design of multifunctional buildings with housing - competition study

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​​Our concept of the pair of blocks came from four similarly important pillars: basic mass stratification, resolving the medium scale of subdivision, defining the characters of the public space and turning the local context into materialization.

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When developing the design of blocks 9.01 and 9.02 Žižkov City, located between the Freight Station and Olšanské cemeteries, we are not entering an area that could be called a tabula rasa. This significant Prague brownfield is very thoroughly designed by the Urban Study with elements of the regulatory plan (hereinafter referred to as US) from the workshop of the Prague IPR. A large and most important part of the complex urban work is solved in this study. And from our point of view, very well solved. It is therefore a pleasure to try to develop such a well-founded plan with the detailed design of the block and its immediate surroundings. A large part of the wider urban context is addressed by US, so there are relatively few things left for us, the architects of the blocks, to solve in detail. We perceive and appreciate that the US in a given location allows the building level to reach a height of around 40 m in limited and broadly defined positions. In our opinion, this factor is able to move the usual (and apparently expected) structure of a block city closer to a more interesting structure in terms of mass. More intensive building in a given location is justified and helps to achieve the desired concentration of population density in the wider city center. The blocks have a clearly defined location in the local transport network. The close proximity of public transport stops and a thorough structure of cycle paths as well as a connection to the nearby metro provide the basis for the creation of a city of short distances, where individual motorization recedes into the background in a desirable way. We see two key impulses for the area under consideration on the horizon: extending the tram line along the northern edge of the NNŽ and adapting the historic station building to new functions, including revitalizing and making its ground floor accessible.