PRF: Office space in Prague exceeds 3 million m2
The total size of modern office space in Prague exceeded 3 million m2 at the end of 2014. The A:B class building ratio in new construction increased by 1 p.p. q/q to 68% in Q4 2014. This stems from the survey by the Prague Research Forum (PRF). Source: www.cianews.czContinue Reading
Skanska Property ČR acquires FIVE! project in Prague 5
Skanska Property Czech Republic has acquired into its commercial portfolio the FIVE! development project in Anděl-Smíchov business location, Na Valentince street, Prague 5. The project was sold by HOCHTIEF Development Czech Republic, represented by real estate agency DTZ. The project is sized ca. 14,500m2. Skanska Property Czech Republic was represented by the JLL agency. Legal consulting for the seller was provided by law firm bnt attorneys-at-law, for the buyer by law firm Dentons. Source: www.cianews.czContinue Reading
Praguescape: In the pink?
Recently I took the metro to the end of the C-line and emerged to find myself in the midst of a pastel-coloured concrete candy land: blocks upon blocks of pale blue, baby pink, peach and improbably sunny shades of yellow. Some building facades even had stripes or artfully scattered geometrical patterns. Jižní Město, the country’s biggest panel housing estate, which lies southeast of Prague’s city centre, just celebrated its 33rd anniversary, and I was curious to see what had changed. The last five years of its existence were devoted to revitalisation, in part subsidised by EU funds, with the aim of making it more liveable. This was the place that once epitomised the dehumanised face of socialist housing. Upon constructionContinue Reading
Praguescape: Traces of industry
The list is too long for comfort. In their introduction to the new exhibit Co jsme si zbořili – What We Have Destroyed (Ourselves), its organisers enumerate all the Czech industrial structures that have been destroyed in the last 10 years. And it’s not just boxy factory buildings. Among the demolished are several breweries, sugar mills, water towers, power plants and even a viaduct. The exhibition, which runs until 15 October, is on display at the Old Sewage Treatment Plant in Prague 6, a remarkable industrial structure in its own right, now operated by the Eco-Technical Museum. It’s part of this year’s fifth international biennale Industriální stopy – Vestiges of Industry, held in the Czech Republic’s major towns over theContinue Reading
Uncovering Prague’s layers
Chances are you could pick any random spot in downtown Prague, dig down several metres and you would almost certainly discover something archaeologically significant. The city, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 11 centuries, is composed of so many relics from different eras that it’s not uncommon to find four or five different architectural styles in one building: a baroque house, for instance, with gothic arcades and neoclassical interiors, built on Romanesque foundations. So it’s not that surprising that the ongoing archaeological dig at Národní třída last month yielded the remnants of 12th-century houses that were built in part from the tombstones of a medieval Jewish cemetery. What makes the long-running Národní třída dig special is that it’sContinue Reading
Changing the structure
Few Prague landmarks reflect the city’s political landscape as poignantly as the former Federal Assembly building on Wenceslas Square. The structure that once housed the Prague Stock Exchange, one of the most potent symbols of capitalist 1930s Czechoslovakia, became the seat of the country’s communist government just 15 years later, only to be converted into the headquarters of Radio Free Europe, the purveyor of democracy, in 1995, six years after the Velvet Revolution. It’s modern Czech history in a nutshell. Even after 1989 important laws were passed here, including one that ended the central role of the Communist Party in the Czech government. Politicians such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, George Bush Sr and Queen Elizabeth have passed through itsContinue Reading