“From my point of view, it is good that the successful design provoked a significant discussion about architecture and urbanism. This is very important,” said Petr Hlavek, not every bold project will find such a unified support as the project for the Prague Philharmonic building near the Vltavská metro station some time ago.
The deputy mayor also hopes that issues related to the historic preservation of the main station's new departure hall, a brutalist building from the communist era, will also be successfully resolved. According to him, many conservation elements of the original building were selected, which should be taken into account when implementing the Danish project.
“Already in its original form, the winning project took into account many of the original elements of the check-in hall. Yes, I can imagine the project being modified to make the building successful,” says Petr Hlaváček, a respected architect and urban planner, among others.
He commented on the reservations of a section of the public about the successful project which is spreading mainly on social networks.
Blowing and annoying pigeons?
“This is not entirely true, because it has often been said that it only blows there. After all, it is a protected area on three sides. As for the criticism that flocks of pigeons fly there: if you look at the structure of the roof, there is nowhere for the birds to sit,” the deputy explains.
“At the same time, I was a little surprised by the negative reactions to wood,” continues Hlaváček, referring to the wooden pergola. “It's a widely used material now and wood processing technologies are evolving, and today's structures are far superior to the glued wood structures of 10 years ago. This is a huge improvement.”
“And it's not entirely true that wood is not used in the Czech Republic. Remember that the check-in hall at the Masaryk station is also made of wood,” the deputy reminds, adding that wood is also a natural environmental material.
A unique view of Fanta Cafe
“But especially unique: at the end of the 1960s, the check-in hall occupied a significant part of the park and blocked the unique view of the Fant building. The Danish project comes with the fact that it connects everything again,” praises Petr Hlaváček.
Visualization of the main train station in Prague after the check-in hall has been renovated
Does the deputy mayor think that Prague's main railway station in 2032 will have the same shape as the one designed by Danish architects? “I think the chances of it standing up as you see in the pictures are relatively small. But I think the winning team is really talented and the key elements of why this draft was chosen will definitely be maintained. And I believe the project will pay off,” says Hlaváček.
What will be the capacity of the scheduled check-in hall? Will escalators be added to the main staircase to facilitate access to Fant Cafe? Will the current station's parking capacity disappear? And will the new and innovative look of the building help the pickpockets and homeless disappear from the area in front of the station? Prague Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček spoke about this in Rozstrel.
