Panoši Újezd Summer House by Lenka Milerová architektka converts a former pigsty in the Czech countryside into a compact seasonal dwelling, retaining its stone rural shell while introducing concrete, steel, plywood, and cement surfaces as precise spatial instruments within a 32 m2 structure.
Panoši Újezd Summer House Technical Information
- ArchitectsLenka Milerová architektka
- LocationPanoši Újezd, Czech Republic
- Gross Area32 m2 | 344 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years2021 – 2024
- Photographs© Radek Šrettr Úlehla
The architectural approach centered on exposing the structural materials and utilizing the most basic construction techniques. Concrete became the medium for detail.
– Lenka Milerová
Reuse as a Spatial and Material Starting Point
The project begins with a deliberate refusal to erase the existing structure. Rather than replacing the deteriorated agricultural building with a new cottage, the architect retained the former pigsty as the spatial and material basis for a 22 m2 summer house. This decision gives the project a density that a new construction of the same size would struggle to achieve, since the old masonry already contains the unevenness, thickness, and accumulated traces of rural use.
The retained stone and brick walls are not treated as decorative remnants. They form the primary envelope and remain legible inside and outside the building, cleaned where possible and supplemented where necessary. Their roughness establishes a counterpoint to the new cast elements, turning the project into a study of contact between found construction and controlled intervention.
At this scale, architectural decisions carry unusual weight. A window cut, a bench edge, or a threshold cannot be absorbed into a larger composition; each element directly affects how the room is occupied. The compactness of the house therefore supports a concentrated design strategy, where adaptation is not a secondary act but the generator of plan, section, and atmosphere.
Concrete as Structure, Detail, and Furniture
Concrete is used less as a neutral surface than as an organizing device. It forms the deep window jambs, thresholds, bath surround, and a continuous perimeter bench that defines the single main room. The material gathers structure, furniture, and detail into one system, reducing the number of added components while intensifying their spatial role.
The perimeter bench is the clearest expression of this approach. It shifts in use as it moves around the room, becoming a step, a daybed, a seat set into the window depth, and open storage for firewood. Its continuity gives the irregular plan a sense of order without requiring partitions, while its thickness reinforces the feeling that inhabitation has been carved into the existing shell rather than placed inside it.
The concrete surfaces retain the evidence of their making. Board marks, junctions, and small imperfections remain visible, avoiding the abstraction associated with highly finished cast work. This rough precision is central to the house: the material is direct and industrial in method, yet its scale and use produce an intimate seasonal interior.
Openings, Light, and the Garden Relationship
The most significant spatial transformations occur through the new openings cut into the old masonry. Large rectangular windows and doors are framed by monolithic concrete surrounds, making each incision readable as a contemporary insertion rather than a simulated continuation of the rural fabric. The contrast between pebbledash render, rubble stone, and smooth cast concrete clarifies the chronology of the building.
Steel-framed glazing reinforces the seasonal nature of the house. The absence of thermal breaks would be unsuitable for a fully conditioned dwelling, but here it permits a more direct and technically simple relationship between room and garden. The architectural consequence is a set of slender frames and deep concrete reveals that bring the exterior close without dissolving the mass of the old walls.
The garden is not treated as a cleared foreground but as an active part of the spatial experience. Tall grasses, fruit trees, conifers, and neighboring pitched roofs appear through carefully positioned openings. The window seats and daybed convert these views into moments of occupation, allowing vegetation, weather, and diffuse light to become part of the interior order.
A Minimal Domestic Program in a Rural Shell
The plan is organized around one irregular main room rather than a sequence of conventional domestic spaces. Kitchen, sleeping area, storage, seating areas, and circulation are integrated into the perimeter, leaving the center of the room open. This arrangement suits the reduced floor area, but it also gives the house a looseness appropriate to seasonal use, where functions overlap, and daily routines are less fixed.
The kitchen occupies a cleaned rubble-stone wall and combines a concrete worktop with plywood cabinetry and a tall sliding panel. Plywood introduces warmth without softening the overall material discipline, while cement screed, steel, linen, and stacked firewood add further layers of use and texture. The atmosphere depends on the economy rather than refinement, with each material carrying a clear constructive or domestic purpose.
The bathroom is carved into the adjoining slope, producing a more enclosed space than the main room. Board-formed concrete walls, a skylight, stone edges, and a simple bath set into a plinth create a cave-like counterpoint to the garden-facing interior. Its sectional relationship to the ground is important: the room is not merely attached to the house, but pressed into the site, extending the logic of reuse from the existing shell into the terrain itself.
About Lenka Milerova architektka
Lenka Milerova architektka is a Prague-based studio founded by Lenka Milerova immediately after her graduation from the Academy of Art in Prague. The practice works on smaller-scale projects and renovations, bringing a unique perspective to existing contexts, while also developing larger projects through architectural competitions. Its approach is based on clear spatial concepts, the precise use of plans, and structural elements expressed in their raw materiality to shape space and define architectural character.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Mrs. F.
- Photographer: Radek Srettr Ulehla
- Window supplier: Kaltmeyer
- Window profiles without thermal break: Jansen
- Studio portrait photographer: Lucie Adamcova
- Other Contributor: The architect’s father welded the brackets for mounting the front door.
