New hall for DPMB trams
The Brno Public Transport Company has built a modern facility for the daily cleaning and maintenance of trams in the Pisárky depot. The new hall with an acoustic façade and a single giant window, along with the reconstruction of existing halls and tracks, has improved working conditions as well as the quality of transport.
The new hall of the Brno Public Transport Company (DPMB) features two covered channels for the daily inspection of tram undercarriages, platforms for viewing the electrical equipment on the roof, and facilities for cleaning the interior. “Together with the hall, a new roof structure has been built towards the existing buildings, which house a new portal tram washing facility,” explained architect David Kudla, the designer from the studio dkarchitekti.
New Dominance on Hlinky Street
Hlinky Street gained a new dominant feature in the first quarter of 2020. Not a vertical one, but a horizontal one – to illustrate: the building is 17 meters longer than the Janáček Theatre or the same length as Špilberk. The entire project concerns an area the size of Freedom Square. A specific element of this enormous structure is a window with impressive dimensions – over five and a half meters high and more than 23 meters long.
“Although this is a utilitarian and rational operational facility for cleaning and maintaining trams before they are put aside for the next day, it is a significant architectural theme. The building creates a 117-meter-long façade, significantly influencing the face of the Brno public transport company in public space,” stated architect Kudla.
Noise Shield
The building is designed as a pass-through prism covered with a sophisticated intricately structured aluminum façade, which diffuses the noise from trains passing on the neighboring tram line. “The northern façade facing Hlinky Street was specifically developed to meet a high aesthetic standard but primarily to minimize noise reflections from trams passing to Bystrc,” described the purpose of the façade architect.
The noise is diffused by a total of 108 pyramids that absorb some noise through perforation. “A standard façade reflects up to 90% of noise to the surroundings, while ours only reflects 40%. The building has received a nickname among architects due to its atypical façade – the sieve,” added architect Kudla. The designers also paid great attention to the gates at the ends of the building, which deviate from standard production in their construction and appearance.
A view into the interior is allowed by a single window, reportedly the largest in Brno. With an area of 129 square meters, it is twice the size of the glass room or living room window in the Tugendhat villa. This “eye” along with the backlit DPMB logo illuminates the night street – the process of cleaning the tram sets ends in the late night hours. “The only window shines into the dark surroundings and tells the story that while others have finished for the day, here work is still underway to ensure everything is ready for a new day,” described Tomáš Fries, who managed the project at the dkarchitekti office.
Modern and Safer Operations
“The total construction cost of 411 million crowns allowed for the creation of a new hall, as well as the roofing of five existing storage tracks, the reconstruction of existing facilities, and the modernization of the track layout. The Pisárky depot, which is the oldest in Brno, has gained a fully automated construction method for the train path with the new building.” concluded architect Kudla.
After its completion in 2020, the building received a special award from ČKAIT in the Building of the Year competition and also became the JMK construction in the category of industrial and technological buildings. The first phase of the modernization of the depot was initiated by the transport company in 2015 when the track layout for tram storage was expanded by 560 meters, simplifying the servicing of the area. A third phase of work is planned for the future, which will include a new track head towards the exhibition ground and a new return loop.
The Pisárecká depot in its current location was established in 1870, a year after the launch of horse-drawn transport. The first reconstruction took place in the mid-1880s when steam trams began operating in Brno. Since 1900, electric trams have found their place here, and currently, more than 180 trams "spend the night" in the depot. Brno has two tram depots – in addition to Pisárky, there is also Medlánky.
The new hall of the Brno Public Transport Company (DPMB) features two covered channels for the daily inspection of tram undercarriages, platforms for viewing the electrical equipment on the roof, and facilities for cleaning the interior. “Together with the hall, a new roof structure has been built towards the existing buildings, which house a new portal tram washing facility,” explained architect David Kudla, the designer from the studio dkarchitekti.
New Dominance on Hlinky Street
Hlinky Street gained a new dominant feature in the first quarter of 2020. Not a vertical one, but a horizontal one – to illustrate: the building is 17 meters longer than the Janáček Theatre or the same length as Špilberk. The entire project concerns an area the size of Freedom Square. A specific element of this enormous structure is a window with impressive dimensions – over five and a half meters high and more than 23 meters long.
“Although this is a utilitarian and rational operational facility for cleaning and maintaining trams before they are put aside for the next day, it is a significant architectural theme. The building creates a 117-meter-long façade, significantly influencing the face of the Brno public transport company in public space,” stated architect Kudla.
Noise Shield
The building is designed as a pass-through prism covered with a sophisticated intricately structured aluminum façade, which diffuses the noise from trains passing on the neighboring tram line. “The northern façade facing Hlinky Street was specifically developed to meet a high aesthetic standard but primarily to minimize noise reflections from trams passing to Bystrc,” described the purpose of the façade architect.
The noise is diffused by a total of 108 pyramids that absorb some noise through perforation. “A standard façade reflects up to 90% of noise to the surroundings, while ours only reflects 40%. The building has received a nickname among architects due to its atypical façade – the sieve,” added architect Kudla. The designers also paid great attention to the gates at the ends of the building, which deviate from standard production in their construction and appearance.
A view into the interior is allowed by a single window, reportedly the largest in Brno. With an area of 129 square meters, it is twice the size of the glass room or living room window in the Tugendhat villa. This “eye” along with the backlit DPMB logo illuminates the night street – the process of cleaning the tram sets ends in the late night hours. “The only window shines into the dark surroundings and tells the story that while others have finished for the day, here work is still underway to ensure everything is ready for a new day,” described Tomáš Fries, who managed the project at the dkarchitekti office.
Modern and Safer Operations
“The total construction cost of 411 million crowns allowed for the creation of a new hall, as well as the roofing of five existing storage tracks, the reconstruction of existing facilities, and the modernization of the track layout. The Pisárky depot, which is the oldest in Brno, has gained a fully automated construction method for the train path with the new building.” concluded architect Kudla.
After its completion in 2020, the building received a special award from ČKAIT in the Building of the Year competition and also became the JMK construction in the category of industrial and technological buildings. The first phase of the modernization of the depot was initiated by the transport company in 2015 when the track layout for tram storage was expanded by 560 meters, simplifying the servicing of the area. A third phase of work is planned for the future, which will include a new track head towards the exhibition ground and a new return loop.
The Pisárecká depot in its current location was established in 1870, a year after the launch of horse-drawn transport. The first reconstruction took place in the mid-1880s when steam trams began operating in Brno. Since 1900, electric trams have found their place here, and currently, more than 180 trams "spend the night" in the depot. Brno has two tram depots – in addition to Pisárky, there is also Medlánky.
dkarchitekti, s.r.o.
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22.06.20 03:39
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