Bicycle shelter

We have a long-standing collaboration with the primary school in Velké Karlovice on small-scale architectural interventions that gradually develop and enhance its facilities. In the past, we designed and successfully completed an attic extension housing a new common room, a teaching kitchen, a computer classroom and workshops. Spaces for the after-school club are currently being completed to our design, and we are also preparing a project for an outdoor classroom. This continued trust allows us to consider the school environment in a broader context and give deeper meaning even to purely pragmatic briefs.
This approach is reflected in our latest project. When the headteacher asked us to create a place to park bicycles, we saw it as more than simply meeting a practical requirement. Wallachia is a region with rich traditions and a strong character that deserves architecture that is confident, honest and sensitive to its surroundings, and we saw an opportunity to demonstrate how high-quality contemporary design can complement a rural setting naturally. Rather than conventional shelters attached to the school building for purely utilitarian reasons, we therefore designed a simple, freestanding concrete structure. With its pared-down form, this bold, clean and unambiguous intervention does not overpower the spirit of the place, but instead introduces a layer of contemporary architecture.
The structure itself embodies structural clarity: it consists of seven U-shaped precast concrete units, with one side forming the floor, another the vertical load-bearing wall and the third a protective roof. Yet we wanted to introduce an element of life and a touch of poetry into this rigorous purity of material and form. The final unit is distinctive: circular openings in both its floor and roof allow a tree to grow freely through it. This organic accent is harmoniously complemented by a solid timber log that serves as a bench, creating an intimate place to gather. In terms of the wider spatial context, the structure’s location on the boundary between the school grounds and the neighbouring outdoor swimming pool plays a key role. Here, architecture acts as a spatial filter, providing visual and acoustic separation between the two different uses. The smooth rear face of the structure also faces the swimming pool and is intended to serve as an interactive play wall, which can accommodate children’s drawings, play equipment or a small climbing wall.
Our aim was to show that even a seemingly minor, purely practical task in a public space has the potential to enhance its surroundings. This pared-down contemporary intervention gives the schoolchildren an opportunity to interact with high-quality modern architecture naturally and on a daily basis, subtly shaping their aesthetic perception of the world. The fact that the shelter is fully functional and the children make full use of it is, for us, the best confirmation that considerate, well-thought-out architecture works.
architects’ statement