The Prague House That Hovers Above Its Own Orchard
A house in Prague, Czech Republic, looks ready to lift off its garden.
It does not sit flat on the lawn. That floating effect belongs to House in the Orchard, completed in 2016 in Prague by ŠÉPKA ARCHITEKTI, according to ArchDaily.
The design is credited to Jan Šépka. He is a Czech architect and co-founder of the studio HŠH, as described by Wallpaper. He now leads his own practice, ŠÉPKA ARCHITEKTI. In plain terms, one studio grew out of the experience of another, with the same lead designer.
House in the Orchard is an unconventionally shaped dwelling that appears to hover above the ground, Designboom reported. The main living space is raised. You realise you are looking at grass and shadow where a ground floor would normally be.
The reason is in the garden itself. Six large orchard trees were already occupying the plot, and the practice created the unusually shaped house in response to them, Dezeen reported. An orchard is simply a group of fruit trees planted together. Keeping all six meant the design had to work around trunks, roots and canopies rather than clearing the site.
What makes this stand out is simple. Most new houses start with an empty plot. Here the trees set the rules.
Šépka's team has stayed with city houses on difficult plots. Its own project list includes Wardrobe House in Prague, dated 2021, according to ŠÉPKA ARCHITEKTI. The listing gives place and year. It gives no further detail.
Another Prague job is House in a Steel Corset. It is described as a construction modification of a family house — industry language for altering and rebuilding an existing home rather than starting from zero — ArchDaily reported. The name refers to the intervention. The building underneath remains a family house.
Taken together, the three projects form a clear set. One new house lifts above fruit trees. One older house is reworked. One is logged as a 2021 Prague address. All three come from the same architect and his Prague practice, working house by house rather than block by block.
