Mateo Arquitectura

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Between Sky and Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Mateo Arquitectura

STATUS
Built

AREA
10,000 Sqft - 25,000 Sqft

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Prague, Czech Republic

TYPE
Cultural › Museum

BETWEEN SKY AND EARTH

Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012Connecting Hall, Main Entrance of the National Gallery and access between the palaces Salm and Schwarzenberg.

International Competition, First Award, 2004In the grounds of Prague Castle, among various palaces currently reused to house the National Gallery, the brief was to design a small building that provides an entrance to the museum complex.

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Two parallel surfaces organize what used to be an empty space without weighing it down: one forms the floor, the other the roof.

The floor emerges as a surface layer of the earth, folding subtly over itself to adapt to minor differences in level and ease access to the neighbouring buildings.

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

It is hard but it also conserves some of its organic nature, materialized in plants, earth and water.

The roof, the boundary that separates us from the sky, is a continuous sheet that does not quite touch the buildings around it, producing great skylights and generating an enigmatic interplay of reflections.

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

 An organic layer, topped with gravel, that marks the bounds of a secret garden.

Space is the gaseous fluid that moves between these two limits. The inner space is open, flexible, multiple and complex, as well as light filled.

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Its vertical limits are the existing façades, their only tectonicity expressed in the topography of the ground.

The rest is light, reflections, and the dialogue, almost without touching, between roof and walls.

Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

The precision of iron, in the hands of local artisans, gives form to this narrative.


Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012


Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012
Between Sky And Earth: Prague National Gallery Entrance Hall 2004-2012

Mateo Arquitectura
T + 34 932 186358
Mateo Arquitectura
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