DaM

Tenement House with Small-size Flats and a Gym . Prague

Petr Burian / DAM . photos: bydleni . plans: stavbaweb

The overall design concept was based on the box-of-bricks principle consisting of spatial units. The position of the vertical staircase dictated by the hall’s presence defines the layout type featuring an open horizontal corridor. There are sandwiched ´volumes´ between the layers of floor slabs, by their size corresponding with apartment units. There where the mass volume must be made less dense conforming it to the neighbouring buildings, where more natural light and air must be let in, where an untraditional open space must be created allowing contact between people, the bricks are left out. As the flats on the top level are maisonettes, the body of the unit expands two storeys up crowning the whole composition. The flats are mostly of minimum size allowing lateral ventilation; due to their orientation to the south and generous glazing the flats enjoy plenty of natural light and sun. The ground-floor translucent glass façade is the same for both the recessed gym and the rest of the streetscape. The design is based on cheap materials with precise workmanship of details: the sandwich envelope covered by glass fibre concrete panels, galvanised steel, moulded glass blocks, timber window frames.