Dezeen Magazine

Wide view of kitchen dining area

No Architects references owner's artworks in Prague maisonette

No Architects repeated rounded beveled corners, royal blue and numeric details throughout an apartment in Prague, which was informed by two contemporary paintings.

The apartment in the Czech capital's Žižkov district, takes cues from the two modern artworks belonging to the owners – an unnamed piece by Vladimír Houdek and Cesta domů by Josef Bolf.

Sixty-Nine by Vladimír Houdek hung on the wall next to a baby pink and royal blue kitchen
Vladimír Houdek's painting is mounted on the wall beside the kitchen.

Houdek's unnamed painting, featuring the number sixty-nine, is hung between the dining and kitchen areas.

The rectangular piece is displayed in portrait orientation and divided into four sections with a pair of reflected sixes and nines in a greyscale, gradiented typeface.

The ragged lower edge of the baby pink kitchen cupboards
The bottom edge of the kitchen cabinets echo the painting's frayed edges

The frayed edges of the artwork are referenced on the bottom edge of the kitchen wall cabinets, a tactile detail that contrasts the sweeping curves of the base cabinet opposite.

Rich royal blue, the central colour in the composition, is found in the kitchen, corridor, bathroom and master bedroom manifesting as large planes of lacquered MDF, tile and velvet upholstery.

The number 69 becomes a pattern when minimised and embossed on the perforated screen in the living area, and in a larger format on cupboard doors in the second bedroom.

Detail of a screen in the living featuring
The repeated 69 motif decorates a screen in the living area

A second painting, Cesta domů by Bolf, is hung in the living area on a grey-toned wall directly opposite the piece by Houdek.

The contrastingly melancholy artwork, whose title translates to "way home" or "road to home", shows a street scene with buildings, trees and figures obscured by a dark palette of greys and black.

Wide view of the living space from behind a long grey sofa
The living room separates the stairway and entrance hall from the balcony

The emotive painting is referenced by the teardrop-shaped pendant lamps above the kitchen island and dining table. They also recall a waterfall mural by artist Patrik Hábl on the side a neighbouring building, which is visible from the living room window.

"It is a simple living space for a family who understands art and wants to appreciate and enjoy it" summarised No Architects.

"[An] interior where contemporary art is not just replaceable decoration".

Baby blue built-in cupboards with large, rotated '69' motif

Bespoke built-in furniture is found in each room, backed by a neutral palette of wooden oak and whitewash finishes on floors, walls and ceilings.

The apartment is situated in a 1990s attic extension of the original building, which dates from the first half of the 19th century.

Staircase inside apartment featuring curved plywood cladding

No Architects is a Prague-based architecture, design and planning studio founded in 2009, which previously designed a nursery in Prague that aims to ease separation anxiety in young children by incorporating plenty of internal windows, cubby holes and clear sightlines across the space.

The photography is by Studio Flusser.

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