frames, window sills and all steel elements are finished in anthracite lacquer, aluminium roofing and roofing elements all have a lighter grey colour corresponding to galvanized steel.
The main staircase was executed in exposed concrete; the elevator shaft wall and garage ceiling have a cement screed finish. Other surfaces are rendered and white washed.
The colour scheme of the building is monochrome, complemented only by larch terraces and balcony decks, green roof garden, and wooden floors and beige blinds and curtains in the interior.

The layout of the house is based on its orientation with respect to the sun and surrounding context.
The communication core with staircase and elevator is located in the middle of the northern (street) part of the building. The entrances to the two apartments are placed symmetrically on each of the residential floors. On the second to fourth floors there are one bedroom apartments with a central service core (kitchenette, bathroom). The bedrooms are placed to the north facade and give to a quiet street; the living rooms are oriented to the south, to the courtyard. On the fifth floor there is a larger flat which occupies the whole width of the house along the south facade, and the entrance to a duplex unit, which has an entrance hall, toilet and one bedroom / guest room with in-suite bathroom on this floor. The attic contains an open living space with a terrace and two bedrooms with a bathroom.

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Apartment Building Kapitulská

Prague, Czechia

Other Projects by Martin Cenek Architecture

Functionalist Apartment, Prague

Interiors of three houses near Obora Hvezda

Complex of residential houses Libocká

Three Row Houses in Liboc

House on the outskirts of Prague

Apartment Building Kapitulská

Prague, Czechia

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team