Prague City Archives

Prague City Archives
[ 84 ]

accomplishment 1996–1997
type of construction external cladding
type of building public
general contractor Pozemní stavby Zlín
project volume of the facade 0–1,9 mil. EUR

In 1994 the new building of Prague City Archives was erected nearby the National Archives and the Regional Archives in Prague 4 – Chodov and so a unique archive area was created.  

Prague City Archives

The high-rise building without windows has thirteen floors and an underground floor. On each floor there are four halls where records are placed. A depot block, a vestibule, a study, a conference hall for lectures or a permanent exhibition on history and present of the archive can be entered on the ground-floor.

The southern wall of this depot block continues with equally high service building with lifts, air-conditioning plant rooms, sprinkler system and rooms where records are treated by professionals. When looked at from any side the buildings dominate this south-eastern district of Prague.

The seemingly strict architectonic design of the building reflects its function and shall express permanence, purity and resistance against fashion trends – as well as historical facts contained in the archived documents. The facade is combined of two shades of grey granite: Spanish granite Rosa Vilar with a touch of pink in a polished and matt treatment and granite of distinct grey colour from Moravian Mrákotín. The sober look of the stone facade is livened up by windows and glazed facades embedded in a light red structure.

Sipral delivered the blue part of the facade cladding where granite tiles are substituted with boards of blue enamelled glass. The irregular transitional shapes of glass units were measured on site and fabricated according to hardboard matrices. To fix the boards of single glass there was used an anchoring grid of the original cladding equipped with glass holders. Into the uniform compact area there was the irregularly waved blue strip inserted that runs along the whole building. Such the uniform mass was optically broken and an interesting and distinctive element was created.  

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