Mimosa Architects have completed a modern mountain cottage – a replacement for an old timber structure in the hills above the Czech village of Strážné. The new structure, Strážné Cottage, is a wholesale replacement for a building that had been altered and updated countless times over the decades, leaving practically nothing worth saving, except for the spectacular site and some key timber elements.
The cottage has views across the Giant Mountains
Step inside this reimagined mountain cottage
Strážné Cottage is therefore not a reconstruction but, in the architects’ words, an attempt to ‘rediscover the spirit of the house’. The design team, Jana Zoubková, Petr Moráček, Pavel Matyska, and Eliška Vinklárková, have drawn on the very necessary features of the regional vernacular, starting with the steeply pitched roofs designed to minimise the weight of snow during the winter.
Strážné Cottage, Mimosa Architects
The cottage sits in the heart of a triangular sliver of mountainside plot. The main entrance is on the ground floor, while a bridge at first floor level provides direct access to the bedroom level. This level is defined by its four open-ended gables, with glazing set behind vertical wooden slats that neatly frame a circular opening on each elevation.
The cottage also has an entrance at first floor level
It’s a bravura statement that gives the building a very contemporary look – especially when nighttime illumination reveals the timber-clad interiors – without setting it apart from the more traditional houses in the region.
This first floor contains the primary bedroom suite along with two more double rooms; all have slender balconies concealed behind the slatted gables, with the circular cut-outs framing the verdant outlook across the Krkonoše, the Giant Mountains.
The gable ends frame views of the landscape
The primary bedroom suite is on the first floor
The upper level provides a sheltered stone terrace on the north elevation, looking down across the valley. ‘The aim of the design was to create an authentic cottage atmosphere without resorting to historicising elements devoid of genuine historical value,’ write the architects. A timber stair leads down to the main living areas on the ground floor, as well as another bedroom suite.
A new timber staircase links the two levels
As a result, the plan is what one might call ‘traditional’, with cellular rooms and no open-plan spaces. ‘The main living room thus retains the atmosphere of an enclosed, safe, and intimate space,’ say Mimosa, ‘Its dimensions – and subsequently the scale of the other rooms – were determined by one of the few preserved elements: the exposed beam ceiling.’
The ground floor living area retains the cottage's original timber ceiling
The kitchen, beneath the original restored ceiling
The relatively generous scale of the structure (234 sq m) allowed for the insertion of the additional downstairs guest suite as well as a sauna. A subtle extension to the volume has been made between the original floorplan and the slope of the site, enabling Mimosa to add a long run of technical and storage space – ‘everything that may prove useful in the mountains.’ Here you’ll find ski and cycle storage, a workshop and boot room.
Strážné Cottage, Mimosa Architects
A ground-source heat pump and geothermal borehole provide heating and hot water. Fresh water comes from a nearby spring and there’s even on-site wastewater treatment. It’s not quite the archetypal off-grid cabin (mains electricity is provided), but Strážné Cottage certainly evokes the spirit of an earlier age without compromising comfort or style.
Strážné Cottage, Mimosa Architects