Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

Pear House

By Rebecca Drew

LIKE A house from a children’s fairy tale this quirky home set in a stunning orchard looks just like a giant pear.

Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com
Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

The series of quirky images show inside the home’s curved interior of the living room complete with cosy wood burner and narrow kitchen and bathroom. One shot even shows a floor length window open towards the outdoors.

Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com
Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

Exterior shots show the pear-shaped home’s concrete foot that supports its structure and another photo shows a steel footbridge that connects to the ground below.

Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com
Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

The home also known as the House in the Orchard is built on a slope and was designed by architect Jan Šépka (47) from Prague, Czech Republic. Photographs of the building were taken by Tomáš Malý.

“The shape of the House in the Orchard can at first glance seem to work as a purely sculptural work, but that is not the case,” said Mr Šépka.

“After setting the base on the steep slope with other buildings I decided to minimise the base and the result is a concrete foot with a circular platform, on which the actual building is constructed.

“From a structural stability perspective, a circle is ideal for distributing force.

“All of the rooms are positioned to the south or east, only the living room is directed towards a nice view into the valley in the north.

“Thanks to the skylight, the living room also acquires southern lighting, it goes through all of the floors and the shape of the house with its slope reacts to the course of the southern sun.

“The building is quite low budget and at a certain times the owners lacked the finances to complete it, therefore, a lot of things were done by themselves.

“But everything went exactly according to the project.”

Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com
Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

The House in the Orchard took three-years to build and was designed as a wooden house to integrate into the surrounding trees and was then reinforced with concrete.

Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com
Tomáš Malý / mediadrumworld.com

Mr Šépka said that the house acquired a range of nicknames whilst it was being built and that there was plenty of speculation as to what it could be.

“The house has got a variety of nicknames and some people think that it looks like a pear.

“When just the concrete foot with the platform was standing, a number of passers-by thought that a carousel for children was being built.”