Eva Jiřična's daring design to replace Prague 3's gloomy 'Mordor'

Eva Jiřična emerged as the winner of an architectural competition by Central Group for a residential project that will replace the former Telecom headquarters in Prague 3. The jury considered 98 entries, including from world famous architectural studios such as Sou Fujimoto, Ian Ritchie and Richard Meier. The winning design included public green spaces, commercial areas and a nursery school. Central Group bought the building, a depressing structure of massive size, from CETIN through a deal completed in 2017.

"In addition to the architecture and the intelligent technical solution the jury appreciated the winning bid's creation of a large public space with greenery," wrote the company in a press release. "The size of the public space was the largest of all those in the final round." The white, rounded tower structures will use environmentally friendly materials while the buildings will use heat pumps to aid their heating and rain water capture for use on the new greenery. Central Group boss Dušn Kunovský said the original idea had been to build a less sophisticated, cheaper project given its location. "But the high quality architecture and the unique nature of the winning bid convinced both the jury and me personally."