In the Attic by Boq Architekti
In the attic transforms an attic apartment in Prague, Czech Republic into a layered home by Boq Architekti, threaded with light from generous skylights. The renovation turns three compact rooms into four, carving out a gallery level and reworking circulation so the apartment feels taller, brighter, and more flexible than its footprint suggests. Carefully tuned materials and built-in furniture anchor daily life while keeping the volume open and calm.
Sun pours through the skylights and runs along chevron oak, catching exposed brick and the edge of a steel stair. A new gallery hovers above the main room, so the attic reads less like leftover roof volume and more like a layered city home where every surface has a role.
This is an apartment renovation in Prague, Czech Republic, drawn up by Boq Architekti for owners who cook, work, and relax under a markedly high ceiling. The project turns an existing three-room attic apartment into four rooms by inserting a gallery level in the living area and rethinking how circulation threads through the sloping roof. Interior character grows from material choices and built-in carpentry, which guide light, color, and storage more than decorative objects do.
The architects start by stripping the volume to its structure, then rebuild layout, storage, and finishes so the once-fragmented attic reads as one continuous sequence. A gallery floor, raised bookcase wall, and sociable kitchen form the core of the reworked home, while bathrooms and bedroom follow the same tactile palette at a more intimate scale.
Threading The Gallery
The main living room carries enough height and daylight from skylights to accept an extra level without turning the lower part into a tunnel. A light, transparent gallery pulls back from one side wall, so the kitchen below keeps its brightness and no corner slips into shadow. Steel HEB profiles hold the new floor, which is broken into three parts: two solid zones and one section of walkable glass that lets sun filter down to the room below. Above, this upper platform serves as a work area or a small retreat with seating modules, bounded by a safety cable net that keeps the edge visually porous.
The stair up to the gallery reads as a three-dimensional puzzle, shaped around the kitchen block rather than tacked on. Its first wide step tucks into a bookcase, so the transition upward begins in the living room’s built-in furniture instead of a separate flight. Because the exposed roof structure pushes into headroom, the stair slope is adjusted to thread through the truss, turning a structural limitation into a precise alignment between timber, steel, and movement.
Living Wall And Ladder
At the entrance, the former hallway is absorbed into the living room and recast as a generous zone with a full-height wardrobe and a continuous bookcase. That bookcase runs across the front wall and frames the arrival, its upper shelves reachable by a mobile telescopic ladder that leans as needed and then slides away. Rotating the position of the sofa and television opens up a long view through the room, so the depth of the apartment reads clearly from the door. A new sliding lift window replaces the original French door to the terrace, avoiding any door leaf swinging through the furniture and allowing the sofa to sit tight against the wall.
Here, material detailing is quiet but deliberate. Cement screed wraps the step into the living area and the low unit under the television, tying them back to the kitchen island and extractor housing. Terracotta pieces—such as the coffee table in the living room and stools both on the gallery and in the bedroom—pick up the warmth of the oak floor and the brick, so color accents recur rather than shout.
Kitchen As Social Core
For owners who enjoy cooking and hosting friends, the kitchen becomes the social center rather than a tucked-away corner. Carpentry by Devoto shapes a muted olive set of cabinets, a concrete-screeded island, and tall storage that hides a door leading to a back room. The island widens the work surface while turning the cook toward guests, and a simple extendable dining table in wood decor stretches nearby, with black chairs and under-cabinet lighting giving the scene a grounded rhythm. Above the hob, an Elica Nuage extractor hood sinks into a cement screed volume, so ventilation reads as part of the wall instead of a separate object.
A semi-closable niche returns the counter in an L-shape, creating a spot where small appliances can stand ready yet disappear behind doors when not in use. Lower units in wood decor echo the floor, while open shelves with subtle LED strips ride higher, catching attention from both the main room and the gallery-level study. The tall appliance block hides a full-height door, which still performs as a standard partition with solid acoustics but disappears into the cabinet grid when closed.
Material Layers And Color
Chevron oak parquet, cut at a 45-degree angle, runs through the apartment and visually stitches together rooms under the shifting roofline. Natural wood meets cement screed at key touchpoints—the kitchen island, extractor hood, stair step, and media cabinet—so daily routes trace this contrast between warm grain and smooth gray. Along one chimney wall, stripped plaster reveals original brick; after debate about painting it white for more reflectance, the decision keeps the raw brick color, and it now works as a tactile backdrop for the living area. Terracotta accents recur in furniture and stools, nodding to the brick while small surfaces in emerald and olive tie back to the kitchen cabinets and radiators.
The bedroom concentrates calm rather than drama. Oak veneer wardrobes and bedside tables line the walls, while a padded headboard made from two interlocking panels in gray-beige and greenish tones picks up the apartment’s broader palette. Everyday rituals are supported by small accessories from the architects’ own collections, such as storage bowls and coasters with integrated compartments for jewelry or keys. An emerald radiator adds a clear hit of color, and large skylights keep the room bright even with its sloping ceiling.
Intimate Bathrooms
Behind smoked glass directly off the bedroom sits a compact bathroom with the mood of a hotel room. Greenish terrazzo tiles line the floor and selected walls, paired with natural wood furniture and a discreet, light-colored shower enclosure. A round mirror with indirect LED lighting glows above the basin, turning the small room into a clear, calm volume. Because storage niches are not possible here, magnetic shelves attach to the glass shower screen and keep everyday items close without visual bulk.
The second bathroom carries forward the terrazzo motif on the floor and around the bathtub, this time paired with a generous mirrored cabinet that hides storage behind a luminous plane. A separate toilet room adopts darker wood for the basin cabinet and upper storage units, while a light concrete screed over walls and floor keeps the room airy. Together, these service rooms extend the apartment’s material story into more private corners, so tile, wood, and screed feel continuous from gallery to bath.
By the end of the renovation, each layer—from chevron parquet and exposed beams to brick, screed, and colorful bathrooms—adds up to a quiet but distinct home under the roof. High ceilings and a subtle gallery introduce flexibility without losing warmth, and the measured mix of natural wood, neutral surfaces, and bold accents keeps the apartment readable at a glance. Light finds its way through glass, across oak, and along brick, tying old attic structure and new interior work into one lived-in volume.
Photography by Tomas Dittrich
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