Located 20km south of the city of Prague in the beautiful rolling Czech countryside, Oaks is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Czech village where life revolves around healthy, active, outdoor living.
JTP’s involvement in the project commenced in 2014 when we were commissioned to prepare a masterplan, then subsequently a Pattern Book and leading to the design of housing typologies and individual buildings.
Our team had an inspiring brief to work with. The client had a vision to create a place that was the embodiment of Czechia with a contemporary interpretation of the beauty and richness of Bohemian villages as inspiration. The ambition to have the new place rooted in its local context led to JTP creating a Pattern Book. JTP sketched, measured and documented the unique characteristics and DNA of surrounding Czech villages which helped to inform every aspect of the project in terms of form, building typologies, colour, and materials. This included an analysis of the urban structure of several Czech historical villages and settlements, a study of their historical centres, public spaces and greens, their shape, function and the placement of community uses. It also included the identification of different building typologies, urban forms and architectural elements that could be applied to the new neighbourhood. This included principles that would inform the composition of groupings of buildings, and the design of individual homes.
These findings were utilised to inform the design responses from a number of contributing architects working on the project. The design team worked closely through an exciting process of collaborative workshops and inputting into both physical and digital models of the village, and together have created a stunning place and beautiful architecture that captures the ambition and vision of the client and designers. As such Oaks consists of different typologies that are pieced together to create a variation in character and street scene whilst ensuring the buildings have a positive relationship with the spaces they address. The Pattern Book was reviewed by Professor Jaroslav Sykora of the Department of Architecture of Czech Technical University in Prague who praised that “the concept of the publication is inspirational and comprehensive”.
