Bubeneč Gallery

Idea projektu

The project deals with the design of a new art gallery situated in the environment of a former industrial zone, which still retains its industrial character. The design responds to the context of the area and to the presence of preserved technical objects such as the national cultural monument - the sewage treatment plant and the former textile hall, which is adapted into a cultural house, with which the gallery design also works. Furthermore, the design takes into account the presence of new technical structures such as the steel footbridge passing through the site. The main basis for the design of the gallery was the urban concept - Papírenská.

Popis projektu

The gallery building is inserted between a multifunctional and cultural house (former textile hall) near a cultural and historical monument - the old sewage treatment plant. The building is thus connected to the belt of new development along the railway and forms a continuous noise barrier for the site. It also closes the axis of the main public space. A major pedestrian footbridge also connects to this space, bringing crowds of people through the site from the major transport hub of Prague-Podbaba. The gallery is thus located in the main cultural and social centre of the site and by creating a vertical it forms an important landmark. The gallery building is divided into individual operational volumes - A Gallery with accompanying functions, B Administration, C supply part of the gallery located in the cultural house. In addition, an underground car park is proposed for the gallery building on the 1st underground floor, with a covered ramp leading to it from Papírenská Street. It is facade associated with the building of the cultural house. The resulting single-storey mass between the pedestrian footbridge leading at the level of the 2nd floor and the cultural house creates a pleasant terrace for the commercial units of the cultural house on the 2nd floor. The architecture of the gallery design responds, like the surrounding new development, to the industrial character of the original industrial area in which it is located, creating a contemporary interpretation of industrial aesthetics. The dominant element of the building is an eight-storey glass vertical, which uses the surrounding views as part of its art exhibition, revealing the supporting steel structure through its transparency. The main idea of the layout is to create maximum openness, flexibility and clarity of the exhibition space without columns or other visual or functional obstructions. Therefore, all vertical communications and technical spaces are extracted from the building into individual tubes that symbolize industrial chimneys that complement the existing "chimney landscape" of the site. The glazed vertical is further connected to the lower three-storey gallery section without windows and a two-storey office section with windows, concrete in appearance. The lower volumes of the gallery on the sides of the tower create a solid foundation and add stability to the horizontal composition, which further relates better to the surrounding mass of the development. The slight variation in height levels and materials (pure concrete mass vs. office building with windows) provides legibility of function and visual rhythm.

Technické informace

The foundation of the building is designed using reinforced concrete piles. A prerequisite of foundation design is a thorough and accurate design of the number, size and different locations of the group piles so that differential settlement is eliminated and expansion gaps are not required. The supporting structure of the 1st underground floor is designed as a reinforced concrete white tub made of reinforced concrete C30/37 WU with crystallization additive. The internal vertical load bearing elements consist of C30/37 reinforced concrete columns and reinforced concrete walls. The C30/37 reinforced concrete skeleton system continues up to the 3rd floor and the main mass of the building is already a combination of steel load-bearing columns with coupled reinforced concrete ceilings. From 3rd-8rd floor onwards, the tower's load-bearing structure is all steel with hollow steel columns running diagonally and vertically around the perimeter of the mass, ensuring the spatial stability of the structure. The façade of the glazed part consists of a lightweight cladding system with triple glazing. The maximum openness of the exhibition spaces is ensured by a perimeter supporting structure made of steel columns and trusses with a span of 17.5 m supporting the ceiling structure. Thanks to this solution, there are no internal load-bearing elements interfere with the main exhibition space. The construction of the individual tubes is designed using a steel structure lightened by suspension rods on the main mass structure. The tubes are clad with Alucobond bronze-coloured composite panels. The roof of the main vertical mass is made up of roof insulation sandwich panels. The roofing is made of corrugated metal with additional solar panels specifically for the selected roofing system. The roofs of the tubes are designed as green with intensive greenery. Appropriate greenery is proposed on these roofs extending from the attic to the façade. The cladding and sheathing of the tubes is adapted to this intention to prevent overheating by the plants covering the structure and at the same time to make the structure sufficiently resistant to the natural elements (plastic sheeting, composite panels, protective foils). The roofs of the low masses are designed as green sloping with locally designed concrete terraces on rectification targets. A technical highlight of the interior is not only the open, column-free space but also the ceiling, which is made up of infrared panels complementing the underfloor heating for efficient heating and maintaining a stable temperature in the high exhibition space. The ceiling infrared panels also provide illumination of the space thanks to the integrated LED lighting and, in addition, their elegant appearance combined with the interlacing of the ceiling acoustic panels creates a design ceiling for the exhibition space.