A Prague garden house modelled on a wardrobe on legs

A family in Prague's Ořechovka district was outgrowing its early 20th-century villa, and rather than add an extension, local studio Šépka Architekti built a separate small house among the mature trees at the back of the garden. Founder Jan Šépka took his cue from a wardrobe standing on legs: a tall, narrow timber box, open on one side, which gave the project its name, Wardrobe House.

Like flat-pack furniture, it arrived as a kit. A steel base made in the workshop sits on micropiles to spare the tree roots and shelters a covered seating area and a spiral stair. Above it, three timber storeys were each built off site and craned into place in a single day. The first floor holds a shared kitchen and dining room, and the two floors above are bedrooms for the children, Ema and Jan, each with its own toilet, shower and fold-down bed.

The footprint is just five by 2.5 metres, which Šépka calls a reflection on how little space a person needs. Plywood lines almost everything, from walls to kitchen cabinets and even the shower enclosures, and the shelves have no doors, so each room takes on the character of whatever is kept in it. The one glazed side looks into the trees and can be closed off with large shutters.

It's a private home, so there's nothing to visit, but it's a lovely one to study if you're thinking about building small.

Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 8 October 2026. Read the original

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