The historic Villa Dvořákova will be renovated, it will serve the same purpose as housing in the past
We present a new housing project in the historic core of Ostrava. Villa Dvořákova, located on the corner of Dvořáková and Prívozská streets, will receive a complete renovation and extension. This villa from 1895, which originally served as a family residence with a unique garden, has been abandoned and in a bad state for several years. The original villa will be preserved, but it will undergo a complete reconstruction and extension, creating a new residential building that will not only restore the original beauty of this historic building, but also adapt it to the current standards of modern living.
The villa stands on a corner plot in the heart of the historic center of Ostrava, while Dvořákova street on the south side is more frequented, while on the west side it borders the park area of „Husova orchard“, a popular place to relax in this part of the city. The proximity of the Ostravice river embankment and easy access to services and public transport make this location a perfect place to live.
The villa is located in the city’s historic zone, so the path to its reconstruction leads through the historic preservation authorities. “I admit that the original intention was to use the land for family housing, remove the old building and build a modern villa that would meet current technological and technical standards. In the end, however, we listened to the appeal of the heritage protection authorities to preserve the building from the 19th century and were looking for a solution that would only require its reconstruction. The result is an attractive apartment complex. At the same time, with this project, we are expanding our real estate portfolio in Ostrava, which is one of the directions in which our development division is currently more concerned,” describes Jan Hasík, chairman of the board of directors of Purposia Group a.s., which is the parent company of the ANTRACIT group.
“As part of the design of the solution, we worked with the limits set in advance by the historic preservation authorities, such as the height of the building or the possibilities for intervention in the exterior facade of the original building. We also emphasized the use of the original garden. We contacted several architects, and in the end we chose from 7 variants of solutions from 5 architectural studios from Ostrava, Brno and Prague. The selected Ark studio in Ostrava presents a discreet, but at the same time bold and readable connection of a historical building with a contemporary extension. We want to primarily offer individual apartments for long-term rent,” adds Zuzana Bajgarová, director of the international development group ANTRACIT for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
VILA DVOŘÁKOVA will offer 7 apartments with a size of 70 to 160 m2, with their own spacious loggias, terraces and a common garden. Each apartment will have a spacious terrace facing the street, park or yard. The building will be prepared with the aim of achieving the best energy standard, the use of heat pumps and a photovoltaic power plant is expected. The adjacent garden will retain its cascading character and original grown trees. The garden will be equipped with active elements and seating for the residents of the house. In the basement part of the building, there will be comfortable basement spaces as well as a smaller fitness area and a parking lot for the residents of the building. The winning project proposal will be further elaborated, the ANTRACIT development group has presented the first version of the proposal from the study at this moment.
The existing solution of the villa with its mass, height and orientation is rather reminiscent of a solitary building, similar to other villa-type buildings in the vicinity. A distinctive feature is the almost blind facade on the eastern side of Villa Dvořákova, which indicates the original intention to supplement the block development of Dvořákova Street. “The design combines many input factors and requirements placed on the given place into a single functional complex. We supplement the existing historic villa with new contemporary additions and superstructures, thus responding to the client’s requirements in terms of maximizing the usable area, and at the same time to the limits of monument care in terms of their height arrangement. With the extension, we complete the street line, and with the extension, we expand the villa by another independent apartment unit. In the operational and functional solution, we emphasize the high-quality typology of all apartments as well as their comfortable service and related facilities. The minimalist architectural concept aims to create a balanced relationship between the historic and the new so that the two planes do not compete with each other and, on the contrary, fully complement each other,” explains architect Petr Kundrát from the Ark studio.
“At the moment, project preparation for planning permission is underway, the construction itself could be started in 2025 and completed within two years,” concludes Zuzana Bajgarová.
