Architect Petr Janda has transformed a series of vaults on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague into versatile public spaces as part of a project aimed at revitalising the embankment.
The project to transform approximately four kilometres of the Czech capital's riverbank was initiated in 2009, by which time the former quayside had been deserted for many years.
Vaulted arches were opened up with large circular windows
The embankment area was being used for car parking, with the vaults containing storage units. Janda's studio Brainwork helped develop a proposal to create a waterfront promenade that reactivates three separate sections of the embankment and introduces new public functions.
The project's completed first phase represents Prague's largest investment in public spaces since the end of communist rule in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1989. It has been shortlisted in the rebirth project category of Dezeen Awards 2021. Glass-fronted vaults are dedicated to cafes and gallery spaces
According to Janda, the conversion of 20 vaults set into the existing embankment aims to optimise the connection with the riverfront area by maximising the scale of the openings in the wall.
"The interventions symbiotically merge with the original architecture of the riverside wall, into which they naturally fuse," the architect pointed out. "By using the acupuncture strategy, they re-create a monumental whole."
The large, circular glass windows can pivot and open
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