From outside it resembles a Celtic oppidum or medieval ramparts but inside it evokes the atmosphere of a Functionalist villa. The exterior features robust unhewn quarried stone, whilst the interior surprises with its delicate glazed walls opening onto an interior atrium. According to Petr Volf, Tomáš Brýdl's residence has “two faces”: whilst from outside there is an “archetypical sense of solidity and endurance”, the interior appears “soft and fragile”. Josef Pleskot gave the building an appropriate nickname “the house behind the wall”. According to Zdeněk Jirana, The boundary wall creates a “shell” protecting family life inside the house. The paradoxical combination contrasting two (closed and open) concepts are the main design features of this villa.
It all started when the Brýdls, husband and wife, were considering reconstructing an old farm in Litomyšl for themselves and their three children. In the end, they abandoned this idea and bought a building plot not far from their original house. The idea of a quiet courtyard in a rustic building merged with memories of the atmosphere of an atrium villa, seen during a visit to Pompeii. Josef Pleskot's task was clear – a house with an internal courtyard protecting the privacy of the family. Although the owners had originally envisioned a house situated at the back of the garden, the architect moved the house closer to the line of the street to isolate it from the street and provide a sense of intimacy.
The final design features a house laid out in the shape of a horseshoe, closed towards the garden with a natural swimming pool. The imaginary fourth wall of the atrium house is created by the rising slope of the garden with its luscious vegetation and glimmering water surface. The atrium can be accessed from any room in the house through the glazed wall. In the south part there is – along with a garage – an outdoor kitchen opening into the atrium, making it possible to be both outside and inside. In direct contrast to the tall grass in the rest of the garden, the atrium is carpeted with a perfectly trimmed lawn, as if the atrium were a parlour with a luxurious jadeite carpet. It functions as an “inter-space”, facilitating the transition between the interior and exterior.
The west part of the house contains a large space which merges the kitchen, dining room, living room with fireplace and study into one unit. The street can be observed through the bay window whose walls are clad in black sheet metal and contrast with the stone walls of the house in mass as well as colour. The north part contains the bedrooms, accessible through a narrow corridor illuminated by a glazed strip in the ceiling. When the door to the last bedroom remains open, the corridor guides visitors' eyes towards the tall window leading to the pool. All the ceilings in the villa are of bare concrete and, with the pattern of the wooden shuttering still visible, are reminiscent of the ceilings in folk architecture.
Even though the villa closes itself off from its surroundings, it does not appear unfriendly. The horizontal, tranquil stone house gives the appearance of a monumental piece of land-art – impressive and unusual, quiet and inaccessible, but not however, authoritative.
EK
