Anenska – One flat, two ateliers, 4 individuals | benkobenkova

Bratislava city centre, Anenska street, modernist building from 1925-27. Army officers’ housing designed by a duo of Czech architects Alois Balán and Jiři Grossman, provided a good foundation for further development. The flat, located on the 3rd floor, was almost in its original condition. The disposition of the flat was tailored to the needs and the time period in which it was built. Generous entrance hall with small, enclosed balcony and toilet, two walk-through rooms and kitchen with entrance to the storeroom, rooms for servants and walk-through bathroom. Well preserved door frames with gentle lining,, original parquet flooring and fittings. Windows has been updated, but everything else looked like it hasn’t been touched since the original built. At the time of project start, the house was going through a complex refurbishment of the façade and common areas, for which the builders managed to keep the original character of the house as well as a many of period features.

Proposal

Client’s specification was pretty straightforward = living space for a family of four. After taking the initial measurements, it became clear that the original idea from the sketches  will not fit within the space at hand. Couple of options were discussed, leading to a design which respected the original layout of the flat taking the wishes of the investors into account.. The kitchen remained the central point of the apartment now becoming also a part of the open living space. The new bathroom and toilet used available space in the spacious hall,  small enclosed balcony became natural part of the bathroom (the ventilation of the bathroom and drying the washing cannot be easier). The light in the hall hasn’t changed and the glass panels allow the natural soft light to gently enter the room from the north. A discreet rounded corner of the original bathroom  . Two rooms facing the street serve as bedrooms with office desk and kids’ bedroom.

Renovation

Removal of the non-bearing partitions, flooring, damaged ceilings, and painting lead naturally to lot of questions and some challenges to solve. This is typical when doing renovation of an almost hundred-years-old apartment. In the north facing part of the flat, the reinforced concrete ribbed ceilings were revealed. It was tempting to kept these visible, but the owners preferred to cover these for better acoustic comfort. In the south facing part of the flat we found wooden beams (flooring), but due to their excessive dynamic these needed further reinforcement. The central weight-bearing wall, with concealed chimneys remained un-plastered to reveal its original brick structure. The oak parquets in the room were refurbished, matched with same type of the flat in new areas. In the beginning, we tried to keep at least a fragments of the original colour scheme and ornaments, which were revealed during the removal of several coat layers. In the end it, however, we agreed with investors to have a full unified plaster wall cover. However, the original colour scheme of the rooms remained in the form of newly built-in furniture. Door filling and frames were refurbished and painted in white.

Textures and materials

The dominant feature of the flat is cosy natural wooden floor. Entrance hall with bathroom and toilet complement the hexagonal ceramic tiles, but within the colour scheme. The massive brick wall separating diurnal and nocturnal sections of the flat is in sharp contrast to smooth plastering and delicate structured glassed new partitioning of the bathroom and toilet. Green laminate used in the main kitchen section and brass additions point to the original colour scheme and furnishings of the apartment.

Final, final-final, super-final

It is always a step into an unknown territory for this type of renovation and its final design changes during the process. Despite the budget and time of moving being set from the beginning, in the end we went over for both. As a result, there wasn’t much left to cover, all joinery and the young family had to move in with the minimal equipment. However, the children don’t mind that at all. On the contrary, they filled the space with their own creations and only the sky was the limit. A cupboard, the long bench in the living room, bookcase or wardrobe will need to wait to be put in place later (or never) – options with this good base are open.