The exhibition of the National Museum will present the visions of Karel Prager

Prague - Starting Friday, people can get acquainted with the work and visions of architect Karel Prager directly in the building he designed, the former Federal Assembly, which is currently the seat of the National Museum. "The biggest exhibit is undoubtedly the building itself,” said museum director Michal Lukeš to reporters today. The building was constructed as a house on top of a house and became an impetus for the architect's vision of a city above a city, which he focused on since the 1970s.
    Employees of the National Museum, in collaboration with the Center for Central European Architecture (CCEA), divided the exhibition into two parts. The first presents the history of the Federal Assembly building, while the second allows visitors to familiarize themselves with Prager's project of the city above the city. The exhibition features reproductions of materials related to the construction of the Federal Assembly building, computer animations of its model, film projections, and original models and plans for experimental residential construction in Prague from the 1970s.
    Prager created the design for the house above the house in 1966. A bridge structure with offices for members of the Federal Assembly was built above the former stock exchange by 1973. In the 1990s, the building began to serve as the headquarters of Radio Free Europe, and two years ago, the National Museum took over the building. In 2000, the building was declared a cultural monument. Four years later, a poll by the magazine Architekt ranked it among the ten most significant Czech buildings of the last fifty years.
    However, Prager's work has often been criticized for, among other things, insensitivity to the surroundings and the use of unconventional concepts. The former Federal Assembly building has become a symbol of the communist regime and has many opponents. “The hostility was not towards the building, but towards the institution that resided in it,” noted architect Radomíra Sedláková. She added that currently, two buildings attract foreign visitors to Prague in particular - the New Stage of the National Theatre and the Federal Assembly building itself.
    Among the supporters of Prager's architecture is also the rapper performing under the name Vladimir 518, who, together with Ondřej Anděra and David Vrbík, held a multimedia performance SPAM - Karel Gott Prager in the former Federal Assembly building two years ago as part of the 4+4 Days in Motion festival.
    The second part of the exhibition showcases Prager's efforts to expand the vision of the house above the house into the project of a city above a city, proposing the growth of the city into the third dimension using bridge constructions, as opposed to its expansion into the surrounding landscape. The flexible part of the construction was represented by interchangeable cells that spatially responded to the wishes and needs of the residents. However, during the 1970s, panel housing construction was in full swing, and Prager's vision was not realized.
    The accompanying program of the exhibition will include discussions with architects, a screening of the film Reconstruction of the National Assembly Building from 1968, or walks through Prager's buildings, including the New Stage of the National Theatre and the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
    The exhibition City Above the City - The Vision of Karel Prager will be open until April 17.