Even on a rainy day, Nina and Marek don't worry about feeling cooped up with their two-year-old daughter in their renovated Prague apartment. Despite being less than 600 square feet, the flat feels much larger thanks to its smart space-saving design. “Nothing feels cramped, our child has room to move and play, and features like the mini-pool bath make it feel like a real home rather than just a compact one,” says Marek.

Nina, a musician, had been living in the apartment for several years before the couple decided to build a life together there. Later, expecting a child, they called on local studio Architéka to update the cramped and divided flat. “They were looking to start a new chapter in their lives,” says studio founder and principal Tereza Komárková. Wanting a more open feel, they sacrificed one of the flat’s three bedrooms, removing a wall and turning the area into an open-plan kitchen and living room. To keep some separation, Komárková placed a green box at the center of the flat, which integrates the kitchen, a wardrobe, and floor-to-ceiling storage on all sides. “It saves space and maximizes it,” she says.

But the box also facilitates circulation. “You can walk, or run, in a full circle around it,” says Marek. “It gives the whole apartment a sense of openness and flow, rather than feeling like a series of closed-off rooms. Our daughter has turned it into a racetrack. On rainy days when we can’t get outside, it keeps her happily busy.” Pocket doors, another space-saving move, can tweak the layout for privacy: one can close off the living room and kitchen from the guest room—what will one day be the couple’s daughter’s room—and the other closes off the guest room from the hallway leading to the bathroom, toilet, and primary bedroom.

The green core is complemented by oak veneer cabinetry and shelving, and in the halls, bathroom, and separate toilet room, wood parquet and terrazzo flooring. The terrazzo and overall sleek redesign of the apartment references the 1930s functionalist building in which it sits. “Terrazzo was a very popular material in that period,” says Komárková. “It’s still there in the building’s common corridors and staircase.”

Yet more built-ins streamline the flat. In the entryway is fold-out shoe storage, and a mirrored wall between the bathroom and toilet conceals a closet. The guest room is one of the most utilized spaces in the home for its space-saving versatility, doing triple duty as an office, a place to host, or a practice space for Nina. It has an expandable desk and a pull-out bed with a row of drawers underneath. “It earns its place every day,” says Marek.

Whereas a lot of the layout is concerned with maximizing small spaces, the couple took liberty with the “mini-pool bath,” a custom blue-tiled bathtub, which is larger than a standard one. Nina and Marek call it that for its size and shape, and for how their daughter uses it. “She absolutely loves it. It’s become much more of a play space than just a place to get clean,” Marek says.

The apartment benefits from abundant light thanks to two terraces on opposite ends, one off the living space with a sauna, and a smaller one off the primary bedroom. The seamless space-saving details let Marek, Nina, and their daughter expand and contract within the compact flat, and give light and life plenty of room to flow. “We wanted to really simplify to make the space as expansive as possible,” says Komárková.

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Architéka / @architeka.cz

General Contractor: Po Strop