Arts Center for South Bohemia

Authors’ Comment

The site chosen for the project is Senovážné Square, one of the important public spaces of České Budějovice. The square lies close to the historic center and acts as an interface between the medieval core of the city and the areas developed later. It is bordered by Karla IV. and Na Sadech boulevards and is very well connected in terms of road, public and pedestrian transport. However, the current state of the site does not reflect the importance of its position. At present the site consists of a paved square, a deteriorated green space and a surface parking lot, with no clear public identity. The intervention is part of a broader urban regeneration strategy.

The project proposes an arts center for the South Bohemian region on this site. The building is not conceived as an autonomous object placed on the ground but works as a continuation of the public square. Today the square has no clear limits. The space dissolves into the parking lot and the surrounding green area, with no beginning or end to define it. The built volume takes on this problem and gives the square a coherent front that encloses it, sets its edges and turns it into a defined urban space.

Seen from the edges of the square, the building has a solid and unified presence, yet its face does not act as a wall. The setbacks and cuts of the volume at ground level open the facade toward the square and turn the built edge into a threshold that draws passersby inside. Through the way it embraces the space of the square, the form of the building works as a negative of the nearby natural history museum, and the two institutions enter into a dialogue of solid and void.

A pedestrian path crosses the site and invites residents to pass naturally through the public institution on their way along the city's green belt. Crossing the building becomes part of the daily route through the city, and the arts center becomes a place of passage and encounter, not just a destination. At the point where the path enters the volume, the building opens up and forms a gate, a threshold that marks the entrance into the space of the institution.

The auditorium has a direct relationship with the exterior. Its wall facing the hill is retractable and can be fully opened, so that the hall extends toward the landscape. In these moments the auditorium becomes visible from the square by the river, and the gaze of passersby is drawn toward the interior of the building. This allows unique events to take place, where the performance unfolds on the border between inside and outside and becomes part of the life of the city.

The entire building is finished in prefabricated concrete. The material gives a unified expression and supports the monolithic character of the volume.

Although at first glance the form of the building seems simple, it hides a complex volume. Very different functions coexist under the same outline, from the exhibition spaces and the auditorium to the restaurant and the administrative areas. The complexity of the project is revealed through the way these functions neighbor each other, overlap and communicate within a single volume.