About the Project

AiC

The form and character of one's place for being is a clear sign of cultural identity. The question of how to arrange one's habitat is common to all and represents an inseparable component of our reality.

The Artist in Cottage project reflects the individual and collective need for work. They are usually based on a shared space that provides ground for relations and communication or, on the other hand, for individually focused work. The cottage mainly serves as a place for focused work. The reason for utilizing an external residence is the fact that Sráč Sam has opened his family house in Česká Bříza to the public in various ways.

The building was constructed in 1970 on a hillside at the foot of a forest, with a wide view of Šumava and the Klatovy Basin, at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level. The number of small constructions was originally limited and six building permits were issued. The original intention of not creating an area of cottages failed and in the nineteen-eighties the cottage was surrounded by other small recreational buildings.

The area of construction is 54 m2 with a ground plan of dimension 6x9 m and a floor space of 80 m2, of which 50 m2 is residential and 30 m2 is technical space. The technical part remained in its original state after reconstruction and is recessed into the terrain. It is composed of walled concrete bands covered with concrete panels onto which the residential part of the cottage is placed. The load-bearing skeleton is created from the original frame wood construction, with a new attic and new external and internal sheathing of the external walls. The internal walls remained partially unchanged. During the reconstruction of the attic the height of the ceiling was changed and the additional wooden construction remained exposed. The electrical wiring, guided through wooden slats, was recessed into the wall. Spots where it was necessary to carve into ceiling beams for the wiring were later simply covered with a piece of zinc-coated sheet metal nailed around the wiring. Zinc-coated sheet metal appears in the interior multiple times: under the original stove ("Club" type), as wall facing in the kitchen nook, in the bathroom, as well as on the encased entrance door. The idea was to leave everything that was functional, and on the new parts to use everything that was offered as operational or prefabricated. The result is a low-cost reconstruction that fulfills its intended function of convenient utilization. It was necessary to insulate the external walls, 7.2 cm thick. With an approach of getting-to-know the border between technological possibilities, an appeal for passive construction, and the real state of the specific use of the construction, it was decided to increase the thickness of the external walls to 11 cm not including the external wooden aerated grating. This step was essential for the overall perception of the building. Material optimization and energy conservation with regard to utilization. The choice of prefabricated wooden windows also strongly influenced the appearance of the building. There were many similar moments of balancing out limitations during reconstruction.

An emotional reaction to the cottage-handyman ethos was the new hanging of an iron object that replaced the previous antlers on a shield. Iron sheet metal was used in a similar way as the zinc-coated sheet-metal in the interior. Here there was no surface treatment as it was assumed that under the influence of wind conditions it would rust on the wooden construction, which would turn black in time.

The predetermined disposition remained. A central and unifying place in the cottage is the living room with its kitchen nook and hallway leading to the bedroom, hygienic facilities and a small entry-room at the rear entrance with an in-built storage space. The glassed-in veranda provides the main entrance. A lacquered wall made of pine board was preserved and leads straight through the glass doors into the room with horizontal white-painted boards. Thanks to the natural light penetration, the originally dark space of the cottage has gained a calm character freely flowing through time without losing its intimacy.

Text: Denisa Bytelová

Interior

...