The Smichov district has undergone major revitalisation in recent years, a conversion from an industrial district into a business centre. Thus, a new hub inside the city has been created.
The new headquarters of Správa železnic will undoubtedly be a highlight that will play a central role in the drive to modernize the district.
The building is proposed as a solution for integrating the entire programme, together with the different urban characteristics that converge on the site where the complex will be located.
We believe that the place calls for a cheerful, decisive and resounding action that imbues a new order to the complex formed by the building with the new terminal, and that provides a definite solution to the complex urban functioning of the whole area. From the outset, the urban planning limitations and regulations have been taken into account, managing to turn these conditioning factors into strengths in the proposal.
The building is arranged next to the tracks, adopting a layout similar to that of trains, which are made up of a succession of carriages that adapt to the requirements of each journey. In a similar vein, our proposal is based on the union of circular modules that, arranged in a row, are recognisable as independent buildings that form part of a whole. Like the wagons.
This logic extends over the two plots dedicated to the main buildings, General Directorate Building (building C) and the Organisational Units Building (building B), capable of housing the entire programme without the need to construct a third building at the southern end of the plot.
The integration of the bus access ramp to the terminal is undoubtedly the main problem to be solved by the future building. On the one hand, it is a question of architectural integration into the complex, and on the other hand, we are faced with a technical challenge when it comes to physically including it in the volume and structurally resolving the building, which will have to be suspended over it.
In plan, the plot is divided into two by the access to the vehicle ramp as an extension of the future street that is perpendicular to Nádražní, while in section the ramp produces a diagonal wound that structures the building in its height. On the upper levels situated above the ramp, the actual office programme is developed, while below it are the common spaces linked to the lobby, such as meeting rooms for visitors, lecture rooms and the conference hall.
The main access to the Directorate Building is located in the porch that acts as an extension to the existing one in the terminal. From the entrance, the vestibule allows the traffic to be distributed to the different areas of the building in a controlled manner. Car park users will access the lobby via the lifts leading to the reception desk, and from there they will access the rest of the building through the same security controls as the rest of the users.
The foyer will have the representative character that the Správa železnic headquarters require. This space will be dominated by the Conference Hall that, with the possibility of having different room configurations depending on the needs of each moment, and together with the rest of the foyer, forms a true multifunctional conference space.
The project takes advantage of the gap produced by the ramp as an opportunity to generate a space that is the main feature of the building. In this fracture, an "interior street" appears, linked to the rise of the ramp, which will house all the spaces for the social life of its users, spaces for restaurants, resting and representation.
The interior street will be the space that all the users of the building will visit, that they will share, and in which the necessary humanisation of daily work will take place. In this space with almost total free access, relations between workers and with corporate visitors will take place, so that it is not necessary for them to access the upper floors, which are the more private areas of the building.
The space rises parallel to the large ramp, overlooking it as well as the view of the Dívčí Hrady hill. The terraces overlooking the street and the river will allow for open-air meetings in good weather, and their use by all the workers democratises the building, making hierarchical relationships disappear for a while.
The foot of the ramp is another point at which the building stitches together the broken urban fabric. The facades of the two buildings are rotated in an attempt to face each other and produce a void between the two buildings which, in turn opens up a new space. In it, the access to building B faces a public access to the restoration area of building C, which allows the general public to visit the interior street.
The interior street, with people walking along the different levels on the stairs and ramps, resting while consulting their laptops, or simply looking at the distant landscape, will be the memory that people strolling along Nádražní Street will take with them as they pass in front of the building.
In these large corporate buildings, it is easy for the user to fall into monotony. They end up always working in the same place, as if it were a pigeonhole, each worker occupying an anonymous position in the whole, just the opposite of a healthy working environment. To avoid this, in both buildings, the offices are framed as circular modules, through a versatile and flexible construction solution that is organized through a series of collaborative workspaces that make each area recognisable and give the building a
domestic scale. These spaces will function as fixed points in the organisation of the space, as social focal points, signalling transit from one wing to another and serving as a place for meeting and relaxation.
Vertical circulation through the building has been favoured by the purposeful use of stairs, which, besides the great energy saving resulting from using the stairs instead of the lift, improves flexibility in the use of the floors and the connection between the different areas.Located in the heart of the building, the Network Control Center room is located under the area reserved for the general manager, with direct views over it, so that visitors and employees can appreciate all the activity inside without interrupting or disturbing the occupants.
All the facades respond to the needs of light, views and protection required by their orientation. Thus, the enclosure loses transparency towards the road area, where the openings are reduced, while in the opposite direction it opens up to receive light into the office areas and to relate them to the exterior.
We have chosen to work on a formula rather than on a "form", on a typological approach rather than on an image.Certainly, it is the functional logic that organizes and situates the different pieces, but we have tried to exploit the emotional capacity of each of the spaces, double heights, stairs and visuals, so that the whole is attractive and leaves an impression on the user.
Underlying the materialisation of the proposal is the idea of rigour and efficiency, underpinned by a simple geometry that seeks to rationalise the construction and make the most of the natural resources. The construction is based on prefabricated elements (facade modules, partitions...) with the aim of reducing costs and execution times as well as striving for an ecologically sustainable construction. One of the main objectives of the proposal is to achieve a ZEB building.
The new offices will be housed in a unique building, full of light and modernity, and with a powerful technological image, which will make it a landmark, the image of the ZELECNIC corporation.An innovative project for a renewed citizen. An industrialised and sustainable product with the possibility of being individualised by areas, a space for the individual development of each worker and a place of social integration.
