Obecní dvůr

Our studio’s second project in Prague, on which we collaborated with Ricardo Bofill’s studio, is the remarkable Obecní dvůr in the Old Town. Its history is as interesting as its potential. The area at the core of the former Jewish quarter, affected by 19^th century urban rehabilitation, served as the centre of municipal services for the city. Warehouses, short-term housing and a school, as well as workshops and stables for the horses of fire fighters in a ring of buildings around an exceptionally large courtyard (dvůr) with full-grown trees, just a few dozen metres from the St. Agnes Convent.

Besides renovating three large buildings with a rich architectural history, combining a number of stylistic periods, we were allowed to develop a vacant plot in U Milosrdných Street with completely modern architecture.

The building is designed as a sober, symmetrical form segmented by a clear and regular order of windows. This order is duplicated in a second plan for the envelope. However, unlike the main mass of the building, which has smooth plastering, the outer envelope is segmented by a detailed organic theme, particularly apparent when the shading components are shifted.

The ground floor of the newly designed building has a green facade: the northern wall and a part of the east facade are composed of a “vertical garden” system with automated irrigation. The other portions of the facade will be covered with creeping plants, connecting directly to the inner courtyard garden on the side facing it.