The existing building was transformed into its present form by the conversion of a 17th century Baroque church into an apartment house and the addition of an eastern part, which closed off the exit of Templová Street into Celetná Street and turned it into a mere passageway. A sacristy was annexed to the church on the Templová Street side, which was preserved even after the conversion into a residential house. During the next building modifications, the sacristy was surrounded by a fence wall together with the courtyard of the house, and due to further adaptations, a pitoresk building formation was created, showing the living history of the place. The sacristy was preserved until the 1960s, when it was demolished during the alterations to the ground floor, including the alterations to the frontage of the courtyard wing, which was already considered at the time of construction to be a loss of the historic legacy of the site.
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Location
- Prague 1
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Project works
- 2024 - 2025
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Cooperation on projects
- Marek Tichý
- Jana Kulíková
- Jiří Kulhavý
- Hana Pokorná
It is clear from the preserved sources that the demolition of the building destroyed a situation that was significant for the site. It proved the gradual transformation of the building units, their interconnection, the related changes in the texture of the Old Prague streets and their specific character. Templova Street was one of the small curvilinear streets radially emerging from the spacious and exposed Celetná Street. The houses along it were characterised by their diversity, varying heights and growing character.
The proposal to add a building on a plan still recorded as a built-up area is motivated by the restoration of a small-scale building, creating a house that will be more of an architectural curiosity, an exception to the regulated, integrated pattern of the urban area. We would find many similar peculiarities on the plan of Prague, the Old Town in particular is characterised and attractive by this interpenetration and addition of styles.
The design keeps fairly strictly to the historical forms and built borders, works with typologically traditional and modern architectural elements, is based on detail, the play of forms and materials. The facade is made of mirrored glass, broken only in a few places by the entrances to the house. The concept of this design is based on the situation on the site – a narrow, relatively dark place surrounded by historical buildings. It consists in creating an architecturally neutral area that will reflect the historic surrounding architecture, while at the same time visually enlarging the space and providing light to the ends of Templová Street.
The historic form is referenced by the pattern of the façade cladding, where the original tectonics of the façade are indicated by drawing and serigraphically imprinted on the cladding from historic documentation for an even more specific reminder of the site’s history.
