Budovy Sdružení projektových ateliérů Administrative building

Welcome to one of the most fascinating and discussed parts of Prague 2. Stop for a moment, take a breath and look ahead. You're standing in front of a complex that at first sight acts as a bold mathematical experiment in the city space. These are the buildings of the Project Studio Association, but many of us know them under far more powerful names, such as Prager Craps or the Emauza Administration. Feel this unusual atmosphere where strict geometry meets the history of New Town. It's a place that makes you think about how the city grows, how it changes and how architecture can affect our perception of space.

Let us now go back in time together to understand why these buildings stand here and what their original purpose was. To understand the present, we need to know the past, and it is very dramatic in this place. Before the lines of modern cubes were drawn here, this place looked completely different. There was a brewery Na Slovany and a cinema, which were places of meeting and daily life of Prague residents. However, everything turned into one tragic day, namely February 14th, 1945. That's when the raid hit this area, which completely destroyed the brewery and the cinema. All that's left is debris and emptiness in the tissue of the city. It was this painful wake from World War II that created space for something completely new.

Many years later, in 1966, an architectural competition was announced at the headquarters of the Association of Project Studios. The aim was to create space for the Prague Project Institute, a place where the future faces of the capital would be designed. Architects Karel Prager and Jiří Kadeřábek received the task. Their vision was radical and modern. Construction work began in 1968, at a time when new ways were sought in architecture to express progress and efficiency. Although the project was completed in 1973, it had to be implemented in a reduced form before the entire complex was officially concluded in 1974.

Now, please pay full attention to what you see right in front of you. Look at the overall composition of the buildings. Notice the incredible regularity. The entire complex is designed in a strict square network six times six. This mathematical precision is not random. Karel Prager wanted to implement the idea of a vertical city in this complex. Think of it as a small town where functions and spaces don't just move side by side, but the layering above each other to maximize the space used and optimize people's flows. Look at the facade and see how these objects communicate with each other. They are essentially large geometric units that create their own inner world, separated from the chaos of the surrounding streets.

When you look around, think about how this architecture makes you feel. Is it a sense of stability, order, or perhaps some rigour? That's what the genius loci of this place is all about. It's an architecture that doesn't try to fit in, but it wants to define a new standard. Karel Prager was a visionary who saw buildings as machines for work and creation. Together with Jiří Kaderábka, they created a space that was supposed to be functional, modern and outgoing from traditional ideas about the administrative building.

The key personalities of this place are these two architects who dared to transfer such strict geometry to the historical centre of Prague. Their work here remains a monument to the era of believing in reasonable planning and in the power of architecture to change society. Nowadays, the buildings no longer serve the original building institution, but they became the headquarters of the Institute of Planning and Development of the Capital City of Prague. It is therefore very symbolic that it is here, in an area designed as a model of the vertical city, that today the whole of Prague will decide what it will look like in the future.

And now I want to take you to something that you can't see at first sight, but that creates a fascinating contrast to what you see above your head. There is one secret that connects modern cubes to ancient history. Even though the 1945 raid destroyed almost everything, something remained in the ground. If you got to the basement of Hall B, you would find yourself in the only part of the original brewery on Slovany. It is an incredible contrast that under a strict, modern structure six times six still breathe old brewery cellars. It's like the modern architecture of the Prager Cube hugs and protects the last remnants of the past that once was destroyed by war. This constancy is exactly what makes Prague so special.

In 2017 the area opened up even more to the public thanks to the creation of a centre of architecture and urban planning. This was so that architecture and how we live in the city could be discussed openly and openly. This centre is a bridge among experts who still work in buildings, and you, visitors who come here to admire or question this unconventional space.

Now, if you look at these buildings again, try to view them not only as an administrative complex, but as a dialogue between different epoch. Here you see the tragedy of 1945, the ambitions of the 1960s and 1970s, and the current approach to planning a modern city. It's all inserted into one regular network that teaches us to search for order in chaos.

Imagine what it must be like to work in such an environment. How does the geometry affect the thinking of people who design the future face of Prague here? Perhaps this rigor is what inspires them to find new, bold solutions.

Now that you know the story of this place, I suggest you go through the area slowly. Try to stop in different angles and watch how the perspective of these cubes changes. Notice how buildings form inner spaces and how you feel about them. Is this the space that welcomes you, or is it rather keeping you at a distance? Each of us sees Prager's dice differently, and that's what their power is all about.

Thank you for stopping by this unique complex for a moment. I hope this view behind the scenes has helped you better understand what you see. Now you have space in your house. Explore it, perceive its rhythm, and let the idea of a vertical city drift. I wish you a pleasant further trip to Prague and many other discoveries in its streets. Goodbye.