Kattenbeck

The design concept allows for gradual construction in individual phases.

The functions arising from the building programme, from housing to parking, are designed as separate buildings. The result is a varied structure working with different scales, forms and colours.

The northern part of the site accommodates a fire station and a municipal police station. Their archetypal pitched-roof forms are finished in brick-red and blue-green. Truncated roof ridges bring overhead, almost basilica-like light into the interiors.

Both buildings have generous ground-floor glazing, offering views into their internal operations. The façade and roof are formed of spaced ceramic louvres, which unify the overall form while visually lightening it.

A multi-storey car park is located in the central part of the site, surrounded on its southern and eastern sides by apartment buildings and terraced houses. The remaining façades are made of profiled industrial glass. Despite its transport function, the building thus acquires a refined expression and blends more naturally into the urban environment.

To lighten the mass, the taller part of the building is left unroofed. The lower part gradually steps down by means of a sloping green roof. Between the individual buildings, a pedestrian street with mature greenery creates a place to linger and ensures permeability across the entire block.

In the eastern part, the development is set back to create a new public square. One of the main drivers of activity here is the preserved granary, which will be transformed into a lively building with a gallery, a café and other community functions.

The project thus creates an active urban space and brings a new layer of life to the wider centre of Karlovy Vary.