building renovation

competition proposal

Prague, Czech Republic, 2016

team:

Sándor Guba

Péter Hámori

Géza Baráth - energy management

City halls, besides their administrational duties, have an important social role: to set an example. From the perspectives of urban design, architecture and building management we propose this project should follow the principles of “Three Degrees of Awareness”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Reduce:

Firstly, as the Directive 2010/31/EU suggests, we must reduce the use of primary E-resources. The proposed building envelope integrates PV cells into the exterior 3 layer glazing, thus the same structure provides transparency, lightness, shading and energy production. In order to increase their efficiency, the planes are slanted.  It also appears on an urban level: we propose reducing car-driving; the location is well-served with public transportation, so combining and optimising trips with other transport methods is possible.

Reuse:

We reuse all the good quality built-in materials; first, because those are still structurally and aesthetically fine, and secondly, to reduce construction waste and new material production.

The facade ceramic tiles are reused on the solid parts of the new elevation to enhance the monolithicity of the volume, and also on the central core to create representation in the interior. The external glass windows, put into new, slim Alu-frames will be reused as glass partitions between office spaces.

Recycle:

Recycling appears in the new concrete structures that will be made with recycled concrete gas aggregate. It also appears in waste-management: collection of rainwater to treat the new green surfaces, greywater for toilet flushing, and recycling waste collection.