A new house with an old mill, Opatová, Trenčín

“If old houses are not protected by the state, nobody cares about them,” says the architect René Dlesk with regard to the situation in the Slovak countryside. But the mill in Opatová received special care, thanks to the RDTH architecture studio, which Dlesk heads along with Tamara Kolaříková. It was a truly surprising transformation – the historical building looks completely different than when the family began its renovation.

The mill stands in the centre of the village at the foot of a hill with a church and cemetery. The architect’s cousin had previously felt that the plot, which was full of old ruins, was better suited for a new building. René Dlesk and Tamara Kolaříková nevertheless convinced him that the right thing to do was to preserve at least some of the original structures, if only because the mill had been operated by their common ancestors for centuries. But it was neither economically nor functionally feasible to repair all the structures. “We got rid of all the outbuildings and sheds scattered around the property. And of the main building, all that is left is its oldest and most valuable section. The process of deciding what made sense to preserve was done on-site during demolition work, when the buildings’ condition was revealed over time,” explains the architect.

The property is thus dominated by the grey, roughly plastered remnants of the mill, inside which a piece of the original technology has been preserved – an almost 200-year-old oak hopper on which the millstone was mounted. A hole has been cut into the massive wall, and into it the architects have mounted a modern frameless window with a spruce scuncheon. The roof is new, too, and stands out thanks to the subdued white colour of the gable. Nevertheless, some original elements have been preserved, such as the steel windows with small windowpanes and an inclined wooden beam that acts as a lintel above the door.

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