New Central Station Prague - Opera

The work is a proposal for integrating a planned large-scale transportation project - a railway city tunnel in Prague into a complicated structure. It combines the principles of urban composition, the spatial layout of the station and interventions in the public space into one design, with the basic thesis that the design process must not be separated.

This project combines principles of urban composition, the spatial layout of the underground connections and public space interventions into one design, while the basic thesis is that the design processes must not be separated. Urban principles are derived from the position between medieval structure and the 19th-century extension of the city, both based on classical urbanism. Between the structures, where the baroque defensive walls stood, there was a space left for a series of public institutions like the National Museum buildings. However, infrastructural projects, first the railroad and then the transversal highway, let the institutions be isolated in modernistic junk space. The new investment serves as an initiator of the urbanisation of the place. The urban composition fills the void between the districts by placing new buildings and newly defined public spaces based on the classical urban structure but requiring a highly technical solution to cover the railway. The most notable element is the "domplatz" in front of the Opera House, which reorientates the space to restore the building to a dignified status. The predefinition of the surface situation enabled the correct design of the underground with all its connections. I designed the platforms and connections to the other metro lines, the old station, and the surface with a basic track layout taken from the official technical study. Thanks to a better knowledge of the urban structure, I significantly shortened the transfer distances. The function was an essential aspect of the project. The site was to become the most accessible in the country. It would become a desirable location for commercial development. Therefore, it would be a crucial responsibility of the state and the municipality to ensure that the area was as democratic as possible. The proposal works with creating a platform for cultural purposes, and public institutions would occupy two plots. This thesis aimed to open a debate on how to link the design process of urban structure and transport infrastructure in our region, and I hope that I have been able to show a possible way.