Engulfed in a forest, a bright red house cuts a distinctly contemporary figure. Welcome to Villa Jevany, a new home in the Czech Republic, designed by dynamic local studio Architektura. Rather than let the residence merge into its leafy surroundings, the firm wanted to create a structure that visually announces itself. Hence the façade in bold, cherry red – a colour chosen to complement and contrast with its green backdrop.
Tour this unusual red house in the Czech Republic
With only 800 inhabitants, Jevany is a municipality in the Czech Republic’s Central Bohemian Region. The plot, a generous 3,027 sq m, is full of nature, home to deer and birds, and with mature trees that tower up to ten metres above the building site. Forest plots in this area tend to be long and bordered by a road.
From the road, the house appears as a single storey. In fact, the garage is on the roof of the unseen level below
The client called upon architect and studio founder David Kraus, having seen one of his earlier projects nearby. His brief called for a contemporary home with industrial touches. Kraus and principal architect Miroslav Styk wanted to create a strong visual contrast, as Kraus explains: ‘The main inspiration was to put a man-made object against pure nature, and create a contrast between the house and the nature around – a red object versus the green forest’.
The architects worked with the sloping topography. They removed the remnants of an existing structure that once occupied the site, and this left a pit nearly four metres lower than the adjacent road, into which the new house was set. As a result, upon approach from the road, the residence initially appears as a single storey with car parking. In fact, the cars are parked on the roof of a hidden level below, which is only seen from the opposite side of the plot.
There is a central staircase that leads directly into a 3.5m-high living space, offering views of the forest. An irregular window arrangement nods to Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s abstract compositions. A curved wall guides guests into the living room; from the outside, this curve introduces a distinct geometry within the otherwise orthogonal composition of the house's volumes.
The living space, dubbed the ‘day zone’, is a central area for cooking and relaxing. It's also an area of contrasts. The industrial-style red steel windows frame views of the soft, natural environment outside, while white walls are offset by black details. There are reddish stone surfaces in the kitchen, with black shelving, white doors, and a ‘floating’ steel fireplace.
The living space is connected to the house’s so-called ‘quiet zone’ by a long corridor, with built-in white cabinets along one side providing storage. This zone includes the main bedroom, with a large walk-in closet and a bathroom, as well as the children's bedrooms, and the corridor concludes with a door out to the garden.
While there’s an outdoor terrace, much of the garden has been left to grow organically, as the team didn't want to intervene too much with the natural surroundings.