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Architects: Jestico + Whiles
- Area: 560 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Ales Jungmann
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Manufacturers: Sto, ACTUAL FENSTER TÜREN SONNENSCHUTZ
Text description provided by the architects. Jestico + Whiles has completed a luxury private villa in the heart of a village close to Prague in the Czech Republic. A sophisticated five-bedroom family home that marries a contemporary aesthetic with the best in environmental design, the property also includes cutting-edge intelligent home technologies.
Fully integrated into the surrounding landscape, Jestico + Whiles’ design fuses the home’s minimalist spaces with physical connections to the landscaped gardens. The villa features a transparent south- facing façade that allows natural light to flood throughout the entire living space without any danger of overheating or glare in summer thanks to balcony overhangs and a cantilevered roof.
A large skylight on the upper level is designed to break up the façade on the second floor and highlight the division of spaces into master wing and children’s wing. The skylight also brings light deep into the ground floor and is framed by a picturesque pocket garden visible from the master bedroom. The north façade is defined by a mosaic of windows, each one offering a framed and unique view of the garden.
The entrance to the villa is through a wide glass doorway, with recessed, sumptuous leather seating and generous storage spaces. A direct view through the depth of the villa reveals the landscaped garden beyond, blurring the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. As one enters the living room, a series of open-plan living spaces reveal the owner’s African artwork and are connected to a recessed, polished-lacquer finished library with a large fireplace.
The kitchen and dining spaces are located next to the living room and designed to be a warm heart to the family home whilst providing the house with a contemporary feel. The hi-tech kitchen uses button-less technology and carbonated water runs directly from the kitchen tap.
One of the home’s show-stopping features is a natural oak staircase that connects the three levels of the house and appears to float in the naturally-lit triple-height space. Downstairs a gym and spa (featuring a state-of-art-sauna and Jacuzzi set in marble) offer beautiful views of the landscaped garden through large windows. Upstairs, bedroom and bathroom spaces look on to the south-facing garden and private terrace that features subtle LED lighting cleverly integrated within the rain-drip detail along the edge of the roof.
A separate and fully-glazed garage structure showcases the owner’s impressive collection of cars much like a showroom and is visible from the garden and games room.
Throughout the project Jestico + Whiles used traditional materials. The façade is a combination of light grey stucco and cement-based panels. The windows are triple-glazed with timber frames and an external aluminium coating. Frameless windows on the ground floor emphasize the connection with the garden, and external terraces use a thermo ash finish that will turn grey over the next few months to match the bleached oak floor with a grey oil finish. Internally, the minimalist volumes contrast with natural textures such as marble, leather and timber.
The building incorporates extensive smart features and uses the very latest technologies to allow the owners to control lighting, security and audio visual elements from their iPhones and iPads. Automatically optimized temperature control uses live data from the house’s weather station to provide maximum energy efficiency. The villa has been awarded a high-level ‘A class’ European Energy rating.
Jestico + Whiles designed the building to minimize energy consumption by creating a highly- insulated shell and using triple-glazing for all windows. The house also uses heat pumps in combination with solar panels for heating, cooling and hot water.
