SENAA renovates goat shed in czech village of bukovany to modern house

from heritage vernacular to contemporary

Bringing new life to a former goat shed in Bukovany, Czech studio SENAA architekti completes a contemporary weekend house. The restoration project is sited along a remote and pastoral ‘wine cellar lane’ which, in turn, gave limited access for construction equipment. This location with all its limitations greatly informed the design of the house. The team explains: ‘We had to abandon the original reconstruction plan after the actual condition was discovered. The new building respects the footprint and shape of the old house.’

images © Alex Shoots Buildings

senaa architekti takes to bukovany village

The team at SENAA architekti (see more here) conceptually divides its Bukovany weekend house into several organizational and structural parts. The bedroom, bathroom and washroom occupy a brick volume. Meanwhile, a glazed living room occupies the site of the former goat sheds and takes shape with a steel structure. The ‘superstructure’ above is made of wood and houses a sauna with a relaxation area.

The house uses every bit of the steep sloping plot. In addition to the house itself, the 230 square-meter site hosts a bike shed and a rooftop swimming pool tucked into the slope with a panoramic view of the surroundings.

a house with modern and historic details

SENAA architekti comments on the design of its weekend house in Bukovany: ‘The house has a traditional morphology but combines modern details with historical technologies. For example, we set a hand-hewn loft ceiling into a steel structure, which continues into frameless large-scale glazing. The interior plaster is coloured and polished without any additional surface treatment.

‘Another distinctive softening element are the rounded corners of the window lining and lintels. We also applied a traditional Japanese folk technique of charred wood shou-sugi-ban and the entire superstructure of the sauna house on the roof terrace is treated in this way.

‘The mixture of the variety of details and the overall layout creates an architectural experience of the space and shows the possibility of implementing modern architecture in the historical context of the cellar lane.’