The new concert hall has no ambition to be an opera in Sydney, but at least it would like to change Prague – ČT24 – Czech Television
Recently, a book with the explicit title 20 + 1 was published: the most interesting concert buildings in the world as inspiration for Prague. Architects Zdeněk Lukeš and Josef Pleskot, who are also the chairman of the IPR (Institute of Planning and Development in Prague) Gremial Council, gathered two dozen modern concert and opera buildings in the publication. Both unrealized and major projects.
We don’t want to, we actually want to
One of the new buildings – and I don’t have to be a concert hall, for example the glass pyramid in the Louvre – was perceived controversially at the time of its creation, but today it is not allowed by other locals. Tourists are looking and the city is used as its symbol.
This is one of the most famous concert buildings – the Sydney Opera House. “Today, it is even a symbol of the whole world,” Zdeněk Lukeš recalls of the building in the shape of a sailboat.
“We don’t have to have such ambitions,” he adds in connection with the Vltava Philharmonic exhibition. However, together with the building of the Berlin Philharmonic – to change the asymmetrical tent-shaped structure – he understands them as “prototypes” of contemporary concert halls. However, we especially recommend those that were created more recently for the Prague Hall as inspiring. “I prefer to follow European examples, such as Reykjavík, Oslo, Lucerne, Paris or Hamburg,” agrees Josef Pleskot.
Only water
Most of the examples mentioned in publications about foreign concert halls stand by the water. “And if there was no water, they created it, for example, when they made a lake in the center of Beijing,” Lukeš notes.
In the immediate vicinity of the watercourse we can find important Prague cultural stalls, such as the National Theater or the Rudolfinum, where the Czech Philharmonic is located today, but the building from the late nineteenth century no longer meets the needs of today’s orchestra and listeners.
The Vltava Philharmonic building is also located directly at the Vltava River, next to the Vltavská metro station. According to Pleskot, the proximity of the water could be taken into account by the architect of the project. “Water is a symbol of a minimum of calm, harmony, it is an inspiring medium,” he is convinced.
The whole new neighborhood
The Mayor of Prague 7 – and also the representative of the capital – Jan Čižinský (Prague Sobě) considers the new Philharmonic building to be important for the cultivation of the area, which is located not far from the historic center, but is not exactly an attractive environment. “We all know that Vltavská is really such a scar on the face of the city. And the new philharmonic will help to heal this scar, “he said.
The transformation of the place will not only stand on the shoulders of the Philharmonic. A completely new district of Bubny-Zátory is to be established here, where twenty-five thousand inhabitants will find their home. CAMP (Center for Architecture and Urban Planning) helps that the Bubny area is one of the largest brownfields in Prague – its area roughly corresponds to the entire Old Town. In addition, the abandoned freight station prevents the natural connection of the city. According to IPR plans, digging in the new district should take place in about four years.
Far from just for the Philharmonic
The Vltava Philharmonic Orchestra should perhaps not stand unhappily on the road that leads the Vltava, such as the State Opera today, which is already usurping the main road at the upper end of Wenceslas Square. “The place is extremely great in terms of urban status and is extremely complicated in terms of the transport infrastructure that operates there today,” says the location of the Philharmonic on the Vltava Pleskot.
“This is urbanism that has failed in some way and needs to be remedied. We think that such a building should have the content and potential to improve the surrounding area, repair it, make a link between old Prague and new Prague and should start such a beautifully poetic atmosphere as the floodplain in front of the National Theater building in the late nineteenth century. “He expects.