Prager’s Cubes

The complex of the former Association of Project Studios and later the headquarters of the Prague City Construction and its Project Institute is located in the area of the Emauzy Abbey. In contrast to the historic neo-Gothic architecture, three modernist cubes stand, levitating above the green park. Today, the Institute of Planning and Development of the City of Prague is located here, and the buildings serve the same purpose for which they were designed. The complex consists of three pavilions and a ground-floor building, which houses an exhibition hall originally intended for the Baucenter but now serves as the space for the Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP). All three mentioned pavilions function on the same principle. The steel structure of the base with communication cores helps distribute the weight of the cantilevered parts with offices and a lightweight suspended facade. It is thanks to the cantilevers reaching up to six meters that the building is nicknamed “Prague Cubes”. Originally, the complex was supposed to have five parts, but the subsequent stages of implementation never took place. Instead of a massive corner building facing Karlovo náměstí, there are original tenement houses standing here.