The leadership of Prague agreed to a competition for the design of the area around Nádraží Holešovice subway station

Prague - The leadership of Prague has approved the assignment of an international architectural competition issued by the Nové Holešovice Development company of the Prague public transport company (DPP) and private developers for the future development of the northern plots around the C metro station Nádraží Holešovice. The assignment was approved today by the city councilors, who also nominated the mayor's deputy Petr Hlaváček (STAN) to the competition jury.

The competition was announced by the organizer at the end of March and takes the form of a so-called workshop, in which eight selected architectural firms from the Czech Republic and abroad will work on land proposals in collaboration with experts and representatives of relevant institutions and organizations. Five teams will advance to the second round in June, proposing detailed designs of parts of the development. The presentation of the results will take place on September 8.

The competition pertains to the plots around the metro station north of Plynární street, which are not owned by the city. The city owns parcels south of the station, which are not part of the current competition. "The city retains full control over the future architectural solutions as well as the protection of public interests and plans to address their development through subsequent architectural competitions organized by its professional institutions," states the document approved by the councilors.

According to the material, representatives of the city and its companies and organizations collaborated in the preparation of the competition assignment. Proposals have already begun to be prepared in the first round by the Copenhagen studio ADEPT, the German atelier Behnisch Architekten, the Danish office Cobe, the Austrian office Riegler Riewe Architekten, the international studio Bogle Architects, the Czech-Slovak atelier CHYBIK + KRISTOF, and the Prague studios OVA and Schindler Seko Architekti.

The organizer of the competition is the joint-stock company Nové Holešovice Development, which is a joint venture of DPP and private developers who own land in the area. These include CPI Property Group and until recently, Karlín Group, which sold its share to EP Real Estate of Daniel Křetínský some time ago. There have been prolonged disputes around the joint venture at the Prague city hall in the past; the city leadership approved the use of the public transport company's plots after years of discussions nearly a year ago.

The area falls under the brownfield Bubny-Zátory, which, along with former cargo train stations in Žižkov and Smíchov, is one of the so-called large development areas in the metropolis. It is located between the metro stations C Vltavská and Nádraží Holešovice. According to the land-use study, the new district could potentially accommodate up to 25,000 residents in the future. There will be, among other things, residential and administrative buildings, a park, and a concert hall being prepared by the city on Vltavská.