Artist´s residence Vrškámen, Petrovice

Semestral project

Studio Stempel & Beneš

Faculty of architecture CTU in Prague, 2016/2017

Petrovice village is laying in the wavy Central Bohemian landscape with lot of ponds and free-lying rocks. The evidence of long-term relationship between the locals and nature is shown in hundreds of small crosses and chapels. The task of the semestral project was to find the way to increase an attractivity of a Petrovice village with preserving its unique character.

In the middle of the field, not far from the village, is the biggest free-lying stone in the country, called Vrškámen. I see a strong potential in this place. In my view the stone is symbol of force of nature. A humans used to build identity and relation with surrounding landscape by mythologizing some natural objects. This relation between the humans and the landscape is the key in its protection. The goal was to increase an importance of the stone and the place around but keep its ascetic character.

I proposed the long rectangular object which follows a morphological border. The volume is partly sunken in the ground to not create a barrier in the view and its freely accessible green roof serves as the space for contemplation near the stone. The answer to sacral character of the place is a gallery. A gallery as so called “a new church". The part of the object is artists´ residence.

The house is divided into three parts. The ground floor serves for living of an artists. In the second, two-storey part, are located studios. In the underground level, right below the stone, is an entrance to an exhibition space and a lecture hall with a small café.

Artists´ residence is more than a regional institution. It should attract artists from all the world. For the locals it could be a source of new impulses and a source of new development.