Do not demolish! - Reuse!

The project deals with Czech architecture from the 1960s to the 1980s, often perceived negatively due to its association with the communist political regime. However, these buildings represent an important layer that is now gradually being erased. Using Merkuria as an example, the project seeks an alternative in its reuse instead of demolition.

The project uses the example of Merkuria to promote the architecture so often disliked due to the connection with the past communist political regime. These buildings face increasing pressure from the developers and are currently at risk of eradication. However, these buildings are strongly affected by the progressive influences of the then forbidden, but for their creators, inspiring West. A number of these objects have already fallen prey to the development companies guided by purely economic interest. This project emphasizes cultural, social or ecological values and offers an alternative adaptation of the object. The proposal is a hybrid transformation of a formerly monofunctional office building into a multifunctional object combining a public parterre, offices and anonymous and collective housing. The removal of the dark central core creates an open atrium with a gallery at the heart of the building. Four new staircases serve both the central tower with rentable office and studio space as well as the side cubes, which have been adapted for cluster living. Originally unused roof terraces are changed into green living spaces serving its inhabitants. Decentralization of the vertical communication creates variability of the functional use of the building for monofunction or polyfunction of the individual towers and the central core. The building can function as a proposed hybrid but also as an institution with a representative atrium or an apartment building with a residential gallery. The design respects the original structural system of the concrete skeleton into which it inserts different individual private housing units around the perimeter of the building. The variation of the housing typology offers the possibility of change depending on the requirements of the investor. Increasing number of single-family households, raising populations in city centres and skyrocketing prices of rents are serious problems that most big cities face nowadays. The project seeks a solution to these problems in shared housing, which is a possible response to the lack of affordable housing in Prague.