Jezernice Apartment Building

Jezernice is a small, elongated village formed by two rows of farm buildings – a prototype of a typical Moravian rural settlement, where a house was never just a house. It was part of a farmstead – a whole that served for living and working and had a strong connection to the surrounding landscape. The barn, courtyard, stable, and living space together formed a logical unit. This arrangement functioned for centuries until it dissolved in the middle of the last century under the pressure of industrialization.

The former farmhouses, once almost indistinguishable from one another, began to gradually change. Terraced houses became detached houses, courtyards turned into gardens, barns into garages, and stables into swimming pools. The farm ceased to be a farm and became a residential house. One such building was taken over by the municipality of Jezernice itself. This raised a fundamental question: what should be done with such a building today, at a time when its agricultural function has disappeared long ago? Our answer is a rural interpretation of community living. The former farm space is being transformed into a space for gathering and sharing.

Seven apartments are created here: three for elderly people and four for families. All of them open onto the courtyard and are connected by a gallery, terraces, and a shared garden. The garden is not limited to the residents of the house, but is also available to neighbors from the entire village. The courtyard thus becomes the center of life again – this time not economic life, but neighborly life. The design does not literally replicate the form of the original building. It respects its shape and street line, but works freely with materials and expression. It is not a reconstruction of the past, but an interpretation – a transformation of the traditional typology of a rural building into a form that makes sense in the 21st century.

Residential Courtyard

informace o projektu

project: Jezernice Apartment Building
location: Jezernice
year: 2024–
status: construction documentation
together with: JIKA – CZ s.r.o.
team: Vojtěch Heralecký, Daniel Struhařík, Georgi Dimitrov,
Natálie Hodková, Jakub Čevela, Tereza Čamborová,
Radek Zabloudil
investor: the municipality of Jezernice
images: willbe studio
topics: rural typology, reinterpretation of the farmstead,
community living, shared courtyard, shared garden,
social cohesion, contemporary rurality