Hotel Boscolo - Carlo IV, Prague

The original building of the Hypoteční banka Království českého (a Neo-Renaissance palace from 1894 designed by Achille Wolf) was complemented in the courtyard space with a new six-story extension for the luxurious five-star hotel Carlo IV. (149 rooms). A simple cuboid form (room section) was chosen for the new building, featuring a façade with wooden French windows and large-format glass panels with fired silk-screen printing depicting green leaves. The two courtyards symmetrically located on both sides of the historic building (5 above-ground floors including an attic) serve: the western one for supplies, and the eastern one as an arrival point for taxis and a new barrier-free entrance to the hotel. The two basements of the new structure house technology and parking.
The hotel’s entrance lobby, along with the representative staircase, are among the most valuable parts of the historic object: the original paintings were reconstructed, as well as the stucco and decorative elements, and the original central skylight above the atrium space was refurbished.
The new entrance to the building and the conference spaces is realized in the northeastern part of the plot as a light glass volume (the glass is printed with graphics of leaves in reddish-brown autumn colors) with an eight-meter canopy above the entrance, covered underneath with gold leaf. On the ground floor, a sports and relaxation center is also located. The main central corridor on the ground floor features a plastic abstract relief symbolizing reeds; this motif is also placed on the glass panels with both sides sandblasted, connecting the corridor to the pool area. The hotel provides gastronomic services in two original dining halls on the first floor and in a special smoking bar (renovated historical bank vaults).
Elements and materials. Natural materials were used in both the original and newly designed spaces (stone – marble, onyx, and Brazilian quartzite; wood – oak parquet and South American cherry, rosewood veneers, and glass mosaic), and in the new interior spaces, hard troweled plaster in pastel colors (conference spaces, ground floor corridors, and pool). Replicas were created in the corridors of the historic part based on the preserved ceiling light fixture.