We initiated the project as architects who live in the area and perceive the lack of facilities for swimming with children both in the immediate vicinity and in Prague as a whole. We work with "urban intervention" to unveil the potential of the place connecting it with the concept we have been dealing with for several years. Part of the project is to seize a locality that we know intimately and breathe new life into it, taking the opportunity to revitalize other parts of the park, which for a long time have not receive enough attention and do not have the resources to carry out their maintenance and restoration.
The concept aims to bring life and new green areas to the neglected part of the park and create symbiosis with the unique surrounding area and most importantly, to offer a new facility for families and local residents. It is a primarily site-specific solution aiming to connect the building with its context even through the programme. It also creates a metaphorical patch for the area taken from the park that has been neglected for decades. It smoothly follows the hilly terrain of the surrounding Rieger’s park with many relaxation areas. It is “invisible” from the park. It protects the existing tall trees and the green areas on the site connecting them into the design. It is designed for year-round operation, the strategies for different parts vary over the course of the year (outdoor pools may be partly inactive in winter season). It combines an indoor spa with several types of swimming pools with an outdoor summer swimming pool, a relaxation wellness area and several restaurants and cafes. The design works with the existing situation that contains fragments of the original cyclopean walls with detailed inserted stairs and a niche with barrel vault. The building’s composition emphasises insertion of as many components as possible into the terrain base of the site. It comprises of two parts. One is inserted into the base of the site with technical facilities, changing rooms, supplies and wellness area. The above-ground part of the building contains indoor swimming pool with restaurants that merges with the outdoor swimming pool and with the green roof that returns the missing green part of the site cut off by the building’s footprint. The shaping of the grass roof allows the swimming pool with relaxation area to be raised prolonging exposition to sun, while preserving the trees shading the area in the afternoon. The spa combines traditional time-proven methods complying with contemporary requirements in this field to ensure economical operation (passive and active methods). The basic energy source will be designed as a combined system of heat pumps using the integration of the fluid piping into the pile drills before concreting (energy pile system). This is related to the use of high-performance frameless quadruple-pane insulating glazing (with No Frame system) in combination with indoor temperature control, ventilation and recuperation. The principle of distribution of the temperature of the internal environment is based on low-temperature transmission, when the temperature at the contact with the floor or ceiling is not recognizable and the user does not perceive its changes. The system creates an ambient climate and maintains a comfortable temperature without perceiving the area where it is distributed from, and the airflow is imperceptible within the controlled exchange. The heat pump will be in operation all year round, including reverse operation and distribution of residual heat and cold between the underground and above-ground parts, thanks to which a significant reduction in energy costs can be achieved.
We consider the revitalization of the inner spatial reserves of the city we live in and their redefinition for current functions to be part of our architectural mission and we have been trying to apply it for more than fifteen years. The same way, we have achieved the revitalization of Prague's riverfront, now internationally known, turning it from an abandoned space that was used as a car park into one of the liveliest public spaces in Prague. As part of the Prague riverfront revitalization other elements are being prepared.
One of them is a floating pool that together with the presented Rieger’s spa project creates the future network of public amenities.
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