Akadémia Park 2022

The 19th-century, former military site has not been developed until today, making the more than 10 ha site the largest contiguous property in the area that can be developed. We have already dealt with it in 2010 in an invitational design competition, when we were able to submit a proposal for the whole site and our Officium office building was built here, extending and renovating the 1897 school building. Since then, both the owner and the programme have changed. The proposal was less about the functions that could be installed and more about the scale of what could be built, through a process of agreement between the district and the owner/builder.

The essence of our plan was to create a large-scale community park and green space where the surrounding features are connected to it in a well regulated but logical order. The car parking was entirely underground, while the scale and architectural formulation of each building was developed from a matrix of detailed and careful consideration of the site’s conditions. The installed functions are roughly equally divided between residential, office and service (health, retail, education, cultural, catering, etc.) elements. The central green space is also adapted to the needs of the neighbourhood, providing space for recreation, sport and leisure. The jury found the design to be good in all respects, but considered the proposed built volume to be excessive. We are still convinced that this volume would be architecturally very well suited to the area and that the maintenance of a significant public park function can only realistically be delivered at this scale.