The New Building of the National Museum

The former seat of the Federal Assembly, also known as the New Building of the National Museum, is located  above a house in the form of Prager’s extension on the upper side of Wenceslas Square. It was created for the needs of the former parliament, which was temporarily relocated to the building of the former stock exchange after moving from Rudolfinum. However, that building was neither technically nor spatially sufficient, so it had to be expanded until a new representative seat was built on Letná, which never materialized. The design by the trio Prager-Albrecht-Kadeřábek won the announced competition, in which the preservation of the protected stock exchange building was a condition. Their design surprised the jury with its unconventional approach. A quartet of lattice girders metaphorically levitates above the historic building as the basic framework of the new structure, which surrounds the original building from three sides and elegantly hovers above it. Since 2009, the building has been under the administration of the National Museum and is connected to the historic museum building by an underground tunnel.