The award for new construction in a historical environment was given to the museum in Žatec

Prague - The award for the best new building in a historical environment was awarded today to the lookout tower and the vestibule of the Museum of Hops in Žatec. Their author is the local studio Huml & Vaníček, which was honored by the Club for Old Prague, marking the ninth time it has rewarded contemporary architectural interventions that are sensitive to their surroundings.
     Of the seven nominated buildings in the jury's voting, the gallery Závodný in Mikulov, designed by local architect Štěpán Děnge, finished in second place by a single vote. In third place was the pedestrian Tyrš Bridge in Přerov, designed by Alena Šrámková, Lukáš Ehl, Tomáš Koumar, and structural engineers Milan Komínek and Ladislav Dvořák.
     A special feature of this year's Club for Old Prague Award was the fact that a significant number of entries were works by local architects, meaning those who do not have their offices in Prague or Brno, and therefore cannot benefit from the advantages that traditional architectural centers offer to contemporary architecture.
     The establishment of the hop museum in Žatec in 1997 prompted the preservation of the entire local district, which borders the medieval core of the town. New buildings stand in a large complex of old hop dryers. The architects used a massive wooden structure for the vestibule and covered it with a silver perforated sheet as a material evoking the industrial history of modern hop growing in Žatec.
     "The minimalist prism of the vestibule blends well with the traditional forms of hop dryers in its vicinity and enriches their collection. The architects also imbued the nearby publicly accessible lookout tower with a similar industrial and minimalist character," stated architectural historian Rostislav Švácha, who chaired the jury.
     He mentioned that the club views the construction of tower buildings near historical development with deep skepticism, believing that such additions to historical buildings have not fared well in places like London or Paris. "In the case of the Žatec lookout tower, however, the club was convinced of its proportional scale and that the construction does not harm the panorama of historic Žatec but, on the contrary, makes its beauty accessible to the general public," Švácha believes.
     According to him, the Club for Old Prague not only highlights objects that "look good" in their original context but also those that bring some additional benefit or a new useful function to the place. This, according to Švácha, was fulfilled by all the nominated buildings this year.