Prior Tower - Kamenné square

Faculty of Architecture and Design STU in Bratislava

Project idea

The idea is based on feeling of one-way direction of a line object shopping center Prior and hotel Kyjev. The end portion of the mass is mirrored and then rotated to create an asymmetry of these masses. Finally, the intermediate mass was sunk. Thus an underground square was created. This fulfilled the intention to complete a kind of unfinished line of buildings - directed to both sides of the city.

Project description

The aim of the assignment is to create architectural possibilities on the Stone Square (Kamenné námestie) in Bratislava. Stone Square is a square in Bratislava in the Old Town. The assignment solves the complex issues of the Stone Square and the Prior department store.
The semester was divided into two parts - in the first part the urban solution and possibilities for the locality were addressed, the second part was focused on the architectural solution of the selected variant. In the first part, several possibilities of urban design were examined - from conservative to fewer futuristic. Then a variant was chosen that tries to respect the copyright of Ivan Matušík as much as possible, and also the architectural qualities of department store Prior. The solution tries to support the original author's idea - offset the object from the street line. The existing car park has been moved underground and a new park is created instead. The central area of the square is sunk below ground level to use the possibility of direct connection to department store Prior. In addition to adding empty blocks in the area of Stone square, the main object - Prior Tower is designed. Prior Tower is a mass continuation of the Prior department store with a connection to the recessed square. I dealt with the landscape of the territory in a uniform style – linearity.
The height object - Prior Tower - follows the linearity of the department store Prior object. It consists of a slim base mass and a cantilevered upper part. In the basic mass there is a café on the ground floor and housing is also located higher. The apartments are divided on floors into four categories - two-room, three-room, four-room and large flats. The large flats are located on the last two floors of the residential part. There is a panoramic restaurant in the cantilevered area. A strong element of the building is greenery. The building has roof garden and garden in the middle of the mass. Underground parking are situated outside the floor plan of the building, on two underground floors. The façade is solved by an element of lamellas that perform the function of shading - they are rotatable for each floor separately. It also ensures a uniform, linear character of the building.

Technical information

The load on the building is carried to the ground by reinforced concrete columns and the reinforcing core of the building. The building is based on piles in combination with a foundation slab. The cantilevered part is solved by hanging. The characteristic slats on the building are made of steel.

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