Delivery of the 4th quadrant of Victory Square - proposals from the five finalists

The city and the investor have published five proposals for the completion of Prague's Victory Square. An international jury will select the winner of the competition, and the public is also invited to participate.

Housing, offices, missing civic amenities, or a new cultural center for Prague 6. All of this is to be brought about by the completion of the 4th quadrant of Victory Square. The proposals of the five finalists of the international architectural competition will be presented in an outdoor exhibition directly at Victory Square. The public has the opportunity to express their opinions on the proposals, and citizens' comments will be forwarded to the international expert jury before it makes its decision on the winner.


Although the urban concept according to which Dejvice was built was proposed by Antonín Engel over a hundred years ago, part of Victory Square, the so-called 4th quadrant, remains undeveloped to this day. Its new shape will be determined by an international architectural competition based on an agreement between the investor and the Prague municipal government, which is currently nearing its finale.

Out of a total of 44 registered teams, five participants made it to the finals of the competition. The public can view their proposals on the competition website www.4kvadrant.cz or at the exhibition located directly in the 4th quadrant of Victory Square until June 30. Additionally, until June 11, the public can express their opinions on individual proposals on the competition website.

“Our goal as the organizer of this important competition for the completion of the Dejvice center is to engage the public as much as possible in the search for the most appropriate proposal. Before the competition was announced, local residents and visitors to the area could share their assessments of the current state, as well as suggest what is missing in the area. These suggestions became part of the competition brief. Now, the comments from the public on the competition proposals will be forwarded to the jury as one of the basis for their decision-making,” explained Petr Návrat from the planning office ONplan, which organizes the competition.

Five architectural teams have progressed to the second phase of the competition, including renowned Czech studios and prestigious European offices: the MVRDV team from the Netherlands, the Czech-German consortium Pavel Hnilička Architects+Planners and Baumschlager Eberle Architects, the Dutch and Czech studio Benthem Crouwel International, and Opočenský Valouch Architekti, as well as the Czech office A69 – architects and another Czech-Dutch grouping Cityförster and Studio Perspektiv.

The aim of the competition workshop is to find a new shape and optimal architectural and urban solution for the northwestern part of Victory Square. The competition is commissioned by the Fourth Quadrant company, formed by the investors Penta Real Estate, Sekyra Group, and Kaprain. The competition organization is also supported by the University of Chemistry and Technology, the capital city of Prague, the Prague 6 municipality, and IPR Prague. The planning office ONplan is the organizer of the competition.

“The finalist group of competitors composed of famous European architectural offices and top Czech teams has presented very interesting proposals. The presented projects respect the character that architect Engel imparted to Dejvice a hundred years ago, while being original, diverse, and in line with modern architectural trends. Above all, they strive to meet the demands and needs of the people stemming from contemporary life in Dejvice,” says Petr Palička, the director of Penta Real Estate.

“We are pleased that the form of the completion of Victory Square will be the result of an open international architectural competition, in which many experts, including heritage conservation and urbanism specialists, participated. We believe that the winning proposal will bring new quality to this area. We want to create an attractive center for Prague 6 with our partners that will attract not only those who live and work here but all Prague residents,” stated Leoš Anderle, CEO of Sekyra Group.

“I am glad that the investor has chosen the path of a competitive dialogue involving the city. I think that similar to Florence, it brings new quality to the city. I am surprised at how varied the architecture that can be worked within the fixed structure of Dejvice is. The city is also actively working on the reconstruction of Victory Square itself and the spaces at the university campus,” says Petr Hlaváček, Deputy Mayor of Prague for Urban and Strategic Development.

The 4th quadrant is to become a multifunctional building with apartments, offices, shops, services, and restaurants. A new university building will also be constructed here by the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague. In addition to classrooms and facilities for students, there will also be spaces for the public and a mini-brewery.

“The mission of the University of Chemistry and Technology is to support talented students and prepare top experts who help our society address critical issues of today. The new university building is a necessary prerequisite for us to fulfill this role in the future. At the same time, the completion will allow us to expand the offer of popularization and cultural activities for Prague residents, which will contribute to further development of the Dejvice Campus as a pleasant and inspiring meeting place for academics and local residents,” adds Pavel Matějka, rector of the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague.

The completion will also include a new cultural center for Prague 6 with an area of up to 3,000 m² featuring two halls, which will significantly complement the missing cultural infrastructure in this part of Prague. The cultural center is expected to provide spaces for concerts, exhibitions, theatrical performances, as well as social and community events for local citizens.

“Prague 6 deserves a completed Victory Square in the spirit of the first-republic design by architect Antonín Engel after more than a hundred years. Citizens of Prague 6 also have the opportunity to express their opinions on the proposals selected for the final of the architectural competition. In addition to interesting architectural solutions, they can also look forward to a cultural center that will be part of the new development in the future,” says Jakub Stárek, mayor of the Prague 6 district.

“The undeveloped space in Victory Square is currently a gap in the central part of the city. The new construction will provide the public with a wide range of quality outdoor and indoor spaces, with a broad offer of areas for relaxation, culture, dining, or shopping. I welcome the completion of the original Engel architectural and urban concept from a contemporary perspective. The competition is organized at a high professional level, and a wide range of relevant stakeholders were involved in the preparation of the brief, which is open so that competitors can also come up with unexpected ideas while regulating important aspects of the future development for the city, such as building heights or dimensions of public spaces,” says Ondřej Boháč, director of IPR Prague.

The winning proposal, which will determine the new form of the completion of the 4th quadrant, will be selected by an international jury composed of architects, urban planners, and landscape architects. The chair of the jury is Kees Christiaanse, a professor at ETH Zurich and founder of the KCAP office, which is the author of the famous Hamburg HafenCity. Members of the jury include British architect Alex Lifschutz, Swedish landscape architect Martin Arfalk, and Professor Michal Kohout from the Faculty of Architecture at Czech Technical University. The jury's auxiliary part includes representatives of the investor, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, the Prague 6 municipality, the capital city of Prague, and IPR Prague. The Czech Chamber of Architects has issued the competition a certificate of fairness.

The competition is taking place in the form of a so-called competitive workshop, which is non-anonymous. This allows the jury to engage in direct dialogue with the competitors during the workshop. Experts in the fields of transportation and sustainable mobility, heritage conservation, and blue-green infrastructure are also involved in the process, evaluating the competition proposals from a professional standpoint. The winner of the architectural competition for the completion of Victory Square will be announced in September 2023.