It is one of the most important locations in Prague. Penta alone plans to invest over six billion there, which will join the three billion investment in the first phase next to the station.
However, it is already clearer how ČSAD Praha holding will be built on the land, which, in addition to the joint venture of billionaire Marek Dospiva and České dráhy, will also be built in the future. The international urban design competition, announced by investors in agreement with the capital, has its three finalists. At the turn of November and December, the jury will select the winning proposal, which its authors will then elaborate into a territorial study with regulatory elements.
This will be binding for further construction, as it will change the zoning plan. This means that an agreement will be reached between the owners and the city on where the streets should be, what they should be in the square, how the traffic will work and what the typology and height of the planned buildings will be. It should be added that although the designs work with visualizations of buildings, the specific architectural form of individual houses is not addressed by this competition. Investors will choose this in the next stages.
"The capital has given competition as a condition for further development. The original design from Zaha Hadid's studio prepared some vision for further development. However, Prague did not agree with this and demanded an urban competition, "summarizes Petr Návrat from the planning office ONplan, which organizes the competition. In their designs, the individual teams address not only the land where construction is to begin as soon as possible, but also the wider surroundings, including the future of the main road or Těšnov.
"We want the area to work primarily for pedestrians. We respect the walkable city concept so that we do not rely only on cars in Prague, ”adds Pavel Streblov, Penta Real Estate's director for commercial construction, to the construction plans.
One of the finalists of the competition is a joint design of the consortium, which represents the Czech studios UNIT architects and A69, as well as the Slovak-British office Marko & placemakers. "The design envisages a small structure of smaller blocks of flats, which evokes the feeling of a medieval town," describes Návrat.
The second design from the Dutch De Architekten Cie and Lola Landscape Architects in cooperation with the Czech studio M2AU works with slightly larger blocks and designs a large park in Těšnov. "In a long-term vision, they have the highway brought to ground level, where it continues in a calm form around the park in Těšnov," adds Návrat.
The latest development vision that has advanced to the finals is from a team of three Swiss offices, AGPS Architecture, Atelier Girot and IBV Hüsler. In this case, the architects do not work so much with visualizations and divide the territory into longer longitudinal blocks. Even in this proposal, a large park in Těšnov is planned.
