Reclaim Žižkov Master's Thesis (part 3)

RECLAIM PRAGUE

A COLLECTIVE LIVING

NETWORK

MARTIN MRÁZ

UNIVERSITY OF LIECHTENSTEIN

WS2021

3 THE BLOCK

BUILDING A COLLECTIVE LIVING NETWORK

Fig.31 INTERSECTIONS

private space / collective space / public space

(author's drawing)

EXTENDING

A similar method is applied on the wider block's perimeter. Yet, the initial sketch shows the growing complexity of intersections. While the primary school allows building up a diverse housing capacity to accommodate a wider target group, the groundfloor connections provide opportunity to reclaim exterior public spaces as a contraposition to the overly formal square in front of the block. Bonding a range of public to private functions into a collaborative complex, where collectives of people overlap both structurally and spatially is the first attempt to outline a collective living network.

connection between the seed and the rest of the block begins at the theatrical patio which allows the Reclaimed Theatre open to the exterior

(author's drawing)

Fig.32 PATIO

ground floor connections with the public space

(author's drawing)

Fig.33 RECLAIMING THE BLOCK

Fig.34 THEATRICAL PASAGE

connects the seed with the school building and the courtyard; it leads to a public cafeteria, private entrance to the schoo building, new public entrance to the seed, and leads to a patio with where the Reclaimed Theater can open and perform an exterior event observed from the stairs leading to the garden

(author's drawing)

COLLECTIVE LOBBY

is a connecting space in between private entrances to the building; here, residents pick up their mail, recieve guests, look after children that play next to the library, or go have lunch into the caffeteria that has a table reserved for the residents

(author's drawing)

Fig.35

SQUAREMAIN

Fig.36 FLEXIBLE PASSAGE

is connecting the courtyard with the public square; along the passage a series of flexible rooms are offered for rent to be used as offices, music rooms, or occasional meeting rooms; looking through the passage one sees the courtyard workshop

(author's drawing)

ADVENTUROUS PLAYGROUND WINTER GARDEN

Fig.37 COMMUNAL GARDEN

is made accesible to the public as a contra argument against the overly formal public square; enetering through one of the passages we pass by the garage workshop, adventurous playground with a water pump, hidden sauna, and exit through the winter garden; each part has its own responsible group being part of the living collective network

(author's drawing)

Fig.38 RECLAIMING THE BLOCK

typical floor (author's drawing)

CLASSROOM APARTMENT

is the most repeatable unit of the former primary school; its height allows creating lofts and splitting the classroom into two studios apartments or keeping it as one unit of two bedrooms or live&work situation

(author's drawing)

LIFE & WORK / 3,5 ROOMS

Fig.39

hall apartment

studio apartments

Live&Work or 3,5 rooms

4,5 rooms

cluster apartment

private shared space

flex rooms / cafeteria

passage

attic floor: multi-cluster

3rd floor: classroom apartments, common room, laundry, hall apartment

2nd floor: classroom apartments, common room, laundry, hall apartment

1st floor: classroom apartments, common room, laundry, hall apartment

RECLAIM PRAGUE COLLECTIVE: school

50 - 80 people

hall apartment

4,5 rooms

cluster apartment

studio apartments

Live&Work or 3,5 rooms

Ground floor: passages, flex rooms, cafeteria, lobby

Fig.40 HOUSING OVERVIEW

With arranging classroom apartments around the former primary school we achieve a certain mix of apartments. Hall apartments are kept empty with only necessary connection to sanitation, to allow the renters building up their own structures or using them as artistic studios. Live&Work apartments are a flexible layout allowing either connecting room into a bigger flat or splitting into a smaller flat with a separated home office. All floors are situated along the common hallway connected to a common room and laundry room. Multi-cluster apartment is the exception of the attic floor, which offers larger layout of private rooms around common living rooms and kitchens.

(author's drawing)

Fig.41 NETWORKING

Proposed ansamble of spaces and functions counts a large number of responsibilities adn relationships. In connecting the individual projects into a network lies the potential of Reclaim Prague. While individual houses might become difficult to refurbish into the desirable state, interconnected they can balance each other disabilities.

(author's drawing)

Fig.42 COMMUNAL GARDEN

(author's drawing)

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would like to return to the thesis question: In the context of Prague’s housing crisis, how can the architecture of collective living play its part in creating a desirable, affordable, and robust city?

Reclaim Prague has set itself the task of exploring ways to find one's own space in an urban landscape plagued by the housing crisis. Through the systematic support of civic activity, Reclaim Prague proposes a mode of collective housing which generates spaces for living, meeting, work, creativity, and leisure while giving the inhabitants a louder voice to determine what happens in the neighborhood around them. This initiative was placed in the same block as the Žižkov town hall as an ideal foothold for establishing a collective living network. Working with a specific building in an established context became a test of the potential and pitfalls of this concept, both at a systematic level and at an architectural level.

The opening chapter bridges the short pause between the completion of the Preliminary Study and the beginning of the design semester, summarizing the current approach Prague has toward the affordable housing shortage. The City is concentrating on diversifying the housing sector, making more municipal and collective housing stock available and developing the missing legislative frameworks for their implementation, proving the urgency of the current situation. This was announced in the theoretical part of Reclaim Prague with specific focus on a systematic solution of financing and organizational structures for collective housing. It is precisely these instruments that Prague is currently working to develop. However, the amount of political energy needed to develop these new mechanisms will see a long lag time between ambitions and realities, as the city itself acknowledges. So what tangible action is left to be taken to improve the situation through projects such as Reclaim Prague?

In the chapter Seed, on a small scale, we encounter the occupation of an empty house and its conversion into housing. Renovation of this building back to housing is possible, as shown in an existing study by the City. However, the site presented difficulties for the ambitions of the Reclaim Prague project. It proved difficult to combine housing with another function on such a scale without sacrificing valuable living space. Furthermore, finding room to convert to apartments which would connect with additional shared social spaces appeared troublesome due to the building’s typology and the northern orientation. Solutions to this issue began to reveal themselves when the building came to be perceived in relation to its standing neighbours, opening possibilities to discover connections and yet to be materialized spaces .

The town hall block has a very advantageous position and enjoys a diverse urban context. The three vacant buildings of different scales and qualities connected by a courtyard enables work to be phased in deliberate steps. The possibility of using a small house as an activating seed, which sets out the house principles and program, and later extending these principles to a larger scale was a key advantage to the site. A small scale project would both reduce the risk to the founding collective and make it possible to test the boundaries of cooperation with the City. Thanks to connecting the buildings of one owner - Prague municipality - it was possible to occupy spaces that would normally be very difficult to use. The surrounding buildings could thus benefit from Reclaim Prague without having to participate directly. However, making such an assumption to freely appropriate such spaces would, in reality, be subject to many regulations and restrictions, which in some cases were deliberately interpreted freely.

Despite the difficulties, it was possible to use these connections to design diverse spaces for the benefit of people living either in the Reclaim Prague buildings or in the surrounding area. This is where the main potential of the collective living network lies. Although some empty buildings are not suitable for conversion to housing or, conversely, do not meet the requirements for collective spaces, linking individual projects into a cooperative network will create an ecosystem where one piece supports the other and vice versa. Likewise, individual conversions do not produce amounts of apartments to cure housing crisis, but they can create a shift towards a diverse urban environment created by people for people.

LIST OF REFERENCES

CAMP. (2020, October 21). Collective Housing: Baugruppe. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=712953379 305664&ref=watch_permalink

informal collective Klinika. (2014). Project: Autonomous Social Center Klinika.

iPR Prague. (n.d.). Metropolitní Plán Prahy. Retrieved 23 November 2020, from https://plan.app.iprpraha.cz/ vykresy/

Mráz, M. (2020). Reclaim Prague: A Collective Living Network [Preliminary Study]. University of Liechtenstein.

Prague 3. (2015, January 16). Do Havlíčkova náměstí jsou vepsány dějiny Žižkova. Praha 3. https://www.praha3. cz/radnicni-noviny/tema-mesice/do-havlickova-namesti-jsou-vepsany-dejiny-zizkova-n577650.htm

Prague 3. (2019, November 20). Usnesení č.784. Praha 3. https://www.praha3.cz/samosprava/rada/usneseni/ x2019/usneseni-c-784-r495887.htm

Prázdné Domy. (n.d.-a). MD Štítného 207/40 | Databáze domů s historií. Retrieved 23 November 2020, from https://prazdnedomy.cz/domy/objekty/detail/254-md-stitneho-207-40

Prázdné Domy. (n.d.-b). ZŠ Havlíčkovo náměstí 300/10 | Databáze domů s historií. Retrieved 23 November 2020, from https://prazdnedomy.cz/domy/objekty/detail/1863-zs-havlickovo-namesti-300-10 SPACE10, & Urgent.Agency. (2018). IMAGINE. SPACE10. https://space10.com/project/imagine-shared-living/ Turner, V. (n.d.). Žižkov • Paměť města. Retrieved 19 November 2020, from https://pamet-mesta.cz/zizkov/

figures:

Google Maps. (n.d.). [Google Maps 3D view of Havlíčkovo náměstí, Žižkov, Prague]. Retrieved 13 January 2021, from https://www.google.com/maps/place/Praha,+%C4%8Cesko/@50.0595854,14.3255422,11z/ data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x470b939c0970798b:0x400af0f66164090!8m2!3d50.0755381!4d14.4378005

Historické fotografie—Žižkov—Havlíčkovo. (n.d.). Retrieved 23 November 2020, from http://www.fotohistorie.cz/ Praha/Praha-mesto/Zizkov/Zizkov_-_Havlickovo/Default.aspx?photoID=17850#detailnext

Revitalizace Havlíčkova náměstí. (n.d.). Česká cena za architekturu. Retrieved 24 November 2020, from https:// ceskacenazaarchitekturu.cz/projekty/2018/revitalizace-havlickova-namesti/

Staré pohlednice Praha Žižkov. (n.d.). Retrieved 23 November 2020, from https://www.starapraha.cz/pohlednicepraha-zizkov.php

LIST OF FIGURES

FIG.1 RECLAIM PRAGUE SCOPE

FIG.2 RECLAIM PRAGUE DIAGRAM

FIG.3 REASONS FOR VACANCY

FIG.4 POSITION IN PRAGUE

FIG.5 ŽIŽKOV TERRITORY

FIG.6 LOWER ŽIŽKOV

FIG.7 TOWN HALL BLOCK

FIG.8 VACANT BUILDINGS

FIG.9 MAIN SQUARE EARLY STATE

FIG.10 MAIN SQUARE NOW

FIG.11 INFORMALITY

FIG.12 CREATIVITIY

FIG.13 IMPROVISATION

FIG.14 SEED DEVELOPMENT

FIG.15 SITUATION DOORS

FIG.16 HOLLOW WALL

FIG.17 BACKYARD PADDING

FIG.18 ROOFTOP CONTAINERS

FIG.19 LIBERATED LOBBY

FIG.20 SPLIT BAR

FIG.21 RECLAIMED THEATRE

FIG.22 RECLAIMED THEATRE

FIG.23 FLATMATE FOYER

FIG.24 GROUND FLOOR

FIG.25 FIRST FLOOR

FIG.26 SECOND FLOOR

FIG.27 THIRD FLOOR

FIG.28 FOURTH FLOOR

FIG.29 RECLAIM PRAGUE COLLECTIVE

FIG.30 SEED AXONOMETRIC SECTION

FIG.31 INTERSECTIONS

F ig.32 PAT i O

FIG.33 RECLAIMING THE BLOCK

FIG.34 THEATRICAL PASAGE

FIG.35 COLLECTIVE LOBBY

FIG.36 FLEXIBLE PASSAGE

FIG.37 COMMUNAL GARDEN

FIG.38 RECLAIMING THE BLOCK

FIG.39 CLASSROOM APARTMENT

FIG.40 HOUSING OVERVIEW

FIG.41 NETWORKING

FIG.42 COMMUNAL GARDEN

AFFIDATIV

I hereby declare under penalty of perjury that the present paper has been prepared independently by myself and without unpermitted aid. Anything that has been taken verbatim or paraphrased from other writings has been identified as such. This paper has hitherto been neither submitted to an examining body in the same or similar form, nor published. I herewith confirm that my digitally submitted thesis book is identical to this printed version.

Vaduz, 14.01.2021

Signature: Martin Mráz