4th Quadrant of Victory Square
International Architectural Competition
Prague, Czech Republic

Apartments, offices, missing public amenities or a new cultural centre for Prague 6. All this is to be brought by the completion of the 4th Quadrant of Victory Square. The five finalists proposals of the international architectural competition will be presented in an outdoor exhibition right on Victory Square. The public will have the opportunity to comment on the proposals. Citizens' comments will be provided to the international expert jury before its decision on the competition winner.

Although the masterplan on which this part of Prague – Dejvice – was designed by Antonín Engel a hundred years ago, a part of Victory Square, the so-called 4th Quadrant, remains undeveloped to this day. Its new form is to be determined by agreement between the investor and the Prague municipality in an international architectural competition, which is now approaching its final stage.

Out of the 44 teams registered, 5 participants made it to the final phase of the competition. Their proposals can be seen by the public on the competition website https://4kvadrant.cz/or at the exhibition located in the 4th Quadrant of the Victory Square until 30 June. In addition, the public can comment on each proposal on the competition website until 11 June.

"Our goal, as the organiser of such an important competition for the completion of the Dejvice centre, is to involve the public in the search for the most suitable proposal as much as possible. Before the announcement of the competition, local residents and visitors to the area could share their assessment of the current state of the area, but also suggest what is missing. These suggestions became part of the competition brief. Now, the public's comments on the competition proposals will be provided to the jury as one of the bases for their decision-making," explained Petr Návrat from ONplan planning office, competition organiser.

Five architectural teams were shortlisted for the second phase of the competition, including renowned Czech and European studios: the MVRDV team from the Netherlands, the Czech-German consortium Pavel Hnilička Architects+Planners and Baumschlager Eberle Architects, the Netherland and Czech studios Benthem Crouwel Architects and Opočenský Valouch Architekti, the Czech office A69 - architekti and another Czech-Netherland consortium Cityförster and Studio Perspektiv.

The aim of the competition workshop is to find a new form and optimal architectural and urban design solution for the north-western part of Victory Square. Fourth Quadrant, a company formed by investors Penta Real Estate, Sekyra Group and Kaprain, is the competition client. The competition is also organised in cooperation with the University of Chemical Technology in Prague (UCT), the City of Prague, the Municipality of Prague 6 and IPR Prague. The planning office ONplan is the organiser of the competition.

"The final group of competition participants, consisting of renowned European architectural offices and top Czech teams, brought very interesting proposals. The presented projects respect the character that architect Engel imprinted on Dejvice a century ago, but at the same time they are original, varied and in line with the trends of modern architecture. Above all, they try to meet the requirements and needs of people arising from the contemporary life of Dejvice," says Petr Palička, director of Penta Real Estate.

"We are pleased that the form of the completion of Victory Square will be the result of an open international architectural competition in which many experts, such as specialists in conservation and urban planning, participated. We believe that the winning proposal will bring a new quality to the area. Together with our partners, we want to create an attractive centre of Prague 6 that will attract not only those who live and work here, but all Prague residents," said Leoš Anderle, CEO of Sekyra Group.

"I am glad that the investor has decided for a competition dialogue with the involvement of the city. I think it brings a new quality to the city, similarly to the Florenc competition. Personally, I am surprised by the variety of architecture that can be worked with in the tight structure of Dejvice. At the same time, the city continues to actively work on the reconstruction of Victory Square itself and the public space of the university campus," says Petr Hlaváček, Prague's Deputy Mayor for Spatial and Strategic Development.

A multifunctional building with apartments, offices, shops, services and restaurants is to be built in the 4th Quadrant. A new university building will also be built there by the UCT. In addition to classrooms and facilities for students, there will also be public spaces and a microbrewery.

"The mission of UCT is to support talented students and to prepare top experts who help our society to solve the major problems of today. The new university building is a prerequisite for us to be able to fulfil this role in the future. At the same time, the completion will allow us to expand the range of popular and cultural activities for the people of Prague, which will contribute to the further development of the Dejvice university campus as a pleasant and inspiring meeting place for academics and local residents," adds Pavel Matějka, Rector of the University of Chemistry and Technology.

The completion will also include a new cultural centre of Prague 6 with an area of up to 3,000 m2 and two halls, which will significantly supplement the missing cultural infrastructure in this part of Prague. The cultural centre should offer spaces for concerts, exhibitions, theatre performances, as well as social and community events for locals.

"After more than a hundred years, Prague 6 deserves a completed Victory Square in the spirit of the First Republic design by architect Antonín Engel. Moreover, the citizens of Prague 6 have the opportunity to comment on the proposals that were selected for the final round of the architectural competition. In addition to an interesting architectural solution, they can look forward to a cultural centre that will be part of the new development," says Jakub Stárek, Mayor of Prague 6.

"The unfinished space on Vítězné náměstí is now a gap in the central part of the city. The new development will provide a range of high quality outdoor and indoor spaces for the public, with a wide range of places for relaxation, culture, dining and shopping. I welcome the completion of Engel's original architectural and urban design concept through a contemporary lens. The competition is organised at a high professional level, a wide range of relevant stakeholders were invited to prepare the brief and the brief is open so that the competition participants can come up with unexpected ideas. But at the same time it regulates important features of the future development for the city, such as building heights or dimensions of public spaces," says Ondřej Boháč, director of IPR Prague.

An international jury composed of architects, urban planners and landscapers will select the winning proposal, which will determine the new look of the 4th quadrant. The jury is chaired by Kees Christiaanse, professor at ETH Zurich and founder of KCAP, the office behind Hamburg's famous HafenCity. The jury also includes British architect Alex Lifschutz, Swedish landscape architect Martin Arfalk and professor Michal Kohout from the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University. The dependent part of the jury includes representatives of the investor, UCT Prague, the Prague 6 Municipality, the City of Prague and IPR Prague. The Czech Chamber of Architects granted the competition a certificate of regularity.

The competition is held in the form of a so-called competition workshop, which is non-anonymous. This allows the jury to have a direct dialogue with the competition participants during the workshop. In addition, experts in the fields of transport and sustainable mobility, heritage conservation or blue-green infrastructure are also involved in the process and assess the competition proposals from a professional perspective. The winner of the architectural competition for the completion of Victory Square will be announced in September 2023.

Source: ONplan