Awarded: AIA 2022 Restaurant Design Honorary Award | BIGSEE Interior Design Award 2021

For generations, travelers leaving Prague from Masaryk Railway Station stopped for a meal in the Imperial Restaurant before their train. The hall had seen countless departures, reunions and quick coffees, and it still carried that atmosphere when we first walked in. Our task was to bring it back to life as Masaryčka, a restaurant that works hard every day without losing the room the city remembers.

The restaurant occupies the ground floor of a stately station building on a busy Prague corner. Above, the facade rises in ordered rows of arched windows framed by classical cornices. At street level, a run of large arched openings lights up the pavement after dark, and trams pass close enough to send streaks of light across the glass. Next door, the iron and glass roof of the old station hall reminds everyone where they are. From the outside, very little needed to change. We kept the facade as it is and added only the new name, set in simple white letters above the arches, so the building announces the restaurant without losing any of its dignity.

Guests arrive from two directions. City visitors come in from the street, while passengers step straight in from the covered platform under the long timber roof of the station, often with a ticket in hand and a train to catch. On this side the original arched doorways were restored, their tall double doors finished in soft grey with brass kick plates at the base. Above each door, an illuminated sign carries either the full name or a single M, and the arched glazing overhead gives travelers a glimpse of the warm interior as they walk past. The restaurant reads clearly among the bustle of the platform without shouting over it.

Inside, the existing structure drove every decision. The hall is one generous volume, divided lengthwise by a line of arches carried on slender cast iron columns, with tall windows along the outer walls. We chose to keep it as a single room. Instead of building walls, we placed light steel frames and screens to create smaller seating zones, each with its own character: long communal tables in the middle, high tables along the walls, and quieter booths by the street windows. The bar sits at the heart of the plan. It works as the operational hub for the kitchen and as the social center of the restaurant at the same time. Serving up to 600 lunches a day takes clear, efficient circulation, and the central position lets staff reach every zone quickly while guests move naturally around it.

Restoration was a large part of the work. The cast iron columns with their decorated capitals and bronze finish, the vaulted ceilings, the coffered plasterwork and the tall arched windows were all repaired and left in full view. Up close, the base of each column still shows its studded ring and faceted plinth. The new lighting treats these surfaces gently. Thin illuminated rings hang beneath the vaults, and small lights tucked into dark vertical battens wash the walls from below. The steel screens do the quiet work of the plan. Made from thin horizontal bars, they filter views without blocking them, giving diners a sense of shelter in a room of monumental height. Long slatted timber benches run along their base, black cylindrical pendants drop low over the tables to bring the light down to a human scale, and a slim kitchen pass framed in grey panelling keeps the service visible and close.

Restoration was a large part of the work. The cast iron columns with their decorated capitals and bronze finish, the vaulted ceilings, the coffered plasterwork and the tall arched windows were all repaired and left in full view. Up close, the base of each column still shows its studded ring and faceted plinth. The new lighting treats these surfaces gently. Thin illuminated rings hang beneath the vaults, and small lights tucked into dark vertical battens wash the walls from below. The steel screens do the quiet work of the plan. Made from thin horizontal bars, they filter views without blocking them, giving diners a sense of shelter in a room of monumental height. Long slatted timber benches run along their base, black cylindrical pendants drop low over the tables to bring the light down to a human scale, and a slim kitchen pass framed in grey panelling keeps the service visible and close.

Along the street windows, the canopy settles over a calmer dining room. Upholstered booths in warm grey line the tall timber windows, and smaller tables fill the floor between them. Here the material palette is easiest to read: natural oak tabletops, solid wood chairs, dark steel frames, a dark plank floor and warm low lighting. Behind the bar, glass cabinets with fluted fronts hold the glassware and turn it into a soft shimmer of light. None of these pieces copies the historic detailing. They are clearly of their own time, and that honesty lets old and new sit comfortably side by side.

Along the street windows, the canopy settles over a calmer dining room. Upholstered booths in warm grey line the tall timber windows, and smaller tables fill the floor between them. Here the material palette is easiest to read: natural oak tabletops, solid wood chairs, dark steel frames, a dark plank floor and warm low lighting. Behind the bar, glass cabinets with fluted fronts hold the glassware and turn it into a soft shimmer of light. None of these pieces copies the historic detailing. They are clearly of their own time, and that honesty lets old and new sit comfortably side by side.

Project Information

Client: Masaryčka

Type: Restaurant, historic interior renovation

Place: Masaryk Railway Station, Prague, Czech Republic

Realization: 2021

Photography: Tomas Dittrich