Prague will have artistic designs made for each D metro station

Prague - Prague will commission artistic design proposals for each station of the planned metro line D from Pankrác to Písnice. A committee will then select the winners from these proposals. This was announced to journalists today by Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr (Prague Together). The event will take place under the patronage of the National Gallery in Prague (NG) and will be collaborated on with architect David Vávra. The costs for the event will be up to ten million crowns. The construction of the metro will be handled by the transport company (DPP), which plans to start geological surveys in Pankrác this year. The route is intended to relieve the overloaded line C.

The competition does not mean that already completed station projects will be completely redone. "Given the stage of the project's development, it is no longer possible for us to change the architectural processing," Scheinherr said. According to him, parts of the stations will be selected for which artists will develop their designs. The city hall wants to follow up on the construction of lines A, B, and C, during which prominent artists were invited. All stations of the new route will bear a unifying element for the entire line. What that element will be, neither Scheinherr nor Vávra disclosed.

The company Metroprojekt, which designed the route, will invite artists to submit proposals. "For each individual metro station, several artistic proposals will be requested. The selection of contacted artists under the patronage of NG will be conducted by a committee composed of representatives from the city hall, the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR), NG, DPP, and Metroprojekt," states the material approved by the councilors.

After processing the artistic proposals, the committee will select a winning proposal for each station. These will then be incorporated into the project documentation.

For the Pankrác station, which is to be created first, academic sculptors Marian Karel and Vladimír Soukénka have been approached. "The artistic proposals developed by them will be submitted to the committee after its establishment," the material states. For the second station, Olbrachtova, the committee will approve the assignment of an artistic competition this April, and interested parties will have to submit proposals in May.

This will be followed by solutions for the stations Nádraží Krč, Nemocnice Krč, and Nové Dvory. Finally, the remaining stations Libuš, Písnice, Depo Písnice, and Náměstí Míru will be addressed. The preparation of the artistic design will depend on the schedule of their construction. For the station Náměstí bratří Synků, an architectural competition will be organized.

In the first phase, the section of the metro Pankrác - Olbrachtova is to be created. Subsequently, the construction will be extended to the planned stop Nové Dvory. Finally, in the south direction, the route from Nové Dvory to the terminus Depo Písnice will be created. Besides the section from Pankráce to Písnice, metro D will also run from Pankráce to Náměstí Míru. No decision has yet been made regarding the construction of this part of the route. Driverless trains will operate on the new line.