The design of the reconstruction and extension of Pavilion Z is based on the original shape of the building. It consisted of three increasing blocks, where the smallest one is near the ground and the volume increases and gets heavier towards the top. The A8000 studio, however, builds on it seamlessly. The inspiration for the reconstruction was a plant motif and the process of bonsai breeding. In the same way that a carefully selected portion of the leaves is cut from the plant to achieve a new airy and original look, the architects stripped away the individual period deposits and random layers that were not conducive to the building’s appearance. Parts of the original mass are removed – glazed to give the final effect an airy and elegant appearance. The original pavilion has been stripped to the bone. The exposed steel skeleton is newly admitted and elevated to the initial principle of the interior.
The starting point of sale and storage compound on the periphery of České Budějovice was the effort to “do it a bit differently”.
The untraditional building tries to address questions of how it’s possible to open a technology complex to the public, and how it’s possible to deal with the need to place three separate buildings on a fairly small site while maintaining functional traffic and operational relations.
Clamping the storage halls together, with one of them slightly turned, enabled a funnel shaped courtyard that serves as an open space with water, trees, benches, and an artwork.
Ceske Budejovice is a surprising city, with a compact historical center rich in architectural detail and quality. It is also a city with youthful energy, seeming to be as recreational as it is historical and cultural. Its Old Town is bordered to the North-East with green and parks, while its South-West edge has the confluence of two streams coming into the Vltava River. We find, therefore, Ceske Budejovice to have an inspiring, sort of quiet, dynamic – it is a place of cyclical movement energies created by a collection of trajectories – from roads, bridges, creeks/streams, parks and building clusters.
The community centre Máj is located in the biggest 1980s mass-housing settlement in České Budějovice, an ethnically and socially mixed neighbourhood. In the Czech Republic, one third of the population lives in prefab panel settlements built during the socialism era; after 1989 (the fall of the Soviet bloc), there has been a lack of activities solving problems in these areas. The Máj settlement has an increased concentration of the Roma population, who were evicted into the settlement during the 80s and 90s; the district has been the site of tension and several riots.
A closed complex of modernised and new buildings meets the needs of a modern industrial works. There is a new office building close to the river and a bike path, and a repair hall with a crane runway and workshops by the road. Grown trees separate both parts of the complex. The complex will substantially upgrade the original deteriorated condition – green areas will be larger complemented new pathways. The shape and size of buildings respond to the natural shape of the lot and copy its borders. Buildings are mutually positioned to establish differentiated environment outside and inside the area and a screen visually and functionally separating the industrial complex from the main roads. By its morphology and traditional building materials – wood, concrete, glass and steel structures for shading sails/screens – the oblong office building evokes the relation of the business with water and with water structures. The main wall is clad in wood and window openings cut through it act as a flood barrier at the same time. It is continued by a glazed part, shaded by a system of independent sails set in front and terminated by a reinforced concrete gable roof.
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