The architect presented a new look at the Savarin Palace in the center of Prague. The complex is to cost ten billion – ČT24 – Czech Television
“The expected investment is ten billion crowns,” said Ondřej Micka, a representative of the investor, Crestyl, on Friday. The ten-year-old redevelopment, the conservationists spoke out against, the new investor has a few years who bought it from the low-cost company Ballymore.
Crestyl promises less drastic changes in historic buildings and a lot of public space. According to the new presentation, for example, the Baroque riding school, which, according to Heatherwick, should be the heart of the entire project and will be the only non-commercial building, will undergo major changes. There will be several lower levels below it, so that it is possible to direct people to the building from the subway.
Savarin Palace, also called Sylva-Taroucca or Piccolomini, is a late Baroque palace building. Its current appearance dates from the second half of the 18th century and has the form of a large courtyard with two courtyards, which was once adjacent to the garden and riding school. The author of the Baroque adaptation is probably Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, after whose death his son-in-law Anselmo Lurago completed the construction. It was rebuilt in the 20th century, and in 1927 the famous Savarin Café, named after the lawyer and gourmet Brillat-Savarin, was founded on the site of the former baroque garden of the palace.
Savarin Palace is a protected monument
Andrea Holasová, a spokeswoman for the Prague Institute of the National Monuments Institute, said on Friday that administrative proceedings were being held for the documentation. “The matter is currently being submitted for assessment to the municipality’s monument care department,” Holasová pointed out.
The historic Savarin Palace is an individually protected cultural monument. “The project documentation is being discussed and approved on an ongoing basis, the event is being prepared relatively sensitively for this extraordinary palace building, details are currently being negotiated and more complicated parts of the structure are being fine-tuned,” said the spokesperson.
It is more complicated according to the new construction in the courtyard. There is a positive opinion of the municipal conservationists from 2017 on the older version of the study of development, but the NPÚ excluded this study. A request is made for a binding opinion on the modified study according to the new proposal, which, according to it, in principle preserves the basic parameters of the original project in terms of heights and volumes. On September 9, the NPÚ sent a statement to the municipality on the modified study, but it does not want to state it with reference to the ongoing administrative proceedings.
There should be space for social and cultural events in the former riding school. The block to Panská Street is to offer a market and restaurant, the block to Jindřišská restaurant and green areas, the buildings towards Wenceslas Square will be commercial, said Micka. “There will be no flats, they were not taken into account,” he added. Part of the representatives of Prague 1 did not like this.
The new passages are intended to allow freer movement in the center of the metropolis
The new investor invited the British architect Thomas Heatherwick to the project, who, in addition to new buildings, has extensive experience in the reconstruction of historic or revitalizing industrial buildings. Savarin consists of four interconnected parts, which occupy 1.6 hectares.
According to the investor, the new passages are intended to allow easy and free passage through the previously inaccessible city center, the garden and the square will bring life to the courtyard and the publicly accessible roof gardens and terraces will offer views of the Prague skyline. More than a third of the areas are to be occupied by outdoor open spaces and public passages.
“We don’t want to copy the details that existed in the historic buildings, we want to be inspired by them,” said architect Heatherwick. I wanted to draw attention to the study of individual objects to create an ecosystem. “The cafe will be where you would not expect it, as well as the office. We will create something that is flexible, sustainable, that will change over time to make people feel comfortable, ”he explained. According to him, it is important that he does not want to build enclosed spaces with air conditioning, but open spaces.
Heatherwick Studio is one of the world’s most renowned architectural studios. Recently, he transformed the old silo in Cape Town into the Zeitz MOCAA Museum of Contemporary African Art, which was one of the most discussed buildings in the world.