Villa Above the Water by 3AE
Villa Above the Water sits in the Czech Republic as a family house shaped by anticipation. Designed by 3AE, the low-slung home turns inward toward a private garden rather than outward to a landscape destined to develop. The L-shaped property uses the site’s gentle slope and a swimming pond to build its own world at the edge of a village near Prague.
A low timber volume meets a quiet garden, and the water holds the sky. From the street, the house stays reserved, saving its openness for the sheltered interior world.
This is a family house in the Czech Republic by 3AE, arranged in an L along a gentle slope. The core move is orientation: the plan turns to the garden and forest, protecting daily life from future development and using topography and water to focus light, views, and breeze.
Turn Toward Garden
The plot once faced wildflower meadows, yet the house looks the other way. By aiming primary rooms toward the quieter edge, the layout anticipates neighborhood growth and preserves a calm outlook over planting and trees. The L-shaped form frames a courtyard-like garden that rises in terraces toward the forest, creating a layered threshold between house and open nature.
Rooms Along Axis
Inside, a long hallway lined with bookshelves acts as a steady spine. Five living rooms, two bathrooms, a walk-in closet, and a generous living area branch from this axis, keeping circulation legible and movement unhurried. With over 250 m² (2,690 ft²), the plan reads as a sequence of distinct rooms, each borrowing garden light while keeping street-side privacy intact.
Pond at the Heart
The swimming pond sits at the center, both mirror and magnet. Two wide sliding glass portals link living room and wooden terrace to the water, letting the main rooms breathe outward in warm months and hold close views in winter. The terraced ground carries the eye across deck boards, over the surface, and up to the forest edge—one continuous lived landscape.
Envelope and Roof
Structure and skin support the site-first stance without noise. Large-format solid wood panels provide rigidity and insulation, keeping interiors quiet and temperate through seasonal swings. A Thermowood facade weathers toward the surrounding greenery, while a green mono-pitched roof tucks the silhouette down and boosts thermal stability.
Quiet Systems, Light Footprint
Operations echo the modest exterior. Electric underfloor heating and a fireplace insert warm the house, with a heat pump for domestic water; rooftop photovoltaics support the energy balance. Rainwater stores for reuse, vapor-open assemblies help the structure dry, and humidity sensors track conditions to prevent hidden defects (a practical form of care over time).
Back at the street, the house stays modest and closed, a courtesy to the village and a promise of privacy. Step inside, and the garden takes over—water close, forest beyond, and daylight sliding across wood as the day turns.
Photography by Petr Polák
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