The Club for Old Prague praised the Lasvit company headquarters and the fire station
photo: Tomáš Souček |
Prague – The Club for Old Prague today announced two laureates of its award for the best new building in a historic environment. Last year, the covidu-19 pandemic ceremony did not take place. Therefore, in Prague today they awarded the prize for 2019 to Jiří Opočenský and Štěpán Valouch for the glass house of the Lasvit company in Nový Bor. The award for 2020 went to the Ehl & Koumar Architekti studio for the fire station in Líbeznice near Prague.
The prize is awarded for a successful new building that does not disrupt, but on the contrary completes the historic environment. “For all finalists, the jury appreciated the variety of architectural means and styles with which new buildings can sensitively enter the historical environment, from purely modern expressions to noble traditionalism.” introduced by Rostislav Švácha, chairman of the jury of the Club Award for Old Prague.
Jiří Opočenský and Štěpán Valouch from the architects’ studio have already won several awards for the reconstruction and completion of the Lasvit headquarters in Nový Bor. Last November, they received the main prize of the Czech Prize for Architecture, in the Grand Prix of Architects they scored in the category of reconstruction. The authors reconstructed several traditional North Bohemian wooden buildings for the glass company from the beginning of the 19th century and added two new buildings of a similar shape, but in different materials, one of which is glass.
In the narrow finale was also an apartment building in Prague’s Vlastislavova Street from the Projektil studio and the Corso Pod lipami apartment complex in Řevnice by Lukáš Ehl, Tomáš Koumar and Alena Šrámková. The three finalists in 2020 were complemented by a multi-functional house with a large bookstore in Benešov’s Vnoučková Street, in addition to the author team of Markéta Cajthamlová, and the town hall in Modřice by the Bod architekti studio. She won the Grand Prix of Architects last year. But in the end, the club chose the Lízdnice fire station.
The one in the village has been standing since this spring. Its surroundings have also been improved and facilities for technical services have also been added. The armory was created according to the design of the Ehl & Koumar Architects studio, the municipality announced an architectural competition for its design. According to the municipal architect Jan Hájek, the appearance of the buildings returns to the traditional structure of the village. “Houses are most similar to barns with what the barns of our culture bring – a certain generosity, simplicity, monumentality and rhythm,” said when opening the armory.