Prague - Prague Castle design competition

Architectural Review, The, Jan, 1998

Prague Castle is one of the most amazing monuments in the world. Its environs lock into the city and (since the collapse of Communism) are part of the public realm. But the old Pheasantry, the kitchen garden, was a forgotten part of the castle grounds. The AR sponsored a competition held by the Prague Castle Administration to re-awaken a sleeping beauty as a new form of urban park.

The great picturesque mass of Hradcany Castle hovers over the Czech capital, crowning the skyline with overlaid memories of the Church, the ancient Bohemian monarchy, the stupendous emperor Rudolph II, the grinding rule of the later Habsburgs and the birth of the Republic under President Masaryk. This image of the city is unforgettable - much less well known is what happens to the north where the castle nudges towards the remains of the city's Renaissance fortifications.

First, there is a huge chasm, the landscaped moat, on the precipitous landscaped sides of which deer were cultivated for the castle kitchens. A plateau follows, roughly at the same height as the upper courtyards of the castle. The only connection between the two levels of high ground is the Powder Bridge. To its east, the plateau has long been a pleasure ground, the Royal Garden, where the changing tastes of the castle's rulers imposed a succession of versions of Elysium, ending with a delightful late nineteenth-century gardenesque park which is now(1) open to the public during the warm and hot parts of the year.

To the west of the Powder Bridge on the plateau, there is a fine Baroque riding school (now a gallery). And west of that, a rather dilapidated series of horticultural endeavours. This is the old Pheasantry of the castle, which in the twentieth century became a kitchen and cut-flower garden, then gradually withered under the Communists into messy semi-rural slovenliness.

The competition

The Pheasantry is integral to the castle complex, and potentially a most important part of the inner city. The Prague Castle Administration decided to hold an international competition for making the Pheasantry part of the public pleasure gardens on the plateau and relating it visually and functionally to the castle. Some elements of the site and its structure seemed to be essential, for instance the Imperial (carp) Pond in the north-east corner, the diagonal wall across the site built in Rudolph II's time, and Masaryk's lookout built by Plecnik so that the first president could dream overlooking the deer moat, the castle and the spires of St Vitus's cathedral within it; a very large new greenhouse for rearing castle flowers had to be incorporated in the design.

The competition asked for suggestions of all kinds for using the site as a new urban park, but its essential elements were to be preserved, and its marvellous position celebrated. Entries from all over the world were received in the first stage of the competition. This was judged in September, and eight projects were chosen by the jury(2) for development into second stage entries. The jury met again in November, and four projects were chosen as prizewinners. We show them here. The promoter (the Prague Castle Administration) intends to build the first-prize winning scheme.

1 Though under the Communists, it was the President's private garden, and the public was very sternly kept out.

2. Eva Jifiicna, Giancarlo De Carlo (second stage only), Zdenek Novak, Zdenek Luke%, Jifii Kotalik, Ivo Koukol (Prague Castle Administration), Peter Davey (Chairman of the Jury). Non-voting members of the Jury were Martin Rajni% and Bohuslav Blalek.

First

The most ecologically conscious of the final eight entries, the scheme offers much human potential.

Jury report: 'The reading of the area has been made with intelligence and imagination. The approach offers a multiplicity of ideas and uses, both collective and individual. It proposes the implementation of ecological principles in planting and executions. And it offers opportunities for public participation in the running of the park. Qualities we particularly admire about this project include the way in which it offers freedom of movement and use. It has a plurality of destinations and functions, some declared, some implicit and others to be invented by the users. Its numerous entrances welcome visitors from all over the city. Its functions overlap creatively and generate new textures and surfaces which are achieved with a rich choice of materials and plants appropriately used. The scheme can easily be implemented in phases if the promoter decides to do so.

'While this scheme is the winning one, we must point out that it is still unclear in certain details. While we admire the handling of the landscape the proposed new buildings are not nearly as convincing. We are critical of the insertion of housing blocks in the northwest corner of the site. The reconstruction and re-use of the Riding Hall and its courtyard are unclear. So are those of the group of buildings at the south-west end of Rudolph II's wall. But we hope that these problems can be overcome, for this scheme, more than all the others chosen as finalists, showed remarkable improvement between the first and second stages of the competition and we believe that such progress will continue as the project is carried into practise. However, the concept presented is clearly the first stage of a process of realisation and it needs much more development.'