Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall, Architecture, Czech Building Design Pictures

Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall

Czech Building Renewal design by Josep Lluís Mateo Architect

21 May 2013

Czech Building Revitalisation

Design: MATEO ARQUITECTURA – Josep Lluís Mateo

Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall Design

In the grounds of Prague Castle, among various palaces currently reused to house the National Gallery, the brief was to design a small building that provides an entrance to the museum complex.

Two parallel surfaces organize what used to be an empty space without weighing it down: one forms the floor, the other the roof.

The floor emerges as a surface layer of the earth, folding subtly over itself to adapt to minor differences in level and ease access to the neighbouring buildings. It is hard but it also conserves some of its organic nature, materialized in plants, earth and water.

The roof, the boundary that separates us from the sky, is a continuous sheet that does not quite touch the buildings around it, producing great skylights and generating an enigmatic interplay of reflections. An organic layer, topped with gravel, that marks the bounds of a secret garden.

Space is the gaseous fluid that moves between these two limits.

The inner space is open, flexible, multiple and complex, as well as light filled. Its vertical limits are the existing façades, their only tectonicity expressed in the topography of the ground. The rest is light, reflections, and the dialogue, almost without touching, between roof and walls.

The precision of iron, in the hands of local artisans, gives form to this narrative.

Josep Lluís Mateo

New video – Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall from Josep Lluis Mateo:
Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall Film on Vimeo

Between sky and earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall from mateoarquitectura on Vimeo.

3 Apr 2012

National Gallery in Prague Entrance Hall by Josep Lluís Mateo

PRAGUE NATIONAL GALLERY ENTRANCE HALL

Dates built: 2004-12

Design: MATEO ARQUITECTURA – Josep Lluís Mateo

Connecting Hall, Main Entrance of the National Gallery and access between the palaces Salm and Schwarzenberg

MATEO ARQUITECTURA today announce the completion of the penultimate phase of the Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall project: connecting hall, main entrance of the National Gallery and access between the palaces Salm and Schwarzenberg.

Interventions in the entrance hall of Prague National Gallery and Salm and Schwarzenberg palaces, situated in Hradcanske Square.

Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall design film on Vimeo

from Josep Lluis Mateo on Vimeo.

The project sets out to create an open space, exploiting the situation of these three buildings so that their walls act as the façades of the foyer, using the minimum structures required. The façades are therefore built with no opaque facings, simply using the construction of two sheets (one formed by the floor, the other by the roof) that organize what used to be an empty space without weighing it down, as well as drawing in daylight.

Photos of recently completed work:

The roof is a continuous sheet that stops short of the buildings around it, producing large skylights that generate an interesting interplay of reflections with different degrees of shine.

The floor folds to adapt to the different levels of the existing entrances. The paving combines different types of stone such as black marble, travertine and local red stone, creating a study of geometries and finishes that suggest the work of artisans.

The penultimate phase of the building has just been completed, and all that remains is the installation of the false ceiling, to be made of expanded metal, the lighting system, and fittings and furnishing.

National Gallery in Prague Entrance Hall images / information from MATEO ARQUITECTURA

Previously:

27 Jun 2011

National Gallery in Prague Entrance Hall

Dates built: 2004-11

Design: MATEO ARQUITECTURA – Josep Lluís Mateo

Connecting Hall, Main Entrance of the national Gallery and access between the palaces Slam and Schwarzenberg

International Competition, First Award : 2004

After winning the Restricted Competition in 2004 the construction of the new central access to the National Gallery in Prague began in late 2009 and works are ongoing, it will be completed by the end of this year.

1- Contextual conditions The Court as a secret garden The sequence of courts organized by the sum of the palaces Salm, Schwarzenberg and the small wing house builds a most beautiful urban front toward the plaza of access to the Castle. Those are courts of diverse qualities: – open to the street and the representation of the access in the case of Salm Palace; – closed but with a certain monumentality in the case of the Schwartzenber Palace, – and hidden by the wall, naturalistic: with herb and a great tree, intimate in our case. We wish to consolidate this space by using the atmosphere of a secret garden. The court is limited by the old facades. Our construction should continue using them like limits of the space.

2- Space between Earth and Sky (building the floor and roof) If the vertical limits already exist, our intervention will suppose to work with the horizontal limits of the space: the floor -the superficial layer of the earth- and the ceiling, the border that separates us with the sky. The space is the gaseous fluid that moves among these limits.

The floor is a topography that moves subtly to facilitate the access to the two neighboring palaces, hard, but also partially natural, organic: plants, land, water materialize it. The ceiling is built with a metallic structure with most minimum and precise encounters in the edges. It is an organic sheet: upper gravel.

3- The secret garden The roof, the court that collects the water and the green limits toward the Schwarzenberg Palace highlight the organic life in the place in not an evident way. Preserving the existing wall without almost any intervention has seemed fundamental to insist in this argument.

4- Floating Space The interior space, built by the central beam is open, flexible, multiple and complex, and both light, nearly provisional. With other tectonics, it could nearly be a light campaign tent placed in the middle of an existing nature. In this case, it is permanent but fragile and available.

5- Structural concept The structure of the National Gallery of Prague access roof is composed by three longitudinal frames and nine secondary orthogonal beams. Each Main frames frame have two steel columns. The two ends are supported by the existing façades. These three frames are solved in a different way, depending of their location in plan.

Salm Palace Entry Hall – Building Informatiom

Author: Josep Lluís Mateo
Client: National Gallery of Czech Republic
Site: Salm Palace, Hradcanske Square, Prague
Project: 2004 – works 2009-12
Surface: 1.500 m2
Budget: 3.500.000 euros

National Gallery in Prague Entrance Hall images / information from MATEO ARQUITECTURA

Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall design : Josep Lluís Mateo

Location: Hradčanské náměstí (Hradcanske Square) Prague, Czech Republic

New Architecture in the Czech Capital

Contemporary Prague Architecture

Prague Building Designs – chronological list

Prague Architecture Walking Tours – city walks by e-architect

Vltava Philharmonic Hall Design Contest Winner
Design: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

image courtesy of architects practice
Vltava Philharmonic Hall Prague design by BIG

Nelahozeves Castle Library and Research Centre
Design: Wright & Wright Architects

image courtesy of architects
Nelahozeves Castle Library and Research Centre