Our goal is to build an inexpensive structure with low operating costs, a setting where the local people can arrive and create their own program. Building and administration – not operation – should be the task of the district government. The contents should be generated by the local people among and for themselves. As a building, the community centre should make use of the potential of the beautiful church and the gardens. Hloubětín needs its own centre of culture, and this role should be held by the community centre. Then, the district will have its own heart, reflecting the needs of the place – of the heart of Hloubětín.

Hloubětín Prague is a suburb of Prague in the Czech Republic. There is a requirement by the locals to establish a new community centre. The proposed site was once part of the Church of St. George a prominent protected landmark featuring a Chateau Hloubětín, gardens and a small farm.

The WHAT architecture proposal drawn from the local vernacular and presents the idea of “building as roof“. The roof houses a library and hall which has a large picture window to the adjoining church.

Radek Vondra, District Mayor of Prague 14