Competition - New Town Hall
Client: district, Prague 7
Programme: town hall
Status: reconstruction
Phase: competition
Usable area: 5566m2
Dates:
Draft 2016
The architectural competition was aimed at designing a new exterior and reshaping the interior of the existing building for the purposes of the new Town Hall of Prague 7. The building concerned is situated in a block typical of the Holešovice quarter, with varying heights of nearby buildings. The existing town hall building overtops neighbouring buildings along the street. Although part of the mass in the upper section of the building at the north-eastern corner has been removed, the building looks heavy. By contrast, the recess and elevation of the entrance corner are positive features, linking the building to the lower two-storey one.
We believe that the town hall should be a landmark of the Prague 7 district. Therefore, our design takes advantage of the building's height, and we strive to reduce its cumbersomeness by adjusting the upper storeys. We have partly added to some mass of the building on its street-facing side, while we have removed it from its side facing the courtyard. This results to the even primary mass of the building, intersected by continuous windows and a prominent entrance section with a tall pillar row. Three regular cubes, made of the original mass of the building, are placed on the primary mass, and we believe that they form the required town hall tower. The town hall tower concept is supplemented with a modern clock. The transparent envelope of the town hall tower is made up of glass panels with LEDs, which show digital time and date. The panels are also installed on the façade strip above the entrance into the office building, where current information messages are shown. The primary mass façades are made of suspended plate glass furring, shaded by photovoltaic panels installed in front of the furring on the façades exposed to the sun.
We placed a communication core with toilets to the centre of the layout. Office spaces are situated along the perimeter of the floor plan. Client space is located between the office spaces and the communication core. Places where clerks and clients will meet are situated at the edge of the client space, thus also breaking the monotonous office wall areas.
