Studio: Markéta Bromová architekti
Design team: Dominika Galandová
Project location: Prague – Letná
Project country: Czech Republic
Completion year: 2022
Usable Floor Area: 97 m²
Photographer: Veronika Raffajová
Concrete floor screed surface: Concrete Group
Metalsmith works: DEMO Works
Carpenter works: Lemberk
Pivot doors: Dorsis
About Studio
The essence of my work is understanding the client’s needs and lifestyle. The client comes first. I believe that thorough preparation brings quality results. I offer comprehensive processing of an architectural order. I prepare architectural and volume studies, documentation for territorial and construction management and implementation documentation.
I offer comprehensive services in the field of construction preparation, engineering activities and ensuring author supervision during construction implementation. When processing all orders, I cooperate with professional specialists and engineers and fully represent the client in the entire process.
How do you create one open space out of a large multi-room apartment so that there doesn’t have to be a door between rooms because the client wanted as few as possible, but you still felt like the rooms were separated? We tried to clean the whole space, to use the existing structural and technical parameters of the apartment. The reinforced concrete ceiling structure with ribs was also exposed.
This gave the apartment a rawer character. The supporting theme of the concept was the choice of flooring, which was supposed to be uniform throughout the apartment, including in the bathrooms and shower spaces. One of the options was a terrazzo floor but after a static analysis, the client and I decided on a brushed concrete screed.
The second theme of the concept is the insertion of “boxes” into the open space, so that the rooms are separated from each other, and also in this way the private part of the apartment is separated from the residential part. The inserted boxes are made of different materials and structures. The main dividing element of the space is a green scalloped box that hides a part of the kitchen with a fridge, dishwasher, or built-in oven, wardrobes in the bedroom, or also a closet that serves at the entrance.
The client wanted as few doors as possible. At the entrance, there is a small utility room and two built-in wardrobes. One is recessed in a dark paneling that goes around the corner into a library. The other is located in a green box. The central space is the kitchen with an island lined with patinated brass panels.
This has a solid concrete countertop. The island’s countertop surface has cleverly hidden openings for things like bio-waste sorters. The bedroom is located behind the green box. It has three entrances. The headboard uses the existing massive chimney as a divider. There is a pass-through library between the master bathroom and the bedroom.
The other half of the apartment is without any divisions or partitions. There is space for a dining room with a living area. In this half of the apartment is also a small bathroom where is a toilet for visitors. The entrance to the bathroom is at the vestibule of the apartment. The views that were created after most of the partitions were removed are sometimes surprising, due to the interconnection of so many materials used in the apartment.
