Architect Jiřičná has won a major international architectural competition with her design for the New Žižkov Centre. The expert jury chose from the designs of 98 studios from 30 countries. Subsequently, the winning design was modified over a period of five years according to the requirements of a number of different institutions in order to achieve a consensus on the heights and overall design of the development. Now, Eva Jiřičná is presenting her substantially revised design to the public. The investor of this unique project in Prague 3 is the largest Czech residential developer Central Group.
The most striking change in the new design is that it has only one centrally-located flared tower 80 metres high. In contrast, the original design had three towers up to 100 metres high. The buildings on the site are now arranged differently urbanistically, and the kindergarten has been significantly enlarged to 5 classes in the new design and separated into a separate building.
“I often get asked whether I consider the original or the new design to be better. It’s hard to say, each has its merits. It’s perfectly normal for competitive designs to have their evolution through deliberation. The urban planning and building heights are different in the new design, but the architecture and floor space capacities remain very similar,” says the author of the design, Eva Jiřičná.
The current modified design by architect Jiřičná consists of five design buildings. They contain more than a thousand apartments of various sizes. The flats here will be for sale for ownership as well as for long-term rental. On the ground floor of the buildings in the main circulation zones, a number of commercial spaces will be created for small shops, services, restaurants and cafés. Another major asset will be a large kindergarten, which Central Group will build at its own expense and hand over to the Prague 3 Municipal District free of charge.
“In the centre of the site, on the site of the original high-rise telecommunications building, an 80-metre high residential tower will be built as a dominant feature of the project. This design building will be uniquely vertically and horizontally undulating. This is thanks to specially shaped balconies with curved glass railings. This gives the building its unique aesthetic form and also helps to screen the apartments,” adds architect Jiřičná.
The dominant fluted tower in the centre of the site is designed as an eco-smart building. The balconies of the tower will integrate greenery with automatic irrigation to create a unique “vertical garden”. In addition to the dominant white tower with 25 floors, there will be other lower residential buildings with clean design architecture dominated by white, silver and grey colours complemented by extensive greenery.
The emphasis is on sustainability and ecology. There will be more than 15,000 m² of public green space – a large park with playgrounds, green spaces inside the project, a green public space around the central tower and a new square with a water feature. Blue-green infrastructure is being extensively developed. The buildings have green roofs, retention tanks for watering, photovoltaics, heat pumps, heat recovery and many other ecological features.
“The project is now at an advanced stage of negotiation and the zoning change from a special technological function to a mixed function is being finalised. The demolition of the former telecommunications complex is being completed and design work on the new proposal is already underway. We expect to start construction after obtaining the building permit in about three years,” says Dušan Kunovský, founder and head of Central Group.
There is still a lot of work for the architectural designers to complete this design project. The internal layout of the buildings needs to be optimised and many design details need to be worked out. The design of the water feature in the square, the design of the artworks in the site and the optimal design of a high-quality public space with greenery must also be worked out. The aim of the investor and the architects is not only that the new residents will enjoy living in the area, but also that people from the surrounding area will like to spend their time here.
The construction of the New Žižkov Centre involves high incidental costs for Central Group. In addition to the new apartments and related infrastructure, the district will also build a large kindergarten with five classrooms and a large garden with playgrounds at its own expense. A new square with a water feature at the intersection of Olšanská and Jana Želivského Streets and extensive park greenery will also be built at the investor’s expense.
“The total contribution to the city for the opportunity to build new flats in this location amounts to more than CZK 240 million for Central Group. Of this, CZK 108 million is our contribution to the primary school. The state will also benefit significantly from this site. From the sale of flats in this project, it will receive approximately CZK 1.5 billion in VAT alone for the state budget,” adds Kunovský.
The investor’s costs for the very demanding demolition of the former Central Telecommunications Building (ÚTB) complex from the 1970s are in the hundreds of millions of crowns. The technologically obsolete building had already ceased to serve its purpose years ago. As no other use could be found for this structurally and energetically very problematic building complex, it was decided to remove it ecologically. The complicated and costly demolition is now being completed with the disposal of more than 3,000 tonnes of carcinogenic asbestos.
The original winning design from the architectural competition was different from the current modified design. It consisted of a lower apartment block and three residential towers with graded heights of 80, 90 and 100 metres. However, there were reservations from some institutions about the proposed heights and the design of the new development. Therefore, the proposal had to be substantially revised in order to be approved.
The zoning plan for the site did not set any limits on the capacity or height of the development. Therefore, when Central Group bought the property, it consulted experts on how to accommodate the new development. On this basis, it was agreed that the design would emerge from a major international architectural competition incorporating the requirements of the Prague 3 Municipal District, with which Central Group entered into a cooperation agreement.
Eva Jiřičná’s original design was then selected by the jury of the competition as the best among the designs from 98 studios from 30 countries around the world. This included such famous names of world architecture as Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Ian Ritchie (UK) and Richard Meier (USA).
Architects Eva Jiřičná and Petr Vágner (AI DESIGN) teamed up with the prestigious architectural and engineering studio ARUP from London to prepare the winning design. The studio has designed and engineered many of the world’s most unique buildings, including the Sydney Opera House and the complex Guadi Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
