The so-called Straw House by architect Petr Suske and his SEA studio got quite an enthusiastic reception in Czech architectural circles upon its completion almost twenty years ago. The design concept, based on the simple yet original idea of “a haystack with an umbrella”, combined the earthy feeling of natural materials with a certain lightness of high-tech architecture. Immediately establishing itself as the go-to inspiration source for architecture students, the house became a popular subject for various magazine articles, much to the owner’s increasing exasperation.

While lacking a waterfall of its own, the Czech variation on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House, designed by Markéta Cajthamlová  and Lev Lauermann, succeeds in emulating the iconic building’s general character. Planes of light-coloured wood and brick alternate in the generous free-flowing space while the cool woodland hums gently behind the windows, and light filters in through the leaves.

“Since I built the house, I used it partly for self-promotion,” says the owner and architect Luděk Rýzner of his Rusty House in Humpolec as he takes us inside. An early project of Rýzner, Rusty House was designed as a sort of showroom for his studio OK PLAN ARCHITECTS.

Právě začíná platit padesátá druhá verze stavebního zákona od listopadu 1989. České stavební právo je v hluboké a dlouhodobé krizi. Povolování staveb je velmi zdlouhavé, komplikované a neefektivní, realizace staveb kvůli němu vázne a prodražuje se, stavby chybí na trhu a neúměrně zvedají ceny nemovitostí. Stavební zákon je znovu a znovu novelizován, případně rekodifikován, ale zlepšení nenastává. Bezpočet nových a dalších změn pouze zatemňuje podstatu a smysl celého procesu přípravy a povolování staveb. Zjevně selhává identifikace skutečných příčin problémů i navržené ozdravné procedury.