Under the Silver Mountain

The existing brick house in Řež was built in 1929, featuring a břízolit façade, details made of exposed bricks, and a stone base. The beautiful plot is on the bank of the Vltava River, with views across the water surface to the opposite hillside opening through mature trees. The house has a ground floor, an attic, and is partially below ground. Originally, it had an approximately square layout with a veranda facing west into the garden. There was a garage and a single-story outbuilding on the property. Both parts have been gradually reconstructed, expanded, and demolished again through self-help actions, insulated, and the outbuilding was transformed into a living space, but… it still wasn't right. The house had almost zero contact with the garden, no view of the river, and an inconveniently located entrance to the property.
After initial hesitation, the builders decided on a drastic intervention. We will demolish all extensions and replace them with one structure that has living space in contact with the surroundings. And to that, we will logically arrange the situation around the house: entrance and parking – house – garden – river… suddenly everything works. The connection of the house, garden, and view of the river remains undisturbed, with cars parked behind the house.
The extension is single-story, without a basement, and has a flat roof. It consists of a wall structure that is broken through with openings. Two dominant openings are a fixed window opening to the view of the river and a wide sliding window to the garden that connects the interior with the exterior. From the outside, the extension is clad in stone. Visually, the cladding mimics the plinth of the existing house. The solidity of the stone structure may evoke the hydraulic structures associated with the river, unifying the extension and the original house. Two lightweight constructions - a terrace roof and an entrance cover - are connected to the stone "base" towards the garden and at the entrance, both based on wooden skeletal construction with glass horizontal infills. In terms of internal layout, the extension includes an entrance, kitchen, living room, and service and sanitary facilities (pantry, toilet, technical room).