Brno Jedna

Year2025

CategoryResidential houses

LocationBrno

StatusIn progress

The XENON and NEON mixed-use buildings together form a new urban ensemble that draws on the site's gasworks history while reinterpreting it in a contemporary architectural language. The massing is based on the principle of the classic urban block, adapted to the specific conditions of the plot.

The two buildings are functionally and spatially connected, yet each has a distinct expression: XENON is characterised by a more dynamic, curving volume, while NEON appears calmer and more stable thanks to its firmer, more linear composition. It is precisely the contrast between the movement of one and the rationality of the other that creates their mutual dialogue.

Between the two buildings, a more intimate inner world emerges at a human scale, built on attention to detail, texture and contrasting materials. Exposed concrete, corrugated sheet metal, glass and local stone connect the industrial legacy of the site with contemporary architecture and give the whole ensemble a raw yet refined expression.

Client	PSN s.r.o.
Design team	Martin Krupauer Pavel Kvintus Martin Sedmák Michael Vojtěchovský Anna Vršková

Raw and Elegant Materials

The simple form that defines the building from the outside gains detail and playfulness through the alternation of different materials, combining a modern approach with references to history.

Exposed concrete, corrugated sheet metal, glass and local stone underline both the rawness and the elegance of the whole.

Housing with a Community Dimension

The need to widen the bridge is therefore addressed neither by an extension that would overshadow one of the bridge's façades, nor by a superstructure whose width would push both façades into the background and deny the logic of its tectonics.

They propose removing the inadequate and low-value upper deck and bringing the new one closer in its formal language to the original 19th-century bridge. The intervention in the bridge is thus carried out by building “from within”.

Despite its widening, the bridge will retain the qualities that local residents regard as most important.