Renovation of a flat on the 4th floor of a 20s – 30s apartment building in Prague, Dejvice.

The proposed solution maintains the original principle of separating two functionally different parts, that is the resting part and the day part. The facilities, meaning the bathroom, toilet and the storage space, are concentrated in the middle of the space. The motif of an illuminated foyer is newly reinforced by the lighting going both ways through the glass door into the study and into the opposite living room. Also, the visual interconnecting of these three spaces provides a significant residential value. By connecting the original bedroom and living room, a generous 50m space has been created – a living room with a kitchen, fireplace and a library. The western resting part is comprised of already mentioned study, which, when the time comes, can be easily converted into a children’s bedroom, the main bedroom and the bathroom with two entrances – from the hall and from the bedroom foyer. Aside from the toilet in the bathroom, there is a separate toilet in the foyer. The abolished pantries have been replaced by numerous built-in wardrobes, surrounding the core of the flat.

Overall locality solution

That the complex of the former sugar factory, given its position and size, can have an absolutely crucial impact on the future development of Šlapanice, is clear. While it is, at the moment, situated outside the center of the town’s social life, which is, obviously, located around the Masarykovo sq., Zámečnického sq. and the grammar school triangle, it, however, lies on the historical link between this triangle and the train station, next to the policlinic and the football fields. The ultimate argument is simply to acknowledge the sheer size of its area, which allows for a variety of uses, sure to influence the life of many a town. However, there are several “buts,” significantly affecting future development and potential power of the new town center. Ecological burdens, which complicate spatial arrangement and limit the use of new areas, and, to some extent, uncertainity about the investing power of the town, as well as an absence of a specific assignment.

Granary

Mainly defensive nature of granaries, protecting what’s inside against unwanted climatic effects as well as against strangers, creates, on purpose, a feeling of something inaccessible, closed inwardly into itself. With openings functioning primarily as a means of ventilation, a granary can be imagined as a windowless house. This design aims to offer a new understanding without a significant loss of the original substance, while preserving the image of the house. From closed to open, from technical to civic, from silent to speaking. In the rhythm of present tectonic of the facade, the house opens social spaces for a dialogue with the outside attention. Thus, the house draws energy into itself, it comes alive, it manifests actions, it is a symbol of the town’s cultural acitivity. The structure of the interior, thanks to respecting the triple tracting, remains largely preserved, corresponding to the use of the building. It is also the main means of expression of the interior, offering a direct contact with the original building and its values.

Mrs Ditrychová is a chairwoman of an owners association. With the support of other members of the commitee, she wished to enhance the quality of living for herself and her neighbours. We started off with a study with a whiff of development (roof superstructure, complex renovation, adding of an elevator, enlargement of loggias). After a clash with the reality of the owners association, several appeals, dozens of hours of meetings and presentations, we ended up with a subtle intervention, which, nevertheless, significantly increases both the utility and market value of all the flats in the building. Loggias of a hardly usable 1.1m depth have been enlarged to approx 2m with the use of a cantilever construction. Every flat now has one continuous loggia instead of two smaller ones. The individual owners themselves could opt for a lowering of windowsills, direct access to the garden, loggia floor material. With the exception of removal of windowsills in some of the flats, the original construction remains untouched. Steel weldment cantilevers are designed in such a way, so as to provide a static remediation of sensitive panel block connections. The cantilevers have been treated with an anti-fire coating, rest of the steel construction has been hot dip galvanized. The ceilings above the enlarged area are made of steel-reinforced concrete, the floors are larch or plastic wood, according to the wishes of the individual owners. The construction allows for additional installation of glass panes.

The new bridge over the river Svitava has slim parapets, elegant shapes and a dignified, robust body. It’s a bridge with a silhouette of a classic arched bridge, whose construction doesn’t reach to inordinate heights. In it, the classical is wed to contemporary shape, defined by an ideal hydrotechnic solution, contemporary materials and details – the pylons are shaped like boulders in the river.
The new bridge defines its surroundings. Its location delineates sufficiently generous space in the vincinity of the weir. It preserves the valuable local landmarks of the chimney and high-rise buildings of the malt-house, with which it then completes an identity with the new urban waterfront with embankment, residential stairs, as well as with nearby alluvial growths and of course the river Svitava!

It is our ambition to complete the eastern edge of Uhříněves. With the building of a new school, an opportunity is created to insert into the area a complex, which, in its extent from the new school square to the green space on the edge between the city and the country, will bring together disconnected fragments and dull the edges of previous precipitous development of Uhříněves.

It will complete the missing infrastructure, ranging from that which is obviously lacking to the less visible (not just the school, but also public areas, safe pedestrian and cycling paths for children, areas for social/organisational/sports use, etc.).

Thus, into the area, we insert a complex which is divided, fractal-like, in a logical and understandable succession, in which the scale is decreased and privacy increased: a square with two buildings (a school and a sports hall) -> a school -> 1st and 2nd stage of elementary school -> individual clusters -> individual classes. Coresponding to these steps of the succession are individual public and private areas, ranging from a square to the main school foyer to the public areas of the clusters to the individual classes.

The school works in such a way that whether a pupil arrives on foot, by bike, bus, or is dropped off at the K+R spot by their parents, they appear on the school square in front of the school and sports hall. From the square through the gate they enter the school grounds and around the school yard the school building, where they find themselves in the midst of action in the foyer, which connects the various parts of the school and where, if needed, the whole school can assemble and from where one enters the first stage via the southern gallery and the second stage via the northern gallery.