Olive House
residential
project detail
Location
The intersection of Michelská and Hodonínská streets reflects the rapid urban development of the eastern Prague suburb. It is an intersection of tendencies and experiments that left the place abandoned and helplessly abandoned between the quality of the first republican regulation in the spirit of the residential quarter, developed by the pre-war modernist urbanism of open blocks, and the uncompromisingly dispersed solitary development in the spirit of socialist modernism of the 1970s. The site was supposed to be the centre of gravity of the locality, but it has become a mere traffic junction with a peripheral character, where Michelská Street is split by the new line of Pod dálnicí Street, whose alignment has unfortunately and permanently ended the possibility of connecting to the block structure to the north of the site.
Background
The lines of streets - Hodonínská, Pod dálnicí, Michelská, Podle Kačerova, Na Úlehli - defined by the development, spin a spatial carousel in the place, which has no prevailing direction and it is hardly possible to trace the street or building line. The shape of the building plot cut by the street Under the Highway is only a consequence of the non-conceptual zoning of the area, to which the proposal of park areas according to the current zoning plan tries to give some added value. The traffic character of the site is reflected in the design of the capacity intersection.
Urban concept
Our proposal seeks to calm the site and anchor it into the fabric. The starting point of the spatial carousel becomes a cylindrical mass - a kind of beacon that gives direction and destination. The individual street surfaces form a cylindrical mass, they are tangents to the shell of the house, which tries to define the centre of gravity of the place. We propose a "synergistic" solitaire, an apartment building with a commercial parterre, which frees up space on the second plot for a separate building operationally independent and functionally complementing the apartment building with a civic building - a kindergarten. The apartment building is part of the development of the street, the nursery is part of the new park as defined in the master plan. Two solitaires in a complex site, each on its own, but in a common symbiosis and urban and social logic.
Architecture
The pair of now-defunct gas chambers in Michle is an inspiration that helps us to develop the urban concept with adequate architectural detail and to enhance the atmosphere of the place. The legible tectonics, horizontal articulation, sheet metal cladding and set-back floors take inspiration from the historic form and atmosphere, drawing on the industrial history of the district and reviving the memory of the site. "MICHELSKÝ GASOMETER" is a theme we would like to develop.
Layout + construction
We try to be rational in the apartment building. Within the elliptical perimeter we establish an orthogonal grid with a module of 8.1m, which is a logical continuation of the garage floor. The house has two underground and seven above-ground + one retreating floor. On the ground floor there are non-residential spaces, an entrance hall and a two-lane entrance ramp. The structural height is 4.0m in 1NP, 3.0m in 2-8NP, 3.0m in 1-2PP. Within the standard residential floor there are 11 residential units accessible from an open corridor - a communal pavilion, opening onto a common rectangular atrium. The ground floor level of the atrium can accommodate suitable communal house activities - children's play area, seating, garden etc. Alternatively, the atrium can be roofed and tempered (15°C requires a cost of approx. CZK 3,000/year per apartment unit), thus deepening its social and representative function. At floor level, mature greenery can be planted to provide sufficient soil in the form of a single-storey planter. The structure of the dwellings corresponds to the brief. The rational arrangement of flats per staircase/elevator can be designed as fully residential in view of Section 45 (1) of the Prague Building Regulations, although the two flats in the northern part (below the 20% limit) are not normally sunny. The perimeter cladding is designed as sandwich brickwork with a ventilated sheet metal façade, fitted with aluminium windows. The kindergarten building is two-storey, without basement and is designed with respect to the Education Act No. 561/2004 Coll. and related regulations as a three-classroom (3,4,5 year old children) with a capacity of 3x26=78 pupils. This model appears to be optimal with regard to the requirements of the legislation and the municipality. It also includes a full boarding facility, which can possibly be dealt with in the form of delivery. The building has satisfactory external areas ( 4.0m2/child requirement) and is therefore not dependent on the eventual development of a park. Due to the location in a future park, the shell is designed as a load bearing glulam cladding, with timber infills.