Post Office Sněžka / Martin Rajniš, Patrik Hoffman, Jan Mach, Tom Plzenský, David Kubík, Josef Franc / project 2004-5 / built 2007 / 113m2 / 690 m3
It’s hard to find a more difficult place for building a house than the peak of Mt. Sněžka. Wind speeds reach up to 250 km/h, winter temperatures hit record freezes, it is the most strictly protected zone of a national park. How to build in such a locality without spending excess money, and create a house that would remain in the minds of the people who visit? This building is a cousin of the storage depots of Amundsen’s or Scott’s polar expeditions, or the houses that you see in Greenland or the Spitzberg Islands. It enters on tiptoes into the national park: it is of wood and glass, standing on delicate metal supports. In the harshest winters it is completely closed off behind interior insulation slabs – shadowboxes – and exterior blinds, which protect it from fl ying bits of rock and ice. Its outdoor staircase reminds you that you are climbing to the highest point of the Czech lands. An environmentally friendly wooden building, respecting nature, humanity, and the majesty of the mountains.
Photo credits: Andrea Thiel Lhotáková, Jan Mach, Petr Toman
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