Czech practice Studio Acht has renovated the 19th-century provostry at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague, combining careful restoration with modern interventions.
Studio Acht has renovated the neo-Gothic New Provostry, which sits alongside the cathedral in the historic walled complex of Prague Castle and was originally designed by Czech architect Josef Mocker in 1877.
Studio Acht restored New Provostry and created two annexes
After being seized by both the Nazis and subsequently the Communist regime, the building was partially destroyed, and has stood largely abandoned since the 1950s.
The ownership of the New Provostry was returned to the church in 2016, which then tasked the studio with both restoring the surviving structure to host events and adding new visitor facilities. The original facades were preserved and a new slate roof was added
Two new annexes containing a cafe and shop face one another on the footprint of a former stable and coachhouse, reinstating the form of a small courtyard at the centre of New Provostry.
"An important aspect of the spatial modelling of the new annexes was to complement the northern panorama of Prague Castle," chief architect Václav Hlavá?ek told Dezeen.
"The task was not to disrupt this compact area of fortress-like character while opening it up to the Deer Moat."
The two annexes were built where a stable and coach house once stood
The treatment of the building's original neo-Gothic exterior focused on its preservation a...