The SO-HO residence in Prague's Holešovice has opted for dry construction

The urban design is also well thought out: The SO-HO Holešovice Residence shapes a typical Holešovice block with a park in the internal courtyard. This is conceived as a semi-public green space with access from individual entrances or from the quiet Tusarova street in the southern part of the project. The SO-HO Residence project will offer 148 apartments and lofts in layouts ranging from 1+kk to large family duplexes 4+kk in the first phase. The ground-floor lofts will provide an impressive ceiling height of 4.45 meters, ideal for an inserted floor and expanding living space with an extra level. The other floors also offer above-average ceiling heights for the apartments and the option to connect several units.

The investor of the reconstruction project of the former Tesla factory in Prague 7 - Holešovice is Cresco Real Estate

The project for the conversion of the industrial building of the former Tesla enterprise in Holešovice was designed by the architectural studio AAPP, s.r.o. under the direction of architect Petr Průša, with the collaboration of Jiří Tvrdý, Lukáš Bruthans, and Jan Kapitulčin. Subsequently, the design and engineering activities were handled by the company projekt S15 s.r.o., and in the final stage, the investor's designers also contributed to the project. The general contractor for the construction work was Emexkon from Prague.

The task of the architects from the AAPP studio was to transform the existing industrial structure into a residential building with complementary small service functions and to add a retreating floor to the existing building. The investor appreciated their proposal because they managed to maximize the use of the skeleton structure and designed the layout of the residential units on each floor in a way that maximized the usable residential area, allowing for the best overall economics of the project.

Although Holešovice is bordered by the picturesque meander of the Vltava river, the SO-HO Residence is dominated by dry construction

The building had been unused for a long time, but the supporting structure was in relatively good condition. All structures, except for the load-bearing structure and two stair cores, were demolished, including the facade. Thanks to the reinforced concrete skeleton construction system, the internal space was quite variable, thus it was not a problem to place apartments ranging from 1+kk to 5+kk. In addition to housing, the building also offers spaces for commercial use, set aside for part of the ground floor facing V Háji street and part of the basement.
Here, the typical properties of fermacell® fiber-reinforced boards and flooring elements were fully utilized – statics, acoustics, fire resistance, wide finishing options, or certified constructions including the use of safety class RC3 constructions.

Recessed hanging facade with steel structure and fermacell® board cladding

The architects began addressing various structural variants of a recessed hanging facade made of lightweight thin-walled steel profiles during the preparation of the project documentation for the building permit. The investor eventually decided to install a lightweight facade made of individual elements directly on the site. Ing. Radomír Dvořák, technical consultant for James Hardie Europe, adds: "The facade shell is designed as a recessed metal structure made of lightweight C profiles, clad on both sides with fermacell® fiber-reinforced board. On this assembly, a 20 cm external contact insulation system with a weight of 20 kg/m² is glued, and on it, clinker strips with a weight of 30 kg/m² are also applied. This means that together with the adhesives, the fermacell® board carries around 60 kg/m². For such loads from the facade along with wind pressure, several tests and pull-off tests were necessary."

Separation walls between apartments use constructions with fermacell® 1S32 boards with double metal framing and clad on both sides with two fermacell® boards. These constructions meet high requirements for fire resistance and acoustics and are ideal for partitioning the internal spaces in any building. The constructions are maximally slender, achieving Rw=69 dB while having a thickness of 170 mm. In addition to these walls, fermacell® 1S34 constructions have also been used in the Holešovice residence, meeting the requirements for safety class RC 3. "These separation walls between apartments are interesting because we integrated a fifth board into the construction, which thus ensures excellent acoustic parameters (Rw=74 dB), but also separates installations for each apartment. Neighbors do not 'look at the electrical outlets'. Of course, they are certified for safety class RC3, and their fire resistance is also high (EI90 DP1)," says Ing. Radomír Dvořák.

The internal layouts of the apartments are created using standard fermacell® 1S10 and 1S11 partition walls. On the other hand, on the ground floor, where commercial spaces are planned, and where very high fire resistance (up to EI120 DP1) was required due to possible variability in use, the partitions are made of fermacell® Firepanel A1 board, which belongs to the highest European fire response class A1 according to ČSN EN 13501-1.

In the SO-HO Residence, fermacell® flooring elements used include fermacell® 2E31 (2x10 mm fermacell® fiber-reinforced board + 10 mm screed) and 2E32 (2x10 mm fermacell® fiber-reinforced board + 10 mm mineral fiber). "These flooring elements are used in the compositions of dry floors in old buildings, especially in the renovation of old constructions, but also in new constructions. They mainly serve as impact or airborne sound insulation in the floor assembly and also meet high requirements for sound insulation between floors," explains Ing. Radomír Dvořák and adds: "To level the unevenness, we used our fermacell™ leveling underlay, which is a special dried mineral concrete granulate. Its specific physical properties allow versatile use and it can be economically used to create effective structures with sound and thermal insulation and fire protection (the underlay is made from granulate classified A1 to fire reaction). Thanks to the irregular surface, the grains of the granulate interlock and ensure the stability of the underlay layer."

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