Nové HolešoviceNovéHolešovice

Nové Holešovice — A New Urban Centre for Prague 7

This project turns infrastructure into architecture and movement into public life.

A new well-defined and green plaza becomes the shared heart and common address for new homes, offices, hotel and public functions. Together, the plaza, the Mobility Link and surrounding buildings create a vibrant new centre for Nové Holešovice, connecting the city and bringing life to the station area throughout the day.

Positioned at the meeting point between existing Holešovice and the emerging Bubny-Zátory development, the project completes an important piece of Prague 7. Rather than placing buildings around a transport hub, public space, mobility and architecture are developed as one urban structure, reconnecting neighbourhoods today divided by infrastructure.

At its centre, the green plaza gathers streets, passages, buildings and transport connections around one generous public space. It extends across Vrbenského Street, prioritising pedestrian movement while creating places to meet, wait and stay. Trees and diverse planting provide shade and strengthen biodiversity, while integrated rainwater management and visible water elements improve the microclimate and make landscape part of the infrastructure of the new neighbourhood.

The Mobility Link extends the public realm into the station itself. Metro, regional train, tram and bus are brought together through a clear sequence of spaces and levels. A generous, light-filled terminal hall becomes both a gateway to Prague and an everyday urban lobby for Holešovice. Retail, station functions, hotel and workplaces are layered around the movement flows, making the building active beyond the journey itself.

Around this public heart, a dense mix of uses creates different rhythms throughout the day. The proposal provides 187.089 m² GFA excluding parking, with 85.262 m² housing (45%) and 71.336 m² offices (39%). These are complemented by 7.932 m² local production, 8.884 m² retail and F&B, 6.998 m² hotel, 2.315 m² culture and leisure, 1.802 m² kindergarten and 2.560 m² station functions. A further 48.665 m² of parking is efficiently integrated below ground.

Courtyard blocks, active ground floors and protected green courtyards continue the urban qualities of Holešovice. A shared architectural framework creates coherence while allowing variation between individual buildings. The development is organised around a robust 8.1 m structural grid, providing flexibility for different uses and efficient parking while responding to the complex metro, railway and technical infrastructure below.

Nové Holešovice becomes more than a station and more than a development: a new piece of Prague where mobility, public space and everyday urban life come together.

Nové Holešovice transforms the fragmented area around Holešovice Station into a coherent, climate-responsive urban district. Based on the urban planning competition, the project establishes clear block structures, strengthens the station as a public address and connects it to a wider north-south axis of important destinations, including the planned Philharmonic Hall on the Vltava riverfront.

The new station plaza becomes the key public space and multimodal hub. It links railway platforms, metro and bus stops while improving orientation, pedestrian comfort and access to the waterfront. Instead of underpasses and bridges, the design creates a clear, gently sloping ground plane from Plynární Street to the railway underpass. Level differences are absorbed through ramps, terraces, stairs and landscape elements.

The plaza combines robust urban surfaces with green, permeable areas, trees, shrubs, lawns and seasonal water elements. Its landscape concept translates the fluvial, industrial and infrastructural history of Holešovice into an urban sponge. Rainwater is collected, slowed, retained and reused through roofs, courtyards, rain gardens, planted basins and cisterns, improving microclimate, biodiversity and stormwater resilience.

The station building rises above the plaza, creating two retail levels and a generous covered space for events. A large canopy connects the railway underpass, station functions and metro entrance, becoming an internal gallery level.

The building’s technical facade combines fixed shading, daylight reflection, natural ventilation, night cooling, triple glazing and insulated opaque panels to reduce heat gains while maintaining daylight and views.

A long-span steel structure keeps metro access clear and allows flexible floorplates.

Circular materials, green roofs, heat pumps, geothermal activation of bored piles and internal waste-heat recovery reduce emissions and support robust, low-maintenance operation.

The Nové Holešovice masterplan transforms a fragmented public realm into a cohesive, future-proof district. Reinstating defined blocks and a structured street network mends the urban grain and restores connections to the Vltava River. Preserving the primary south-north axis ensures excellent visual and physical connectivity between key civic anchors, including the Vltava Philharmonic Hall, unifying the district.

Rail infrastructure must drive urban mobility, not hinder it. We resolved historical fragmentation by establishing a unified, barrier-free Level 0 at the precise +191.15 m elevation. Achieved via a 5% gradient, this topography elegantly bridges subterranean constraints without loading the critical metro tunnel, resolving conflicts with sewer B and the OK4B outfall. Flattening the 8,700m² square eliminates hidden corners, guaranteeing a weather-protected, “dry-foot” interchange between the train and metro networks.

To deliver profound public benefit, we reimagined the historic Prague passage. Block C.III-2 acts as a “Passage Portal” featuring a dramatically carved landmark entrance. This multi-level civic artery seamlessly connects the metro and train stations, ensuring sheltered transfers for commuters. An additional passage frames the unique Troja Bridge, capturing striking vistas while carving out an open-yet-covered local market. This dissolves private boundaries, returning vibrant space to citizens.

Our massing strategy optimizes gross floor area to ensure long-term economic viability. While maintaining a baseline iteration within original height caps, we boldly embrace a “Towers Opportunity.” By pushing tower heights to 148 m, 126 m, and 106 m, we unlock the site’s volumetric capacity and landmark potential. Internal programming remains highly adaptable, allowing residential and administrative ratios to shift fluidly in response to evolving market demands.

Reimagining the ground plane as a civic asset, a colonnaded arcade transforms the railway viaduct into a “Thick Edge.” It houses a dynamic mix of commercial and non-commercial civic spaces, animating adjacent cycle routes and plazas. This active frontage interweaves with a “sponge city” landscape strategy. By reducing soil sealing, capturing 1-in-5-year storms on-site, and introducing cooling gardens and communal meadows, the district becomes climate-resilient, sustainable, and ecologically vibrant.

The square in front of the railway station will become the new centre of Holešovice. Together with the Vltava Philharmonic Hall to the south and the linear park, it will form a new conceptual axis through Holešovice, connecting river to river. The square is of fundamental importance to the new neighbourhood.

We have designed a space with a unified identity rooted in the rational, working-class spirit of Holešovice. An orthogonal grid is filled with a variety of functions within individual fields: areas for staying, a grove, rainwater and water features, stairs – all designed around the natural movement and stopping of people. The basic framework surprisingly adapts to the existing urban structure of the city.

The square is defined by several distinct spatial situations. The northern part, with metro and railway entrances and a passage towards the river, forms a significant arrival point with places to stop and the possibility to move diagonally across the square. The southern part provides an open, flexible space for markets and community events, located above the metro tube where trees cannot be planted. A grove with shaded seating is situated on natural ground, offering both intimate spaces and areas for neighbourhood gatherings. A water feature is integrated into the square, functioning as a shallow pool in summer and part of the open square in winter.

The transport hub contributes to the identity of the place. The key principle is the natural and intuitive circulation of passengers between the different modes of transport –metro, train, tram and bus, without unnecessary detours. We prioritise the movement of pedestrians and passengers in the open air. The flow of people activates the public space as well as the commercial units within the ground-floor façades.

The architectural expression is based on fundamental elements such as the column, the cornice and the window. Each of the 16 buildings has its own character, expressed through façade materials, entrance cores and railing design. Buildings framing the public space feature arcades along their southern façades, while alternating corner accents and recessed upper floors create the character of a traditional urban block. The courtyards are primarily residential but remain permeable through gates, with shared central areas and planted buffers providing privacy.