When you are a racing driver, cars are as important as living quarters and in order to give both equal importance, the cars need to be integrated seamlessly into the overall design. This necessitates having a car shop on the main floor and on a small lot like this one, the living quarters need to therefore be upstairs.
Stempel & Tesar Architects designed a racing driver’s home in Bast, Czech Republic as a contemporary, compact cube built with ceramic bricks to create the necessary fire protection standards from the workshop to the living quarters.
The main floor consists of the car workshop, a technical room as well as a small office and bathroom.
On the exterior of the building, a black powder coated steel terrace is connected to the ground below with a stunning spiral staircase and the void beneath the terrace creates a covered parking spot.
A mesh safety rail on the terrace above extends down the side of the carport. Eventually the mesh will fill in with vegetation to create a living privacy wall.
While the home facade is all about neutrals, the terrace embraces a bold shade of red within its two shade awnings. Bright as these awnings are they visually tie in with the pop of yellow on the neighbors facade.
Inside the social zone neutrals continue to reign supreme with the only color accents coming from specimen plants and accessories.
Colorful accessories in this minimalist decor are kept to books within a wall of shelving and a global area rug.
The wall of shelving is designed using the same cabinetry as that of the kitchen, creating a seamless transition from the cooking to the dining zones.
Since workshops for cars require taller ceilings, the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms have a slightly reduced ceiling height. This is accomplished by using a split level design with the private zones 3 steps higher then the social zone.
To create a vertical asymmetry, the upstairs social zone has an increased ceiling height of 3.3m while the office zone below has a reduced ceiling height of 2.7m.
To keep the bathroom from feeling small a big statement is made within tangerine colour of the vanity.
The private zone consists of the bold bathroom, a hall cupboard, a master suite sans ensuite and a child’s room.
Below the private zone, the car shop matches its footprint while the technical room, office, bathroom and hallways match the social zone. This was a carefully planned decision in order to create the changes in room heights.
Stempel & Tesar Architects.
Photography by Filip Slapal.
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