Family House Spitalka

CTU in Prague - Faculty of Civil Engineering

Project idea

The design of the Family House Spitalka meets all the needs that the model family requested. The meeting point of the family is in the centre of the garden and its maximally connected with it. The private part of the first floor enjoys the generous view on the city of Prague. Functionalist architecture of the whole location of Haunspaulka and Baba is mirrored in the design of the whole house. The language of the surrounding architecture is manifested also by highlighting the vertical communication of the house and its reinterpreted by the language of contemporary architecture.

Project description

The subject of this project is a design of a family house for a family of four in Prague – Dejvice. The plot of land is located near a villa houses area called Hanspaulka and it is part of a bigger group of plots and none of them are currently built-up. All of them are intended for family houses. The plot can be accessed from a street called Na Spitalce. The site is slightly sloped down in a south-easterly direction.

The main mass of the family house is in parallel with the street line and it is located in the northern part of the plot, thus opening the southern part for a possible garden. Perpendicular to the main mass are emerging two other masses with strong vertical character. There is possible passage opened through the mass between those two masses. A mass which is reaching the center of the garden is pulled from the southern façade of the ground floor. A visor is created by connecting the souther façade on the first floor and it is directed towards view of Prague.

The family house has got three floor levels. The ground floor is mainly for the socializing of the family members and it is connected with the garden. In contrast the first floor is mainly private and quiet and it contains two kids rooms and a bedroom. A studio which is otherwise separated is connected by a second staircase to the bedroom. Technical and laundry rooms are located in the basement along with gym and sauna. In the future there is possibility to separate the studio and create a rentable apartment.

Technical information

The main load bearing structure of the family house is from concrete. The whole thermal insulating envelope of the house ensures low heat loss during the winter and the generous windows facing south ensures heat gains from sun also during winter. On the other hand, the windows can be covered by sunscreens to prevent overheating in the summer. The house uses for heating itself geothermal pumps with additional electric boiler. In the whole house is installed ventilation system with heat recovery system from the used air. All water collected from roofs is collected in underground retention tank and the water will be used for watering the garden.

Co-authors

I would like to thank to my tutor Ing. arch. Petr Lédl, Phd. for all the help I got during the design process of this project.