Panorama Apartment Buildings | Boskovice

2017
Team:
David Menšík, Radek Prokop, Petr Skrušný, Petr Wachsberger, David Werner
Landscape design:
Tereza Vařejková
Visualizations:
ZAN studio
Author:
Menšík Skrušný
Client:
BD Panorama Boskovice s.r.o.
Typology:
Apartment buildings, Parking house, Urbanism

The urban planning of the new development is based on the framework set by the regulations (percentage of built-up area, helicopter take-off curves of the neighboring hospital and the nearby single track of the Czech Railways), and the link to the urban planning of neighboring apartment buildings. On the north side of the plot there are four apartment buildings with a square floor plan and corners facing the cardinal directions. The two apartment buildings on the west side are one storey lower due to the take-off curve of the hospital heliport. On the south side of the plot there is a parking lot and a large single-storey parking facility, which serves partly as an acoustic barrier of the railway. From the northeast side, a two-lane access road leads from the original development, which creates a pedestrian zone with a cycle path (continuing on Janáčkova Street) and a sidewalk between the parking house and apartment buildings, which forms a corridor serving as an access road for fire units and garbage trucks. The two-lane road, together with the perpendicular parking lot, connected to the outdoor car park, then underpasses the parking house on the south side and, together with the with a vegetation rampart, further helps to soundproof the railway. The construction of apartment buildings will be divided into two stages. During the first stage, two taller apartment buildings will be built on the north-eastern side of the plot, the garage building, the car park and all roads. In the second phase, the two remaining apartment buildings will be built. In the space between the houses of the second phase, a small park will be created in cooperation with landscape architects. The front gardens of the apartment buildings will be covered by a series of planted deciduous trees.

The simple morphology of the four- and five-storey house (one floor lined with a terrace) with a floor plan of the square follows the original development based on the work of the architect Alena Šrámková, both in terms of the material expression of the house and detailed elements. The apartment building is connected by a centrally located communication core, including an elevator shaft and a U-shaped staircase connected to the skylight from the landing, which will enable natural lighting of the vertical communication. The core is connected to the exterior by a leeward, entrance with mailboxes, an adjoining storage room and a space for garbage cans, which also has a separate access for garbage collection. This group of background spaces occupies one apartment out of an otherwise regularly recurring number of apartments on higher floors. The first floor therefore has 5 apartments with access to corresponding gardens. On the upper floors, the system of 6 apartments is repeated, 4 of which have access to a large living balcony. On the last, reduced, floor, there are 2 large apartments with access to the terrace, which copies the shape of the balconies from the lower floors and creates large, usable, spaces. The garage is a single-storey building in the shape corresponding to the perpendicular parking arrangement. Part of the modules is used for separate garage parking, while the remaining part is occupied by cubicles serving the residents of the apartment buildings. All buildings are finished with a vegetation roof.

The expression of a building is based on a simple modular system. Windows measuring 2x2m with a lowered sill 0.6 m high are regularly replaced by a 1m wide window pillar. This grid is disturbed only by a 3m wide window with access to the balcony and sliding French windows on the first floor. Window frames, lowered window sills, security shutters, balcony railings and aluminum entrance doors are all made in bronze finish. The last, reduced, floor is architecturally and materially differentiated and is plated around the entire perimeter with a material in the same shade. An important element is the material differentiation of the ground floor. It is made of smooth plaster separating the ground floor of the house from the rest of the facade, which is made of rough plaster. This differentiation is historically a more typical solution for poorer Czech regions than the use of imported facing stones. The interior solution corresponds to the exterior, and smooth gypsum plaster is used in the common areas. The floors of common areas and corridors, and the treads of stairs and landings will be made as polished terrazzo. A plinth made of the same material connects to the floor. Boxes, stair railings and other interior details related to common areas will also be made in bronze. The doors to the apartments are made in an earthy shade of pastel blue, which is disturbed only by the gutter sheet in a bronze shade. The front wall of the stair skylight will be made of exposed concrete.

The perimeter cladding of the parking house will be made of glass-concrete blocks (LUXFER), which will form a guiding radius to the entrances. The entrance door to the parking house will also be made in a bronze shade. The fronts of the garages connected to the transverse load-bearing system will be made of contrasting reinforced concrete.

The sidewalks will be assembled from granite cubes in several shades. The material thus differs from the asphalt cycle path. Roads and parking spaces for people with reduced mobility will consist of asphalt areas. Most parking spaces will be made as areas of grass blocks made of granite cubes.