Dogma

Taste the Floor

The concept of the competition for the transformation of the Piazzetta Miloš Forman is ‘raumscape’. Coined by the competition organizers, raumscape derives from Adolf Loos’ concept of ‘raumplan.’ This latter concept addresses a method of design that uses discrete rooms in a dynamic section. In other words, within raumplan, the stacking of floors is complicated by the proliferation of intermediate levels. Once transported in the realm of public space, this concept seems to express well the composite nature of public space, its being made of different and often diverging parts. However, as it has been noted, a possible source of Loos’ raumplan is Adolph Appia’s idea of ‘espace rhytmique’, which he illustrated in a series of views drawn in the 1910s. Our proposal takes inspiration from this version of raumscape as an original way to give form to public space. In the Appia’s espace rythmique, the dynamic section is more delicate and thus attuned to the use of public space.

To accommodate different levels within the square, we have adopted the form of the platform. We believe that the platform is the most relevant form for public space. A platform is not simply a way of raising buildings or people from the ground but also an architectural form that redefines and negotiates the way in which the ground is made possible. The purpose of the platform is to allow the different levels of the square to coexist and to inscribe these levels within a unitary form. We believe that while diversity and complexity are fundamental properties of public space, these properties require an edge to become legible. The platform functions as a mediating edge in which different levels, surfaces, and landscapes can coexist in a meaningful composition. Rather than just leveling the ground, the platform emphasizes the void of the square as an active form that hosts and enables its multiple use.

The main form of the Piazzetta subtly reinterprets the terracotta strips that articulate the hotel façade. This approach was inspired by the syncopated rhythm that gives the façade its subtle bas-relief quality. Building on the bas-relief concept and considering the raumscape theme, the Piazzetta is shaped by extending the strips motive across the square. This unifies the different surfaces that compose the square within a landscape of subtle differences. This linear pattern motif is present in many buildings and artworks from Czech modernism. The main protagonist of these artworks is the interplay of light and shadow. In our design, the pattern has been simplified to a composition of bright and dark strips of tiles that blend in with the existing streetscape of Prague.

A fundamental aspect of the design of the square is paving. Prague has a strong tradition of street paving designed as a pattern of dark and light stones. This kind of paving marks the sidewalks making them legible elements of the urban landscape. Patterns take the form of checkerboards or other abstract motives. They seem to create optical waves that ‘move’ the pavement making the latter a quasi-three-dimensional layer. In our project we have appropriated this tradition and reinterpreted it as an abstract motive that covers the entire surface of the platform. Following the tripartition of the square, the triangular pattern takes different dimensions emphasizing the character of each ‘strip’. The purpose of this pattern is to disrupt the neutral smoothness of the typical neoliberal public space in which the materiality of the paving seems to dissolve and disappear. The pattern is a way to emphasize the square as a special space clearly distinguished from its surroundings.