The Old Prague Club awarded the headquarters of Lasvit and the fire station

photo: Tomáš Souček

Prague – The Club for Old Prague today announced two laureates of its award for the best new building in a historical environment. Last year’s ceremony did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, today in Prague, the award for the year 2019 was given to Jiří Opočenský and Štěpán Valouch for the glass house of the Lasvit company in Nový Bor. The award for the year 2020 went to the Ehl & Koumar Architects studio for the fire station in Líbeznice.

The award is given for a successful new building that does not disrupt but rather complements the historical environment. "The jury appreciated the diversity of architectural devices and styles with which all the finalists sensitively enter the historical environment, from purely modern expressions to noble traditionalism," said Rostislav Švácha, chairman of the jury of the Club for Old Prague Award.

Jiří Opočenský and Štěpán Valouch from the ov architekti studio have already received several awards for the reconstruction and extension of the Lasvit company's headquarters in Nový Bor. The authors reconstructed several traditional wooden structures from the early 19th century in Northern Bohemia for the glass company and supplemented them with two new objects of similar shape but in different materials, one of which is glass.

In the close final, there was also an apartment building on Vlastislavova Street in Prague by the Projektil studio and the Corso Pod lipami residential complex in Řevnice by Lukáš Ehl, Tomáš Koumar, and Alena Šrámková. The trio of finalists in 2020, alongside the Líbeznice fire station, also included a multi-functional building with a large bookstore on Vnoučkova Street in Benešov by the creative team of Markéta Cajthamlová and a municipal hall in Modřice by the Bod architects studio. However, the club ultimately chose the Líbeznice fire station.

It has been standing in the village since this spring. Its surroundings were also improved, and there is additional infrastructure for technical services. The fire station was created according to the design of the Ehl & Koumar Architects studio, with the municipality announcing an architectural competition for its shape. According to the municipal architect Jan Hájek, the design of the buildings returns to the traditional structure of the municipality. "The houses are most reminiscent of a barn, with what barns bring to our culture – a certain generosity, simplicity, monumentality, and rhythm," he stated during the opening of the fire station.