invalidovna offices

The designed office compound is located on the investor’s site in Prague 8-Invalidovna. The study plans to raze down the existing buildings of the Czech Statistical Office and build a new complex here. In our design, we strived to arrange the compound with unambiguously identifiable buildings and easy, logical pedestrian access (from the Metro station) and a car entry from Sokolovská / Za Invalidovnou to the parking lots and into the underground garage. To provide unobstructed pedestrian access, we had to modify the existing parking lot behind the Metro station slightly to make the complex visible and each entrance lobby readily available (a part of the modified parking lot is compensated by the adequate area from the investor’s site). Pedestrians approaching the compound from the Metro are thus directed to the front lobbies and, to the fitness centre, if appropriate; orientation is made easier by trees, shrubs, and small pools. For unproblematic orientation of drivers, car entries/exits to/from the garage are accentuated by a structure of outstanding pitched roofs covered by vegetation. The designed compound is conceived as a group of five main office buildings of six to ten aboveground stories with the front longitudinal facades lined along the street line and gable walls parallel with the street lines of Za Invalidovnou and Molákova. This angle between the front and the gable façade introduces the desired positive dynamics to the entire complex. This dynamic pattern is furthermore supported by these volumes shifted in the direction of the main facades; this arrangement makes up, aside from feeling some desired looseness of the compound, for excellent legibility and identification of each building for future tenants and visitors. The main buildings conceived as more robust and closed (see façades alternatives) are complemented by a continuous mass of glazed necks (designed as six-storied) connecting floors to large rental units as required by the client. (For example, the maximum rental area of one typical storey, if all five phases were built, can be up to 7,470 square meters, or 1,520 respectively 1,660 m2, as the case may be). The connecting necks always have entrances from both sides on the ground floor; higher stories will be accessed from here via a lobby with a reception. There are always two catering units on the ground floor (e.g. a restaurant and a cafeteria) connected to the green front garden with pools on the west side. They can be public if needed. Two additional public amenity buildings complement the main office buildings: rental areas along Sokolovská for small shops, services, and a restaurant, and a fitness centre and a coffee shop at Molákova. These two buildings have one and a half story (the fitness centre also occupies the 1st basement) and have a pitched broken roof with greenery touching the ground. Their facades are glazed partly transparent curtain walls. The structural system ¬ – the main frame is a reinforced concrete cast in-situ concrete 8.1 x 8.1 m based on basic modular axes 1.35 m providing for further partitioning of offices and facades. Roofs are flat, partly green (roofs of public amenities and roofs covering ramps are pitched, green). PHASING The complex is designed for constructing in five phases (for more – see the PHASING dwg.). Phases 1 – 4 always include the erection of the main lateral office building and the connecting neck (the neck according to the currently required connection between stories). GREEN In our design, we emphasise making the most of both the existing green and new green areas including grown trees (following consultations with landscapers). The composition of volumes allows establishing semi-closed areas with greenery delineated by the higher lateral buildings and the connecting necks. There are turf areas combined with lower and grown up green and pools here together with restaurant and coffee shop’s front gardens. Green is also reckoned with on roofs (see herein above) and on terraces of the connecting necks. PARKING The surface visitor parking lot will be partly used for the complex (existing). The greater part of the parking capacity is nevertheless allocated into the underground garage that can be divided into two basic units (according to phasing). The final capacity is 468 places. The garage has two stories below the phase 1 providing 313 parking places; the second part has only one story with 155 parking places. Two two-way entry ramps are sufficient; we have one more to Molákova in our design if need be for the investor and supplying (technology).