Interior of Single Bata House in Zlín

Fotografie: Petra Ocelková, Pavel Míček

The author of the original single house from 1936 is Bata´s architect Vladimír Karfík. This is the only house of this type in Zlín. However, from the point of view of its conception and disposition, it is very similar to typical Bata houses. Almost a cube 10 x 9 x 9.3 m. The original utilitarian layout was only slightly adapted to today requirements of a young five-member family. The groundfloor rooms are spatially mingled, which causes that their mutual relationship can be transformed thanks to installed sliding walls. The interior is completely integrated into the original structure of the house. Some windows were elongated to the floor; their width with original lintels remained the same. The house thus opens more to the garden and enables cross views in both directions. The atmosphere of the house is significantly influenced by the relation of original constructions and materials with the new ones. Nakedness without any camouflaging layers is their common denominator.
Original materials: cleaned original brickwork has been left as fair-faced, reinstalled refurbished oak parquet flooring. We also used new materials: birch plywood, raw steel, polyurethane trowel-on coating. We created a contemporary interior, which fully respects the historical heritage.