MASARYKA BUILDING, PRAGUE 13
MASARYKA BUILDING PRAGUE
Connections to a golden past
One of the last buildings bearing the signature of Zaha Hadid is a mixed use workplace sitting alongside Prague’s oldest railway station, and inspired by the historic ‘golden city’ and the dynamism of rail travel
“M
asaryčka can without exaggeration be described as the most modern and ground-
breaking office building in the Czech Republic.” That’s the claim of Penta Real Estate, the private equity investor client behind this bold project in the heart of Prague, known as the ‘golden city.’ The firm’s new Zaha Hadid Architects-designed HQ in an unloved part of the historic city, represents an unabashed statement of the firm’s prominence in Central and Eastern Europe, in this case turning brownfield into gold.
Completing the puzzle of this new central business district, Czech Railways’ renovation of the adjacent Masaryk railway station by Penta Real Estate and Czech Railways will bring further urban renewal to this part of the city. However, the new golden office and retail building, framed by the station’s rail platforms to the south, a street to the north, and an elevated freeway to the east, is the star of the show. Penta Real Estate has occupied one of the buildings with its sister company, the major private equity investor Penta Investments (as well as several other office tenants). The project represents an investment worth €100m (CZK 2.5bn), predicated on serving increasing demand for workspace in Prague. The design maximises the brownfield site that stood abandoned for decades adjacent to the station, and replaces a
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car park with a new public square with interchanges between the city’s rail, tram, and bus networks. This helps to provide a new, welcoming gateway to the city for rail passengers coming in from the suburbs, as well as those connecting to the international airport using the express rail link currently being built.
Both Penta Real Estate and Penta Investments had already made architectural waves by creating its first Prague headquarters in 2013, in what was also its first large-scale completed office project – the Florentinum with a similar office and retail mix. Having relocated to the glowing new pair of buildings topped with roof terraces, the firms now occupy the two top floors of the larger of the two buildings, with the whole complex providing 28,000 m² in total, including copious food, beverage and retail offers in the first two levels.
The two buildings offer 2,500 m² and 2,200 m² of retail space respectively, and 14,300 m² office space in the taller of the two versus 7,900 m² in the other. The continued volume linking both buildings housing retail areas creates a new commercial ‘high street’ for the city.
Design
Located a kilometre east of the central Staroměstské Square, the highly contemporary form has been designed to
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The new golden office and retail building, framed by the station’s rail platforms to the south, a street to the north, and an elevated freeway to the east, is the star of the show
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