Each year, the Second Skin competition presents different approaches to designing buildings for housing, reflecting on studio teaching at the faculty and offering a space for discussion on the methodology of designing residential buildings. For this year's edition, 41 projects from 22 design studios were nominated by the teachers of the Housing Construction Studio.
The winning works were decided by a jury consisting of Lenka Bednářová (ZAN), Michal Fišer (non-aff.), Jaroslav Hulín (for the studio) Ivan Wahla (non-aff.) and Markéta Zdebská (non-aff.). "We were pleased with the high quality of the proposals submitted. Although the award-winning projects included mostly metropolitan themes of the assignment, we believe that it is possible to look for complex solutions outside metropolitan areas as well," said the judges, who also recommended the students to further explore new typological forms corresponding to the development of 21st century society and the application of new building technologies and materials.
The awards were presented together with the jury representatives by the Dean of the Czech Technical University Dalibor Hlaváček and the Head of the Institute of Building Science Michal Kohout. All projects are published on the competition website and can be viewed at the exhibition on the ground floor of the faculty until 11 March. Photos from the announcement of the results can be found in the From the life of the FA photogallery. Documents for each project can be downloaded at this link. Source: CTU FA
1st place
Matyáš Boura – Bydlení Olšanská – Kuzemenský studio
Abstract
On one side a busy street, on the other side the quiet silence of Olšanské cemetery. In between, parking lots, warehouses, half-decayed walls, trees and chickens. Olšany. A wilderness plot topped by a small church. Actually, the whole street is a bit of a wilderness. Not very welcoming to its visitors, without any services and without places to sit and relax in a pleasant environment. I am trying to respond to these shortcomings. I am proposing apartment blocks, an open block leading to St Roch's Church. They perfectly follow the street line, but at the same time allow easy access from Olšanská Street, or even from Parukářka Park to the main road of the cemetery. This creates the missing transverse connection, the lack of which Žižkov residents have long complained about. And the new environment offers much more. Places to relax, play sports, have a coffee or borrow a book.
The ensemble includes two distinct yards. One is exclusively for the community, while the other remains open and accessible to the public. The ground floor space is reserved for rentals, offices, a workshop, a reading room, restaurant facilities, and more. There is also a two-story section dedicated to a children's group. Sufficient setback from the cemetery responds to the creation of a future linear park along the cemetery wall.
We're in Žižkov. Thick white plaster, continuous strips of corrugated iron of a soft green colour, large windows with wooden frames painted the same green colour and prominence of single-loaded corridors. One could find many of these before the demolition. I took some of these and added some more. Straight roofs with living terraces, beehive greenhouses and solar panels.
Housing is contact. People look at each other on the pavilions, know each other, greet each other and help each other. They can go gardening together, play basketball or climb the bouldering wall.
Evaluation of the jury
The project appropriately completes the unfinished strip between the cemetery and the city avenue and confirms the importance of Olšanská Street as the axis (artery) of Žižkov. The material design respects the transition from the quiet cemetery to the busy city street. It is a pleasant urban form with an appropriate ratio and placement of functions, the pavilion design supports the mass concept of the houses with innovative double-sided oriented layouts. The joy of living overlooking the cemetery is palpable in the project. The jury also appreciates the respectful relationship of the designed houses to St. Roch's Church and the elaborate landscaping. The design is clear, easy to understand, with a clear structure.
2nd place
Václav Sovák – Železná opona – Valouch–Stibral–Semerák studio
Abstract
Rumbling from morning till night, that dirty abyss, forgotten and unwanted. They covered it with concrete, and on that artificial surface, houses grew as if they had always belonged there.
Noise, dirt, dust. A view of Malovanka as an element that currently adversely affects the quality of not only housing. The proposal places an office building in the most exposed location with a pre-set structure, a noise wall as a curtain against pollutants, providing comfort and improving conditions for the residents behind it. Its glazing makes it seem to blend into the sky, giving it a light and natural appearance, and its solitariness adds to its significance. The shape of the block helps similarly, creating a kind of safe-space from the adversities of the crossroad.
The block form of development is related to the surrounding area so as not to disturb the character and aesthetics of the site. The residential portion of the block is designed as individual apartment buildings, which respects the historic buildings, adds variety and helps to soften the visual size of the building. The architecture of the apartment blocks is designed to interact with each other, yet be as distinct as possible.
The heart of the project is a public courtyard, connecting two worlds - offices and housing. It is designed as a community space where people can meet and spend their free time, making the project not only a place to work and live, but also a place for social life.
Evaluation of the jury
It is a successful multifunctional concept that integrates well the transport buildings into the urban development, removing the barrier and integrating the city. The form and appearance of the apartment blocks are traditional and contrast well with the frontally placed office building. The appropriately located office function blocks out most noise. The inventive consideration of the supporting structural base, undoubtedly complex, is not lacking. The scale of the proposed residential buildings approximates the traditional block development of the site.
3rd place – shared
Matěj Čepička – Bytový dům místo kruháče – Sosna–Filsak studio
Abstract
I am placing the apartment building on the site of a roundabout, which nowadays occupies a disproportionately large area due to its low occupancy. This would allow for more efficient use and revitalise the area.
The shape of the building follows the shape of the blocks defined by U Uránie and U Průhonu streets, which helps to naturally integrate the new building into the existing environment.
The surface of the surrounding public space is proposed to be one-level granite paving, which allows not only comfortable pedestrian movement, but also the organization of public events in case of street occupation. The space can then function as a plaza where cultural and community events can take place.
For the connection of Jankovcova and U Uránie Streets, where most of the traffic is directed, I am considering an asphalt road lined with a tree line that follows the existing greenery of the surrounding streets. I propose to elevate the road compared to the surrounding terrain, which helps to slow down traffic locally and increase pedestrian and cyclist safety. The overall design aims to populate the area with people instead of cars, hence the two-storey active ground floor with a café and a lettable space that can be used as shops, gallery or community centre.
For the residents of the house there is a roof terrace, providing a view of the city and a space to get away from reality. The brickwork façade reflects the historically working-class character of Holešovice, which naturally integrates the building into the surrounding environment and preserves the spirit of the neighbourhood.
The design aims to revitalize this part of Holešovice district, to densify the city and at the same time to make the building fit into the urban context.
Evaluation of the jury
The project is an interesting high-rise solitaire. The jury appreciates the surprising choice of the site, which, by revising the traffic layout, creates a parcel for the proposed high-rise building that imports an important diagonal city street. The height gradation of the house is also pleasing. It is questionable whether such a landmark should be designed for housing, yet the jury appreciates the courage to try. The tightness of the resulting plot creates negatives at the streetlevel where the proposal reduces pedestrian permeability. The chosen core location complicates the layout. The jury also positively evaluates the design of the façade detail.
Filip Ježdík, Chrystian Zimny – Městský dům Podolí – Císler–Pazdera studio
Abstract
Residential house in Podolí on a corner plot at the intersection of Podolská and Sinkuleho streets. We propose a multifunctional building with the main function of housing and amenities on the ground floor, which is contrasting to the others and tries to stand out. The aim was to effectively fill the space of the corner and create a dominant feature of the street. The house is designed as a CLT timber frame structure with a reinforced concrete reinforcing core and an axial distance of 3m, this allowed us to divide the rooms in a practical way. The ground floor houses a grocery store, replacing the bed and breakfast that currently stands on the plot. The remaining floors are residential with a simple variation of flats, there are flats 2+kk, 3+kk and 4+kk with areas from 52 m2 to 82 m2. The entrance to each apartment is located on the west side in the form of a pavement. On the eastern side the apartments have a loggia, which can also serve as an extension of the main living space. The roof terrace serves as a community/social space. There is an enclosed community room, a glass pergola that offers the possibility to open up and become a greenhouse and outdoor terrace space at its southern end.
Evaluation of the jury
The project is an elegant addition to the city block through a compact mass of corners with height gradation. The house has a calm expression and is nicely designed with a division into a section with shallow loggias and a height-dominant corner section. The jury also commends the design of the communal living roof with shared spaces and the bold choice of timber construction. The low ground floor of the house and the furnishings in some of the flats, notwithstanding the completely glazed façade, do not change the fact that the layout of the flats is imaginative and airy and represents the Western European model of living ('a house for extroverts').
Honourable mention from the jury
Matěj Čech, Barbora Píchová, Veronika Richterová – Fragment – querkraft studio
Abstract
Fragment is a multifunctional building in the centre of Vienna, designed as an extension of an unfinished building by architect Rem Koolhaas. The project combines a variety of functions, including residential units, office space, sports facilities, retail space and a publicly accessible park that weaves through the interior to the roof of the building.
The concept of the building is to preserve the existing reinforced concrete skeleton, from which a cube-shaped mass has been cut according to the regular square grid of the supporting columns. This allows the creation of a central atrium that extends underground and towards the sky. The atrium offers covered terraces, pergolas and trees.
The lightweight building envelope is designed in a pure white style with moving panels of perforated metal. This technology makes it possible to connect the interior to the busy Mariahilfer Strasse by opening up the façade at various points. The building has five entrances, three of which allow wheelchair access to the rooftop park, which creates a circuit around the entire building with many stops and seating areas with views.
Evaluation of the jury
The jury perceives the project as an experimental concept with a structural principle of building space and a frame construction scheme. The jury appreciates the effort to combine the metropolitan programme, teamwork and the design of non-traditional forms of housing with a surprising fragmentation of the interior space ("hive"). The jury also appreciates the assignment itself, which allows working with a "growing spatial structure" integrated into a traditional urban block development, and at the same time appreciates the CTU Faculty of Architecture for providing space for visiting studio teachers from abroad who offer such assignments to students.