Josefinum Klatovy

1st place in an architectural competition
CZ, Klatovy, Vančurova, Balbínova, čp. 58 — 2023
culture
investor, client
the city Klatovy
architect
Boris Redčenkov, Prokop Tomášek, Jaroslav Wertig
team, collaboration
a69: Silvia Matisová, Veronika Hanzlíková, Ondřej Buš, Daniel Mudra, Kseniia Nikitina
technical design, collaboration
landscape design: Land05 s.r.o., Ing. Martina Forejtová, Msc. Vladimír Novák; exhibition concept: Mgr. Kristýna Jirátová, Ph.D, heritage conservation: doc. Ing. arch. Tomáš Efler
visualization
Ing. arch. Michal Nohejl

We connect the old with the new, the city centre with the city, people with people, art with the everyday life within one clear structure that is laid out as an open cultural and social platform. We rehabilitate and emphasize the historical layers and scars of the house, the industrial trace serves as an unexpected counterpoint to the baroque. Urbanistically, we perforate and open up the place. New interventions in the building substance bring the house closer to its original pure form and the ideal of the Baroque builders.

URBAN AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN

We connect the historic core with the centre of activity of the city in the southwest, creating a new symbolic gateway to the city, which we call Sala Terrena. It is an open ground floor hall that is a transitional element into the city on the site of the original monastery chapel. In distant views, this new entrance to the city is visible thanks to the high tower, which plays out a dialogue with the historical verticals with its transparent glowing character and symbolically presents the functional transformation of the house.

A wheelchair-accessible ramp leads from the park to the lower level, following the walls and passing by the crowns of the existing trees. The piazza at the House of Culture marks the entrance to the newly designed ramp. Traffic calming in Tyršova Street by separating road traffic from pedestrians with a cycle lane and tree line forms the basis for the city's green ring.

The Baroque scale and generosity is mirrored by the Platform inserted into the courtyard space. It is the entrance space to a new institution of the city. It is a place for informal meetings or summer performances, but also a platform for artworks. Strict flatness and geometry consolidate the courtyard up to the edge of the historic wall, where it breaks down into a series of south-facing sitting stairs. The platform includes a roof that anchors the visitor in the space, creating shade for the sitting stairs and directing the visitor to distant views. Counterpointing the Platform is an intimate space of the Zen garden. The park becomes a place of informal play and movement activities - lively seating at wooden benches, play elements for children and adults intermingle. A water feature that flows by the brewery brings life to the park.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT

The building functions as an informal cultural and social platform that links community activities, established culture and commercial activities. It is intensively alive 24/7 and everyone can find their place in it. It intertwines art with everyday life and the needs of the inhabitants of Klatovy. We believe it is a concept that is socially and economically sustainable in the long term. In the northern wing of the main building we are placing the gallery, which is conceived as a semi-public space. By using the term gallery, we are returning to its historical essence as a communication space where visual art is exhibited. Art becomes part of the commonly accessible spaces.

The concept of the permanent exhibition is inspired by the book The Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola. The book is the source of the basic idea of a journey of mental calming, which the visitor takes in the gallery space.

The gallery includes a lecture hall in the underground. The hall has its own entrance and can function independently or as a theatre space. The gallery is connected to a community space for coworking, a workshop room and a lecture centre, a café with a children's corner and a bookshop, and spaces for studios and associations. On the top floor, with views in all directions, we place a multifunctional rentable hall, which is close to the observation tower and also the loft bar. There are facilities for the gallery and facilities for the Jesuit refectory. In the separated classicist house on the city walls we place a pub with a brewery in the basement and accommodation for 10 people in the attic.

We insert two new spiral staircases. They are transparent metal, contrasting with the baroque structure. The inserted staircases also function as fire escape routes, and their arrangement frees the historic Baroque staircase and corridor space from fire partitions that would break up the integrity and flow of the historic spaces. The elevator is inserted in the center of the layout into the building substance of the original toilet annex. The house has 4 sections that are operationally separable if necessary due to the inserted stairways.

Josefinum Klatovy

1st place in an architectural competition
CZ, Klatovy, Vančurova, Balbínova, čp. 58 — 2023
culture
investor, client
the city Klatovy
architect
Boris Redčenkov, Prokop Tomášek, Jaroslav Wertig
team, collaboration
a69: Silvia Matisová, Veronika Hanzlíková, Ondřej Buš, Daniel Mudra, Kseniia Nikitina
technical design, collaboration
landscape design: Land05 s.r.o., Ing. Martina Forejtová, Msc. Vladimír Novák; exhibition concept: Mgr. Kristýna Jirátová, Ph.D, heritage conservation: doc. Ing. arch. Tomáš Efler
visualization
Ing. arch. Michal Nohejl

We connect the old with the new, the city centre with the city, people with people, art with the everyday life within one clear structure that is laid out as an open cultural and social platform. We rehabilitate and emphasize the historical layers and scars of the house, the industrial trace serves as an unexpected counterpoint to the baroque. Urbanistically, we perforate and open up the place. New interventions in the building substance bring the house closer to its original pure form and the ideal of the Baroque builders.

URBAN AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN

We connect the historic core with the centre of activity of the city in the southwest, creating a new symbolic gateway to the city, which we call Sala Terrena. It is an open ground floor hall that is a transitional element into the city on the site of the original monastery chapel. In distant views, this new entrance to the city is visible thanks to the high tower, which plays out a dialogue with the historical verticals with its transparent glowing character and symbolically presents the functional transformation of the house.

A wheelchair-accessible ramp leads from the park to the lower level, following the walls and passing by the crowns of the existing trees. The piazza at the House of Culture marks the entrance to the newly designed ramp. Traffic calming in Tyršova Street by separating road traffic from pedestrians with a cycle lane and tree line forms the basis for the city's green ring.

The Baroque scale and generosity is mirrored by the Platform inserted into the courtyard space. It is the entrance space to a new institution of the city. It is a place for informal meetings or summer performances, but also a platform for artworks. Strict flatness and geometry consolidate the courtyard up to the edge of the historic wall, where it breaks down into a series of south-facing sitting stairs. The platform includes a roof that anchors the visitor in the space, creating shade for the sitting stairs and directing the visitor to distant views. Counterpointing the Platform is an intimate space of the Zen garden. The park becomes a place of informal play and movement activities - lively seating at wooden benches, play elements for children and adults intermingle. A water feature that flows by the brewery brings life to the park.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT

The building functions as an informal cultural and social platform that links community activities, established culture and commercial activities. It is intensively alive 24/7 and everyone can find their place in it. It intertwines art with everyday life and the needs of the inhabitants of Klatovy. We believe it is a concept that is socially and economically sustainable in the long term. In the northern wing of the main building we are placing the gallery, which is conceived as a semi-public space. By using the term gallery, we are returning to its historical essence as a communication space where visual art is exhibited. Art becomes part of the commonly accessible spaces.

The concept of the permanent exhibition is inspired by the book The Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola. The book is the source of the basic idea of a journey of mental calming, which the visitor takes in the gallery space.

The gallery includes a lecture hall in the underground. The hall has its own entrance and can function independently or as a theatre space. The gallery is connected to a community space for coworking, a workshop room and a lecture centre, a café with a children's corner and a bookshop, and spaces for studios and associations. On the top floor, with views in all directions, we place a multifunctional rentable hall, which is close to the observation tower and also the loft bar. There are facilities for the gallery and facilities for the Jesuit refectory. In the separated classicist house on the city walls we place a pub with a brewery in the basement and accommodation for 10 people in the attic.

We insert two new spiral staircases. They are transparent metal, contrasting with the baroque structure. The inserted staircases also function as fire escape routes, and their arrangement frees the historic Baroque staircase and corridor space from fire partitions that would break up the integrity and flow of the historic spaces. The elevator is inserted in the center of the layout into the building substance of the original toilet annex. The house has 4 sections that are operationally separable if necessary due to the inserted stairways.