Netolice, with its well-preserved historic layout, represents a truly unique urban structure. Our proposal for an art studio in the courtyard of a town house seeks to respect this exceptional environment. While incorporating elements of contemporary architecture, the design adopts the basic massing, scale, and some characteristic materials from the architectural language of the neighbouring buildings.

The building is located in the heart of Netolice’s historic fabric, near the town square, within a heritage protection zone. It is a reconstruction of an original stone barn, of which only the torso of the perimeter walls has been preserved. The plot, situated in the courtyard of the original multifunctional town house, offers views of the town and its surroundings.

In the design, the floor plan follows the fragments of the old stone barn, complemented by a new structure shaped into three gray roofs with ideal northeast lighting for the future studio. The original stone walls of the barn are repaired with lime plaster, while the new masonry will be finished with coarse lime plaster. This variation in plastering technique is intended to subtly distinguish old from new. This distinction is important to us in terms of legibility and authenticity. We perceive our design as an additional layer—an imprint—added to the rich historical context of the site.

During the course of the building permit process, the project underwent several changes, most notably affecting the glazing in the gray skylights. From the original concept of exposed minimalist glazing, we ultimately arrived—after intensive discussions with heritage authorities—at a solution where the skylight windows are covered with vertical shading boards made of oak. These boards are fixed with tenons to the upper wooden lintel and to the solid oak parapet. See for yourself how they appear in the façade details.

The roof covering will consist of double-lapped larch boards. In the courtyard, we designed large sliding doors measuring 5.9 × 2.55 m, fully glazed into steel profiles. When opened, these doors allow the courtyard space to be seamlessly integrated with the studio interior, and vice versa.