Reconstruction of Red Colony

CTU in Prague - Faculty of Architecture

Project idea

A hundred year old house, a hundred years of living, and a hundred years of hidden stories in the walls…

The theme of our project is reconstruction of a gallery house from 1901, functioning as a housing for mine workers of black coal mines in Žacléř city above Krkonoše mountains in the north of the Czech Republic. In case to preserve a building in an original form we collaborate as three students to design new apartments in the old typology. The diverse fitting of nowadays standard equipment as social room and kitchen is a point of main interest of interior design in our project. Our programme focused on elders and people who need special help.

Project description

Our task was to prepare a reconstruction based on thorough historical research. Is it even possible to actually squeeze the modern living with all its features into these old spaces which were built for completely different style of living as we know it nowadays without completely burying the character of these simple vast rooms?

The disposition of the colony buildings is clear. On each floor there are eight studio apartments with anteroom and two larger apartments at the end of the tract. Just two toilets and that's it. Is it even possible to approach this minimalism? It does seem that only one possible solution is to build a new bathroom and kitchen into one-room apartments and confront new mass with the old one.

Technical information

During reconstruction we kept an eye on one thing – not to turn the old into the new but to clearly delimit against the old. Highlight its proportions, masses and shapes by placing the old into a new one. The first approach is using a clear element - an arch with a door in the middle. It emphasizes the arch by absorbing it into a new mass – it split it, surround it, highlight it, and pull it out by placing new masses. New design is highlighted by colour HPL boards which thanks to their properties can also be used in the bathroom and kitchen. That will create a cube in the cube system - wooden cubes that are completely built into the old disposition and conceal everything you need for today's life - bathroom, kitchen or dressing room. Second approach is using a wooden cabinet in module 60x60. By these modules is clearly determined what is a new added mass. And the third approach focus on attic where we want to keep the structure of truss despite the fact that we have to insulate the roof and solve other construction details.

Co-authors

Thu Huong Phamová, Iveta Kopecká, Petra Pekarová

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