Room in the Landscape | Šépka architekti

The demarcation of space in the landscape in the form of a ‘room’ reacts to the request of the municipality of Modrava and the Administration of the Šumava National Park which anticipates the creation of several rest places with information for tourists in the Šumava. The first room is located at the confluence of the Streams Modravský and Roklanský, from which the River Vydra is created. The exceptional landscape of Modrava is an invitation to an untraditional approach in the work on these places attractive to tourists. The structure of the place of repose represents the walkway of the platform inspired by the vegetal form of a leaf. The triangular form creates a structural solidity, which does not require further transverse bracing. The whole configuration is divided into two squares and nine triangles so that the individual parts could be produced from the commonly sold grating pieces of 2 x 3m. The leaf is not anchored to the surface but only placed on it, with the irregularity being evened out by nine independent braces, allowing adjustability. Along the perimeter of the leaf, two transparent glass tablets have been placed, which will serve as information panels. On the walkway of the grating surface, chairs and tables have been placed, which complete along with the shape of the leaf the feeling of a ‘living room’. The room in the landscape is a kind of consideration of where the landscape begins and ends and the opposite, where the individual delimits his/her territory for himself/herself. This border since it is not a standard delimited space is purposely not clearly defined. We feel that we are stepping into something different while being still surrounded by the scene. Not even the glass tablets form a distinctive barrier between us and nature. The individual is thus exposed to a feeling, which should simulate the comfort of a living room which is however still part of the landscape. The entire project was from the beginning designed in close cooperation with the supplier and a structural engineer. Thanks to the fact that these are elements produced in a workshop, it was possible to bring only the individual parts and subsequently assemble them together during a single day. The resultant platform was welded into two pieces – because of the possibility of transport but also because of its zinc coating.