Concrete Villas, Žebětín

Burdened with negative associations with prefabricated housing estates, concrete has a poor reputation in the Czech Republic, so few homes are built with it, even though this material and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds. The architect built a single-storey atrium house made of liapor concrete for his family; the second villa is occupied by a pair of graduates of the Zurich University of Technology. After observing the obligatory two-metre distance from the edge of the plot, a narrow six-meter strip remained, into which 45 cm thick perimeter walls still had to be included. Still, the house manages to offer sunny layouts, opening onto closed atriums, despite the spatial constraints.

Intricate details are often hidden behind the pure white surfaces of Japanese minimalists. In the case of insulating concrete, the minimalist look is a reflection of the structural simplicity that liapor concrete allows. A concrete wall with a coating of insulation is built directly on the foundation slab. The flat concrete roof was not only completed without any additional insulation or roofing, but also without gutters. Rainwater thus flows freely along the walls and the appearance of the concrete changes depending on the weather.

Despite their austerity, the experimental houses made of insulating concrete offer a cosy environment, along with a degree of anonymity: most passersby still mistake them for the double garage of a neighbouring catalogue house.