Theses 2019 - Special Award from Zumtobel

School: Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague
Supervisor: Jan Šépka

New building of the South Bohemian Theatre and South Bohemian Philharmonic at Mariánské náměstí in České Budějovice
The new building of the theatre has been considered since the 1960s, when Mariánské náměstí was chosen as the location, closely connected to the historic core of the city and to the circular road of Budějovice, which follows the trace of the original fortification. The newly designed urbanism aims to close the urban structure, with the focus on the theatre building and the newly defined square.
Currently, there are tendencies to make theatre institutions accessible to the general public and the city. They are no longer closed buildings that only open in the evening for performances. Rather, they are lively social centers, accessible throughout the day, also supplemented with additional functions. The symbol of the institution's openness and connection with the city is in the design of the building's ground floor, which consists of a publicly accessible interior space, the foyer. Its continuous space is divided by two staircases with six cores. The cores house the individual functions of the theatre and other accompanying programs, which open as needed and are not fully dependent on each other. The theatre building serves as a connecting platform, a living space, a place where the theatre's activity blends with the city. The cores also serve as the load-bearing structure of the building, intersecting the horizontal slab on the second floor, which they also support. The slab houses dressing rooms and facilities. The conceptual focal point of the building is the core with the main hall stages, located in the center. When a person walks through the ground floor of the building, they can also peek under the lid to see how the theatre is prepared and how it comes into being. The rehearsals of individual ensembles taking place in the core with the rehearsal rooms can be observed through a glass wall on the ground floor.