TRIPLEX
residential
project detail
Project story:
AED project a.s. approached atelier A69 – architekti asking for a due diligence for their client who had bought a project for development of a gap site on Pražská ulice in Karlsbad. The investor was not happy with the original project. So, a new study was worked out of a residential house designed instead of the original park house for 800 cars. This change of purpose meant also that the town development plan had to be changed. Owners of the Triplex project changed three times in course of the design process. And only TRIPLEX INVEST s.r.o. were able to take the project successfully to the end and had courage and funds to build. The Certificate of Use was issued in winter 2011.
Genius Loci:
Karlovy Vary/Carlsbad is a famous example of naturally developed urban structure in association with a dramatic and attractive landscape and dense vegetation creating one of the most colourful pictures of a belle-époque city. Architecture and greenery unite in dynamically varying views. Individually plying plans create a proscenium effect. The TRIPLEX housing complex´s concept tries to exploit both the attractive location and the poetic, yet also pragmatic building tradition of Carlsbad.
Composition of Volumes:
The site in the broader spa city centre providing breathtaking views and adjacent to the park was slit by an easement of passage and entry to the park. The gap length would in fact match four lots in the original urban scale. To occupy it by one compact volume would not match the beat of Pražská street. Moreover, the space would be divided in to the “in front and behind the house”. This way would be established a street and backyard façade each of them offering only limited views or contact with an otherwise attractive environment.
This is why we decided to divide the virtual gap’s build up in three volumes. The side volumes align with the gable walls of the existing neighbouring buildings. The central volume is rotated straight to the street front reaching deep in to the lot. There runs a preserved service road along this volume.
This composition made the lot airy and lighter, offered more façade and thus also a more intensive contact of flats with the natural environment. Divided volume also provided us with an opportunity to work with separated matters as if they were high-rise towers following the local building tradition.
Separating the building in three volumes allowed also better scaling; so, no matter the composition made lighter and the petty scale of the street front respecting the adjacent buildings utilisation is more effective than it would be if the gap was built up with a compact structure.
Architecture:
In order to make the split of one building in three clear and persuasive, each part is different. The side structures leaning to the gable walls of the existing houses are more fragile. They are composed of panels lapping over each other, creating a feeling of additive architecture with fragile details of shutters, balustrades and structured plaster. On the contrary, the central section is a compact monolith moulded in a sculptural manner. Its solid mass established a pedestal with the streetscape floor and a garden in which rest two towers. From the street we perceive its lower part; from the distance it rises up as a rock tower.
Typology:
Dividing the structure in three volumes proved true also in the typology. It brought more façade area to flats, and possibility to bring daylight and ventilate sanitary rooms and kitchens. The design also offered much more corner positions. So, inhabitants may to the maximum enjoy the Sun, the air, greenery, and views of one of the most beautiful spa town.
Structural systems and materials:
The structural technical design respects architect´s requirements on the appearance of three basic buildings labelled A, B and C. Volumes A and B are placed on a common base of the two underground car park storeys. The bldg. C is a separate structure. The distance between the volumes B and C respects the existing entryway to the adjacent forest park. The buildings may be entered either through front gardens or there is an accessed entry available from the garage. A reception is at the entrance to the bldg. A and bldg. B. The building lot was clearly defined by a site gap aligned with the street line with the ridges parallel with the street.
The loadbearing structures are designed as beam-free reinforced cast in situ concrete frames with strengthening circulation cores and lateral walls of modular dimensions up to 7.0 m. Vertical loadbearing structures of each building are reinforced concrete perimeter walls 200 mm thick and vertical circulation cores´ walls complemented by reinforced concrete columns (the bldg. A´s street perimeter walls and the opposite ones are brick masonry). Horizontal loadbearing superstructures are designed as reinforced concrete beam-free slabs 230 mm thick. In the buildings A and C the reinforced concrete structure is supplemented by a steel structure on the 4th and 5th stories (5.NP – 6.NP) – oblique steel loadbearing columns of a dimension complementing the basic reinforced concrete frame. The cornices along the building A´s and C´s perimeter are steel structure consisting of galvanized U-profiles anchored to the primary reinforced concrete structure. Structural heights of each above-ground story of buildings A and B are 3.0 m; the height is lowered to 2.825 m in the basement and raised to 3.1 m on the two top stories.
The bldg. A has two underground and 6 above-ground stories. The two top stories partly step back inwards the layout along the street front and the underground stories´ footprint is extended by the car park. The bldg. B has got two basement stories and eight above-ground ones. The two top stories step back from the street facade inwards by a half of the plan. Starting on the 3rd floor (4.NP) the building´s corners are chamfered and this arrangement repeats on each higher floor stepping back inwards. The underground stories´ plans are extended by the car park compared with the above-ground ones. Buildings A and B are structurally interconnected establishing one separate expansion unit. The bldg. C has one underground story and six above-ground ones.
Facades of all three buildings A, B and C are designed as a contact thermal insulation system consisting of a mineral panel, reinforcement layer and organic plaster. The StoTherm Classic organic thermal insulation system with mineral panel insulation was selected as is extremely flexible and mechanically resistant while maintaining good diffusion permeability; it met architect´s high demand, fire protection quality requirements, engineers´ requirements on the function of the whole system, etc. Due to the large glazed areas and fixed windows in the inclining parts the facade of the bldg. B had to be fitted with anchorage and roping-down eyes for cleaning of the facade by climbers.
Response:
The building was nominated by the Bulgarian commissioner for European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2011.
In the competition Grand Prix Obce architektů 2011 – National Prize for Architecture the project was awarded in the category New Building.