Tomáš Beránek - Museum of the Revolution 89

Jana Bočan's Workshop

The plot is located in the gap at Ovocný trh square in Prague.
The function of the square is suppressed at Ovocný trh. People pass through, and that is all. I designed a public building that will serve everyone and where anyone can stop.
I placed a simple block in the irregular shape of the gap, separated from the adjacent houses. To connect the building with the surroundings, I positioned the entrance in the center of the square. Thus, the entire plot of the gap has been moved one level below the square. Statues are placed in the gaps between the houses.
The museum has a permanent exhibition. It relates to the Velvet Revolution as a significant milestone in Czech history. The mass of the block is a symbolic obelisk to this event. The revolution begins from the roots, and therefore visitors must first descend down, so they can gradually rise up towards the light to the terrace, from which they will see the sky as a symbol of freedom. Events from that time, from November 17 until the end of the revolution, are projected onto the walls of the museum.

Jury's Evaluation:
The design of the Museum of the Revolution's form is based on a well-thought-out and naturally expressed dramaturgy of the exhibition's internal arrangement. The exterior appearance of the monumental stone obelisk gives the museum building a very strong and distinct expression in the context of the square (and not only there). Access to the building is arranged by descending directly from the square's surface to the spaces located in the first underground floor of the building. The desired external integrity of the obelisk's mass and the overall abstraction of the building's expression remain intact even in this section, thus completing the concept to the final point.