Tall & Urban News

The title of the city with the Czech Republic’s tallest building could soon pass from Brno back to the capital, if plans for constructing a new skyscraper in the Nové Butovice suburb of Prague are given the green light.

Top Tower, a project designed by the studio that features renowned sculptor David Černý, would be 135 meters tall and feature a massive, rusted-out “ship” embedded in its structure.

The unveiling of the plan to build Top Tower, came with a promo video that highlights the dangers of climate change. To some, the building evokes feelings of the inevitability of man’s eventual fall.

A giant rusty shipwreck, its bow reaching for the sky, cuts through the main building. Plants growing out of the hull seem to symbolize man’s creation slowly being reclaimed by nature.

According to Tomáš Císař, the lead architect of Black n´Arch studio, which designed the provocative structure, the building also serves as a pedestal for the ship.

“This is something we wanted to do as a memento which connects art and architecture. It is actually a post-apocalyptic message about what is happening around. The L-shape of the building is kind of catastrophic. It serves as a pedestal for the statue. It is more solid, and the ship is going through it. It is sort of a fresh apocalyptic picture.”

The inside of the building forms a courtyard that is dominated by a massive, rusty ship propeller placed in the center.

Mr. Císař says that this will be a multi-purpose structure, housing rented apartments, offices and retail stores.

The “shipwreck” will also feature an elevator that will transport visitors up to its highest point, where they can view the capital’s famous panorama.

The investor for the CZK2 billion (US$85 million) project, which was first unveiled at an international urban conference last week, is the Prague-based developer company Trigema.

According to the company’s spokesman Radek Polák, Top Tower will connect to a nearly kilometer-long pedestrian zone running from Nové Butovice metro station.

Asked about whether City Hall has authorized the construction yet, Mr. Císař says that negotiations are currently in their initial phase, but the work could well start soon.

“We hope that the construction could begin in 2021, and it would take about two and a half years.”

If all goes according to plan, Top Tower will be David Černý’s third imprint on the Nové Butovice neighborhood, together with his Trigema statue and the Cyberdog winery, which was designed by the Černý-Císař duo.

For more on this story go to Radio Prague.