OLD CUSTOMS HOUSE

PRAGUE, CZECHIA
2001

The building of the Old Customs House is the result of a competition. The principal element of the architecture is the urban concept, which preserves the basic attributes of the city’s fabric – the hall, the veduta, the structuring of the material. The relationship between the new building and the original building is a dialogue of generational difference. The mutual separation of materials describes their historical distance. The interconnection of the masses is the transmission of the genetic information of the original body and the new form. As the buildings are his- torically distant from each other, they are also close to each other. In the very principle of how they have been and will be used by man. In the case of the old building, this is clear on the whole; the comfort of the environment was provided by classical materials. In the case of the new building, these are highly sophisticated facilities. Perhaps these new technologies will be as good in their engineering perfection as Mother Nature was in her products.

A much more “inventive” building than our previous realization (the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank in České Budějovice). Because we were once again seduced by the refinement, the poetry of transparency, the layering of spaces, the play of light and colour, we made it complicated enough. It was all about the south façade – at first glance a beauty in itself? Not entirely true, because in this case the “ends justify the means” is in full effect. The requirement to shade this side is monu- mentalized and used as a very distinctive architectural element. The almost mannerist richness of architectural form is infinitely linked to the dictates of the utilitarianism of building physics.

Category:

Offices and retails

Awards:

Nomination for the title Build of the Year 2001

Prize of the Association of Construction Entrepreneurs of the Czech Republic for a business plan in 2001

Realization:

2001

City:

Prague, Czechia