ONDŘEJ BLÁHA
Studies
Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague
(UMPRUM)
Winter Semester 2025/2026
A1 Studio
(Andrew Kiel, Viktória Mravčáková, Jakub Herza)
Summer Semester 2024/2025
Furniture and interior design
(Roman Vrtiška, Vladimír Žák, Petr Hák)
Winter Semester 2024/2025
UMlab Studio
(U/U Studio, Martin Hrouda, Jiří Kotal)
Winter Semester, Summer Semester 2023/2024
A1 Studio
(Jan Šépka, Miroslava Gulbisová)
2017-2023
Jan Neruda Gymnasium
Language proficiency
EN C2
DE B2
IT
AutoCAD
Rhinoceros
SketchUp
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign
Adobe After Effects
Lumion
V-Ray
Microsoft Office
Email
ART RE USE / MODULAR WOOL COATWS 2025/2026
The semestral assignment’s aim is to transform the Art re use site located in Prague’s Žižkov area. The Art re use organization handles redistribution of redundant and waste material. Part of the studio assignment is to include some sort of housing into the project and to rethink the topic of isolation.
Art re use is mainly utilized by artists and students at art schools. Therefore, I design student housing on the site, which is in symbiosis with the existing Art re use programme. To establish an inclusive space, spatially I try to open the site as much as possible to locals and other visitors. A combination of student housing, community center and the Art re use organization arises. The goal is to arrange a fluid transition between these functions.
The site is spatially opened thanks to placement of the student housing right next to the adjacent apartment house. It is basically “sticked” to it. The student flats are located above the open parterre level. On the parterre level, there is a café, community center and the Art re use organization with underground storage. The open parterre below the student housing is an extension of these functions. It is also possible to use this space as a supply way for the Art re use. The main staircase leading to the student housing serves as a way to the roof park, which also creates a connection to the adjacent inner block. The whole complex is designed to welcome visitors to all of its parts. The concept of the students’ housing building is to “extend” the silhouette of the adjacent apartment house. Consequently, both buildings gain heat from each other.
In the project I am contemplating about the opportunity of using wool as an admitted isolation material that plays a role in the whole perception of the visitor. European wool acts as a waste material for the textile industry due to its harsh nature. In comparison to other insulation materials, sheep wool can be well recycled. Therefore, sheep wool as a heat insulating material is convenient both ecologically and economically. Its properties make it a great insulating material. Thanks to natural fat lanolin, wool is heat and water resistant. Its structure functions as an acoustic element. However, using sheep wool in the interior is problematic due to hazardous infestation by moths. Exterior usage has several requirements, such as placing the wool above the ground level and orienting it appropriately to prevent mold. Information about its implementation is provided to me from Folke Köbberling’s long-lasting experience with exterior use of sheep wool.
To achieve a functional admitted isolation made of sheep wool, I design a modular system of wool blocks. Those have unified dimensions and are anchored with facade dowels. The modularity principle is essential because of wool’s life cycle which is approximately 5-10 years. Replacement of old wool panels must be straightforward. For increased homogeneity of the blocks, I propose usage of machine washing and cold-felting technology. Thanks to this process, the wool panels are unified and have minimal physical deviations in them. In the project, there are 3 ways of using them. Firstly, they work as a heat insulation placed on the student housing object. Apart from that, they are placed on the exterior walkway of the units, operating as folding wool walls that experiment with heat and spatial perception. In the parterre, the wool folding walls work as temporary heat insulation of Art re use’s extensive glass surfaces. Sheep wool in this project aims to blur boundaries between exterior and interior. Its usage offers a way of thinking about insulating materials’ ecology. The Art re use and student housing object serve as a proof of concept to the designed wool panels modular system – Modular wool coat.