Centre for Czech Architecture (Centrum architektury)
International Architectural Design Ideas Competition
Held in Conjunction with the 2005 AIA Committee on Design Conference:
Prague: Architecture in Transition, From Monarchy to Democracy, from Communism to Civil Society
Sponsored by:
The American Institute of Architects Committee on Design
In Cooperation with:
Czech Chamber of Architects
Czech Society of Architects
Faculty of Architecture, CzechTechnicalUniversity
AIA Historic Resources Committee
AIA International Committee
AIA Continental Europe
HISTORY & BACKGROUND
This Ideas Competition was organized in conjunction with an AIA Committee on Design (COD) conference to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, September 17–23, 2005, to explore the design of buildings, sites, and the city in relationship to the area’s political, social, cultural, and economic transitions, and the permanence of the historic, climatic, and geographic environment. The challenge was to design a “Centre for Czech Architecture”—an infill structure on a historic site in the center of Prague—to serve as a center for architecture information and resources and house the offices of various architecture organizations.
OBJECTIVES
Czech architects lost use of the historic palace on Letenska Street to flood devastation. The new centre would house an architecture gallery, auditorium, conference rooms, library, bookstore, café, and the three primary Czech architecture organizations: CKA, Chamber of Czech Architects; OA, Czech Society of Architects; and the architecture journal Architekt. The design of the centre would provide a vital infill in its historic context facing the river Vltava (Moldau).
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The criteria for evaluating the design solutions included ordering the space requirements and circulation in a spatial composition and organization of program components and their groups using the existing structures on the parcel; responding to the physical and cultural context of the site in the designed building form and building surfaces; taking advantage of the views from the designed building to the river, Stvanice island, and beyond; considering the design solution as a gateway for entering the center city from the north from the tunnel and crossing the Svermuv (Stefanikuv) bridge south to Revolucni Street—the other gateway landmark being the Merkur building by Jaroslav Fragner across Revolucni Street from the site.
WINNING ENTRIES, AND JURY COMMENTS
(Complete Jury Comments are posted on the Committee on Design page of the AIA Web site:
1st Place:
David Titz, CKA and Zbynek Svoboda, CKA
Archicon s.r.o
Brno, Czech Republic
This entry has a strong urbanistic approach and is very contextual. It maintains the street edge, and holds the fabric of the street as it turns the corner. It is at this point that the city fragments itself, and the building acknowledges this. Through the use of transparency, it relates to its context, and opens out into it. In referring to the style of the 1930s, this design is in keeping with Central European architecture at its peak. It is a celebration of this style, appropriate to its place--an acknowledgment of the legacy of modernism in Prague. This design creates a gateway, along with the FragnerMerkurBuilding on the other side of the street.
In its treatment of the Baroque building, this solution offers a sense that there is a layering of history, and is suggestive of the present overlaying the past. The Baroque building becomes part of a new pattern, structure, and scale, and is actually at the heart. The design camouflages baroque building but it makes a comment in so doing: that this structure is an oddity on the site; it questions whether this structure is central to the overall fabric, yet in plan and function, the Baroque building is at the heart, and it celebrates it through the program. While the Baroque building is not acknowledged in the frontal view, or views from the bridge—this entry is purposeful in scale; it completes the corner; and creates a view to Revolucni and the river. Of all the schemes, it is the one that best understands scale: human scale, relation to the city, and relation to Revolucni Street.
2nd Place:
Michal Sourek, CKA
MS architekti s.r.o.
Prague, Czech Republic
Competition Team:
Anna Stancova and Alexandr Verner: architectural design
Tomas Sklenar: landscape architecture
Adriaan de Kroon: architectural context and urbanism
This design solution wraps around the Baroque building, and makes the complex unified, yet it becomes a focal part of the center, still visible through the glass from the outside. The metal fins/flexible façade elements suggest a vibrationof the façade, allowing the character of light to change and reflect. The plan suggest an intent to weave outside to inside, to bring the outside in, and create an inviting space. The encapsulation of the Baroque building creates the sense of a museum piece, or artifact. This entry and the first place entry show two different attitudes, each equally valid: 1) a concern with overall fabric of the city, 2) a notion that the Baroque building is central, and takes precedence within the urban fabric.
3rd Place:
Petr F. Bilek, CKA, AIA
Bilek Associates
Prague, Czech Republic
The Imagery evoked by the freehand sketches in this entry is appealing, and has a nice spirit. While the massing offered by the design solution is convincing, its perhaps too monolithic and opaque. This design solves the problem of integrating the Baroque building—it maintains its own presence within the design. This entry expresses clarity of detail—where form is needed, it is placed, but needs more transparency. The access to the complex from Revolucni is very strong, and the entry is well-defined. This solution offers a third attitude with respect to the Baroque building: it becomes very special, and foregrounded within the design.
First Honorable Mention:
L.E.FT LLC
New York, NY
Partners:
Makram el Kadi
Ziad Jamaleddine
Naji Moujaes
Competition Team:
Chris Lee
Joseph Chartouni
The jury appreciates the bold, courageous approach to form-making. Its most redeeming element is a careful study of plan, and how the entry was subtly handled. The use of form is perhaps too willful and not contextual enough, in a similar way to Fragner’s Merkur, and how it turns the corner. The jury invoked Aldous Huxley’s “difference between jarring juxtaposition and complimentary contrast.” The notion of creating outdoor space and seating, and projection is a nice feature. The existing buildings on the site are embraced in a gesture of ‘wrapping around.’ The written text makes a good connection to political issues, and explains the gesture of ‘wrapping’.
Honorable Mentions:
(Not listed in order of preference)
KBAS +52
Alexandria, VA
Competition Team:
Julie Beckman
Keith Kaseman
Aaron Campbell
Juliette Wolford
This project shows promise in presentation, particularly in its use of diagrams; but suggests that viewer must add another dimension to complete the design solution. The design invokes the phenomenon of passages, which are very important to the urban fabric ofPrague as a symbol of city, similar to the arcades in Paris.
Chad Boetger, AIA
Atlanta, GA
This entry offers a distinct articulation of architectural elements, which may work against it, as well as in its favor. The design makes use of the building corner as a symbol, as a billboard—to create information.
Prominence is given in program to the overnight guest accommodations, while other priorities are assigned less importance.
COMPETITION JURY
Jury Chair:
Peter Lizon, FAIA
Studio Lizon Architects, Venice, Fla.
Dr. Lizon graduated with masters degrees from SlovakTechnicalUniversity and Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and with Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania. A University of Tennessee Professor Emeritus, his academic experience includes directorship of the Graduate Programs in Architecture and Urban Design at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. In his design studio, projects entered in student design competitions won or placed in a number of competitions. He has served as a Visiting Professor at SlovakTechnicalUniversity where he was earlier awarded an Honorary Doctorate. A two time recipient of the Fulbright Scholar award, he has authored over 100 articles, essays and books. His professional accomplishments include the preservation and interior restoration of Mies’ Villa Tugendhat in Brno and the design of the Embassy of the SlovakRepublic in Washington, DC – a design competition winner. As a competitor, he placed in 8 other competitions, served as a competitions professional advisor and a competitions juror including chairing the Grand Prix of Czech Architecture in Prague. Dr. Lizon lives and works in Venice, Florida.
Thomas Bitnar, AIA
Bitnar Architects, Bozeman, Mont., New York City, Prague
Thomas Bitnar, AIA has had extensive experience in architecture and urban design over thirty-two years. His background encompasses a broad range of projects in Europe and the United States. His projects include The World Bank offices Avenue in Washington, D.C. for HOK; the Gun Hill Bus complex in the Bronx, New York for Perkins & Will; the renovation of the American Airlines Terminal at JFKInternationalAirport; the MaimonidesMedicalArtsBuilding in Brooklyn, New York; the renovation of the Czech Mission to the United Nations in New York City. Additionally, Bitnar has completed a number or residential and commercial projects in Bozeman, Montana.
Thomas Bitnar has participated in almost thirty national and international competitions in the course of his career, such as: a new development for Wenceslaus Square in Prague; a residential complex in Berlin’s Tiergarten section; a waterfront development in Yokohama, Japan; the new government center in Berlin; the Main and Masaryk Station development in Prague; the Scandinavian Center in Prague; the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington, D.C.; New York City waterfront design; the Four Seasons Hotel in Prague; the New Opera House in Oslo, Norway.
Thomas Bitnar received his Master of Science in Real Estate Development from ColumbiaUniversity’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He was awarded a B.A. and an M.S. in Architecture from CVUT, Prague Technical University of Architecture and Town Planning and an M.S. in Architecture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Martin Holub, AIA
Martin Holub Architects, New York, NY
Martin Holub is the founder and principal of Martin Holub Architects & Planners,
based in New York City, with a branch office in Dutchess County, New York. Over his 34 years of private practice, his work has been marked by its diversity – in scale, type of structure, type of client, and geographic location. Recent projects include: a house in upstate New York, the CzechCulturalCenter in New York City, several apartment renovations in Manhattan, and a six-car garage in DutchessCounty.
Holub’s practice has extended internationally. In 1990, after the fall of communism in Holub’s native CzechRepublic, he established a Prague-based subsidiary to provide local support for projects designed by his firm for multinational clients needing facilities in the CzechRepublic. In addition, between 1975 and 1979, Holub’s firm maintained a branch office in Tehran, Iran where it designed a number of industrial, residential, educational, and health facilities projects.
Prior to establishing his own firm, Holub worked in the design departments of several large architectural firms in Prague, London and New York. He also taught architectural design at the University of Tennessee, New York Institute of Technology and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.
Holub’s work has been published in numerous books and magazines, both in the U.S. and internationally. He has also been the recipient of many awards for design excellence. His most recent award is the first prize in the annual design award program of the New York Chapter of the American Society of Registered Architects, for the design of the Dominican Chapel in Sparkill, New York.
Brigitte L. Knowles
BJC Knowles Architects, Philadelphia, PA; Associate Dean, TempleUniversity
Brigitte Knowles is a partner in the architectural atelier, BJC/Knowles, Architects and Planners. The studio is a vehicle for creative architectural investigations, including selective projects and has entered countless competitions. In both the built and unbuilt projects, the studio has attempted to define and document a theoretical attitude towards architecture. The work of the studio has received international recognition, namely in architectural journals in Great Britain, Columbia, Ecuador, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and the United States, and several projects have won international design awards.
Major projects include: the Eastwick Branch library, the PAB Widener Memorial School Pool Addition, the George D. Widener Sports Pavilion, the Temple University Bath House, the Philadelphia Society for Services to Children, the UpsalSchool for the Blind, the StudentUnionBuilding at WarwickUniversity in England, office and housing facilitates in the Soviet Union and countless private residences. The work of the studio under the title of B/JC Knowles Collections is on permanent display in the Architectural Archives at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania. The collection is available for study by young aspiring architects consists of over 1500 architectural drawings and prints and 51 architectural models.
In collaboration with TempleUniversity students, Brigitte was the architect for the owl pedestal, located at Alumni Circle, Berks and Park Mall on the Temple University Main Campus. Brigitte is currently an Associate Dean at the TylerSchool of Art.
ABOUT THE AIA COMMITTEE ON DESIGN
The Committee on Design was founded to promote design excellence among members of the AIA, and the broader design community, both nationally and internationally; and with the public at large. In realizing this mission, the committee promotes a range of activities intended to encourage a dialogue on the art of building.
2005AIA COMMITTEE ON DESIGN SPONSOR
USG Inc.