Martin's Atelier

Every architect carries the same dream: one day, a house of their own design. For Martin Mikovčák, the dream had an address from the start. A field above the city, in his family for generations.

He grew up in the village under the hill, and for years he would stop on this slope, sit down in the high grass, and study how a house might rest here. The dream never let him go.

Then the digger broke ground for his foundations, and the ground broke back. A natural spring cracked the earth and sent a 30 centimetre jet of water into the air. Part of the field, it turned out, was swamp. Instead of fighting the water, he dug a well. Its overflow now fills a small, ice cold pond beside the terrace.

Martin is the co-founder of Ark Shelter, the Slovak company shipping modular homes across Europe. One word has followed his industry for years: container. His answer was not a press release. It was this house, his own.

The house arrived as three prefab modules, built in Ark Shelter's factory a few kilometres away and craned onto concrete foundations. It is the last house of the city, with streets on one side and forest on the other, sunk into the slope so the field flows over its roof. Inside, one platform circles a concrete core that stores the fireplace's heat. The kitchen hides inside a table. A bathtub waits under the shower floor. The floor opens, and you bathe facing the sunset.