Project Name: Between the Rock and the River

Location: Krhanice, Czechia

Design Team: Mimosa architects

Area: 78 m²

Year: 2025

Photography: Petr Polák

Design Features: Czech practice Mimosa architects has completed a compact riverside cabin on the banks of the Sázava River, composing a bold material dialogue between charred timber and ancient stone.

The 78-square-metre structure occupies the footprint of a former cabin that was destroyed by fire, inheriting the original stone plinth as its foundation. Rather than erasing this remnant, the architects embraced it as a defining element — a flood-resistant base that simultaneously lifts the building above the river's reach and frames an elevated perspective over the water. The decision to clad the new structure in charred larch gives the facade both practical resilience and a quietly charged symbolism, acknowledging the fire that preceded it.

Inside, spruce-panelled walls and a palette of natural timber and black metal create what the architects describe as a cave-like interior, unified in tone and material character rather than assembled from discrete furnishings. The black metal of the woodstove, staircase, and built-in elements echoes the darkened exterior, drawing the logic of the charred facade inward. Durable linoleum flooring extends freely between interior and terrace, dissolving the boundary between the cabin and the landscape beyond.

The main living space rises to full height and opens entirely toward the river through a continuous glazed facade, with a raised terrace offering unobstructed views of the Sázava. A folding shutter can seal the terrace completely, transforming the cabin into a closed, impenetrable box when not in use. The sleeping loft above is deliberately minimal, concentrating the building's generosity in the shared space below.

Off-grid in everything but electricity, the cabin draws water from an on-site well and collects wastewater within the plinth itself. Between the cliffs and the current, it stands as a disciplined, quietly poetic response to both the memory of a site and the rhythms of the river.

Design Team: Founded in Prague in 2007 by Petr Moráček, Jana Zoubková, and Pavel Matyska, Mimosa architects is a Prague-based practice operating across a broad spectrum of scales and building typologies, from single-family residences and adaptive reuse projects to cultural institutions and public infrastructure.

The practice is guided by a commitment to spatial economy and programmatic clarity, resisting gratuitous formal gestures in favour of architecture that responds precisely to site character, material context, and the lived experience of its occupants. This approach has yielded a consistently coherent body of work spanning residential, hospitality, industrial, and civic commissions across the Czech Republic and beyond.

Mimosa architects has received sustained recognition within Czech architectural discourse. The Javornice Distillery earned both the Grand Prix and the Czech Architecture Prize in 2017, while the Trautenberk Brewery was awarded the Czech Architecture Prize in 2018. The Prachatice Open-Air Cinema was shortlisted for the same prize in 2024.

The practice is currently led by founding principals Petr Moráček, Jana Zoubková, and Pavel Matyska, working alongside a core team including Kateřina Slezáková, Dalibor Pospíšil, Martina Bjalková, and Uladzislau Sauko. The studio delivers full-scope project documentation and maintains active involvement through contractor selection and construction supervision, ensuring design intent is carried through to completion.