Jan Tyrpekl Builds a Firewood-Clad Atelier That Disappears into a Czech Meadow

There is a specific kind of building that refuses to announce itself. It sits in its site the way a woodpile sits at the edge of a clearing: present, purposeful, and entirely unconcerned with being noticed. Jan Tyrpekl's atelier in Stříbrná Skalice, a small town southeast of Prague, belongs to that category. Two gabled timber volumes settle into an overgrown meadow, their facades stacked with firewood, their roofs corrugated metal, their posture relaxed enough to let wildflowers grow right up against the decking.

What makes the project worth studying is not its modesty but the discipline behind it. Every material here does at least two jobs. The firewood is insulation, ornament, and fuel. The cedar shingles are weatherproofing and texture. The plywood interior is structure and finish. Tyrpekl treats sustainability not as a checklist of certifications but as a design logic: use what the forest gives you, build only what you need, and let the rest grow back.

Two Volumes, One Clearing

The atelier is split into two elongated cabins that sit roughly parallel in the meadow, separated by enough distance to preserve the feeling of individual structures rather than a single compound. Seen in autumn, with the deciduous canopy thinning, the buildings read as a pair of shelters against the coming cold. In summer, the wildflowers and dense vegetation almost swallow them. The corrugated metal roofs catch light but refuse to gleam; they have the matte practicality of agricultural buildings.

Tyrpekl calibrates the proportions carefully. The gable pitch is steep enough to shed snow but not so dramatic that the buildings feel like follies. The ridge height stays below the surrounding tree line. The result is architecture that participates in the meadow's seasonal rhythm rather than interrupting it.

Firewood as Facade

The most striking detail is the stacked firewood visible behind glazing and tucked into the gable ends. It functions as a thick thermal buffer, a visual screen, and a slowly depleting ornament: as winter progresses, the facade literally thins. There is an honesty to this that manufactured cladding systems can never replicate. You can see the fuel that heats the building, stacked in the wall that shelters you from the weather.

On the covered deck, a pair of butterfly chairs sit in front of the firewood wall as if it were a hearth turned inside out. The timber deck extends the interior outward, and the deep roof overhang keeps rain off the logs. Every element protects the next, a chain of material care that starts with the metal roof and ends with the split birch.

Cedar and Shadow

Where the firewood gives the buildings their character from a distance, the cedar shingles handle the close-up. One gable facade is clad entirely in hand-split shingles that will silver with age, accepting dappled tree shadows as a kind of applied pattern. A glazed corner at the base of the gable lets light flood into the interior without compromising the solidity of the wall above.

Storage is treated with the same directness. A narrow utility space lined with oriented strand board panels accommodates hooks, shelves, and cleaning supplies. OSB is often dismissed as a sub-finish material, but here its raw texture matches the pragmatic tone of the whole project. Nothing pretends to be something else.

Plywood Interior and Forest Light

Inside the main volume, a continuous band of glazing runs along one wall, turning the woodland into a living mural that shifts with the seasons. The ceiling follows the roof pitch, exposing timber trusses and creating a generous sense of volume despite the cabin's compact footprint. Plywood panels line every surface, their warm tone amplified by natural light bouncing off the trees outside.

The sauna occupies the second volume and is perhaps the most refined space in the project. Slatted benches curve gently, a tongue-and-groove ceiling wraps overhead, and a full-height window opens directly onto the woodland floor. The wood-burning stove in the corner completes a cycle: logs from the facade feed the fire that heats the room that looks out at the trees that will eventually become more logs. It is a closed loop expressed in architecture.

Sauna as Sanctuary

The sauna interior deserves a second look. The bench slats follow a gentle radius that softens the otherwise orthogonal geometry of the cabin. Light enters from the side, washing across the timber and picking up the grain. The stove sits low, its flue pipe rising through the ceiling, a vertical punctuation mark in a room defined by horizontal lines. There is nothing superfluous here: no tiles, no chrome fixtures, no attempt to simulate a spa. It is a wooden box in the woods, heated by fire, and that is enough.

Plans and Drawings

The site plan confirms what the photographs suggest: two slender rectangles placed at a slight angle to each other, surrounded by circular tree canopies that read like a constellation. Pathways thread between the volumes and connect to the surrounding landscape. The drawing reveals how little ground the buildings actually occupy. Most of the site remains unbuilt, given over to meadow and forest. The restraint visible in the plan is the same restraint that governs every material choice.

Why This Project Matters

Sustainability in architecture has become a branding exercise for too many firms: photovoltaic panels on the roof, a green wall in the lobby, and a BREEAM certificate in the marketing folder. Tyrpekl's atelier sidesteps that performance entirely. Its sustainability is structural, woven into the logic of how the building is assembled, heated, and maintained. Firewood is not a decorative gesture; it is a heating strategy. Cedar shingles are not a luxury finish; they are a low-maintenance, biodegradable skin. The building does not need to explain itself because every joint and surface already tells you how it works.

For architects working at small scales, this project is a reminder that economy and ambition are not opposites. You can build with stacked logs and OSB and still produce spaces that feel generous, considered, and deeply connected to their site. The meadow in Stříbrná Skalice did not need a landmark. It needed a pair of careful shelters, and that is exactly what it got.

Atelier by Jan Tyrpekl, Stříbrná Skalice, Czech Republic. Architect: Jan Tyrpekl. Photography by Antonín Matějovský.

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