Post Office Sněžka / e-MRAK

Architects: e-MRAK
Location: Sněžka, Czech Republic
Lead Architects: Martin Rajniš, Patrik Hoffman, Jan Mach, Tom Plzenský, David Kubík, Josef Franc
Area: 112.0 m2
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Andrea Thiel Lhotakova

From the architect. It’s hard to find a more difficult place for building a house than the peak of Mt. Sněžka. Wind speeds reach up to 250 km/h, winter temperatures hit record freezes, it is the most strictly protected zone of a national park.

How to build in such a locality without spending excess money, and create a house that would remain in the minds of the people who visit? This building is a cousin of the storage depots of Amundsen’s or Scott’s polar expeditions or the houses that you see in Greenland or the Spitzbergen Islands.

It enters on tiptoes into the national park: it is of wood and glass, standing on delicate metal supports. In the harshest winters, it is completely closed off behind interior insulation slabs – shadowboxes – and exterior blinds, which protect it from flying bits of rock and ice.

Its outdoor staircase reminds you that you are climbing to the highest point of the Czech lands. An environmentally friendly wooden building, respecting nature, humanity, and the majesty of the mountains.