Community Center Máj

The community center is part of the regeneration project of the Máj panel housing estate from the 1980s in České Budějovice. It is an integral part of the future neighborhood center with a post office building, an administrative building of an insurance company, and planned mixed-use development with a main public space of a market square.
The community center is designated for social care services focused on children and youth – a nursery center, a low-threshold facility for children and youth, a primary prevention center, as well as social counseling; additionally, it includes a municipal police station.
The compact volume of the building consists of clearly readable flexible floors with a recessed glazed facade, climbing greenery on the facades, and greenery and objects related to various activities on the terraces. The program of five different operations with entrances from various sides and levels is located in five above-ground floors – three above-ground floors with an exterior playground and a smaller two-story object on the roof.
The cantilevered ceiling slabs of the reinforced concrete skeleton and the recession of the facade create a natural protection against direct sunlight and a transitional space around the building with variable width, depending on the orientation to the cardinal points, and a protective net around the perimeter, which also serves as a substrate for indigenous deciduous climbing plants with low maintenance requirements, utilizing captured rainwater.
Stairs and other communication and recreational spaces around the building on all floors enable the connection of individual parts of the building and also connect the community center with the public space, providing direct access from the square to all floors up to the playground on the roof.