YAA 2019 - Main Partner Award YIT

Ing. arch. MgA. Martin Petřík
City Boulevard

Jury's evaluation:
The proposal greatly impressed the jury with its inventiveness and refinement, while it disappointed with insufficient presentation of the main theme of the competition – rental housing. Nevertheless, the choice of location for such a function and typology at the intersection of the city boulevard and the adjacent intimate housing estate seems to be one of the best in the competition! It does not dilute the modernist principle of the surrounding development but develops

Accompanying report:
Along the city boulevard ul. Budějovická, there is a long single-storey building. It served as community facilities for the surrounding housing estate. Today, the building is in a dilapidated state. The district is being overgrown by administrative buildings, and the city around is increasing.
The existing building in this condition will not withstand. It is decaying, and the pressure for construction in the vicinity is growing. The group of panel houses to the north of Budějovická street could potentially provide quality housing in a good location, but the urbanistic principle of the Zelená liška housing estate (south of Budějovická street) is still more pleasant. Row housing along the main street creates a completely different world. An active ground floor will not emerge here. It is, and can only be in the future, in the addressed building across the street. I am trying to design a building that responds to the height differences of surrounding structures, to the diverse context. Functions are layered and intertwined. A mix of services, housing, work, and leisure is created. A side effect is the improvement of the quality of life in the panel houses and the activation of the city boulevard. To densify, but not to spoil! It seems important to disrupt the strict line. Also, not to block light from the development. At the intersection, the significant corner is essential. Height and solidity. On the other end of the building, it is different; what matters is the next major intersection at Pankráce. Therefore, the end does not protrude; it is height-appropriate – characterized by intimacy. It is necessary to establish a hierarchy, to seek pedestrian paths and a degree of privacy considering the site requirements.
The building holds the length of the entire plot on the first three floors; the ground floor is passable in places, sometimes bent. On the second floor, there are services, an open plan for occupancy, accessible from the back via a walkway besides the vertical cores. Then there is the residential floor. Simple layouts, winter gardens, good accessibility to community facilities. I consider this a quality. Above the apartments, there is an open space, a terrace – connected to the house but also to the surroundings. The central block consists of housing and a frontal mass of offices with a café at the corner of the ground floor.