The two-stage competition seeks proposals for a new multifunctional headquarters for Czech capital’s emergency services on Liberecká Street in the Střížkov neighbourhood of the northern Prague 9 district.
The project will transform an undeveloped site next to the 1960s Prosek housing estate and the Policlinic Prosek health centre into a new 27,000m² medical centre featuring operational spaces and training facilities for Prague’s emergency professionals.
Six shortlisted teams will each receive £26,000 (CZK 750,000) and be invited to further develop their designs during the second stage of the competition.
According to the brief: ‘The subject of the competition is a new administrative and technical building of the ZZS as the main headquarters of the Prague Emergency Medical Service. Its layout and architectural design should respond to the complexity and difficulty of the operation, but also to the comfort of users who are exposed to excessively stressful situations during their work.
‘The focal point of the building is the Medical Operations Centre (ZOS) – dispatching centre, where the ZOS staff receive calls and deal with crisis situations. The ZOS is complemented by other facilities such as an education and training centre with facilities for training rescuers and the public, servicing and cleaning of ambulances and other rescue equipment, or administrative facilities for the entire Prague Emergency Medical Service.’
The latest competition comes just three months after London’s William Matthews Associates has won a contest for a new cable car in Prague and six months after Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) of Copenhagen won an international contest organised by the City of Prague for a major new £204 million (CZK 6.1 billion) waterfront concert hall close to the Vltavská metro station.
The new Prague Emergency Medical Service will feature administrative offices, a medical operations area, a gym, crisis preparedness hub, overnight accommodation, a cafeteria, transport department, archive, laundry and services area.
Submissions will be judged on their quality of urban and architectural design, such as comfort and flexibility of use, functionality of the ecological concept; quality of the architectural design in terms of functional and operational design, orientation, logical connections and user comfort; and structural and technological solutions, taking into account investment and operating costs and the functionality of the energy concept.
Judges will include Milena Johnová, Prague City Council member for Social Policy and Healthcare; Martin Sobota, founding member of Rotterdam’s CITYFÖRSTER architecture; Jeannette Kuo, founding partner of Karamuk Kuo in Zurich; and Lenka Míková whose local practice Lenka Míková Architekti was founded in 2014.
The overall winner will receive a £71,000 (CZK 2 million) prize and be invited to negotiate for the design contract. A second prize of £44,000 (CZK 1.25 million) and third prize of £33,000 (CZK 950,000) will also be awarded.