Study provides Prague City Hall with vision for new neighbourhood

Visualisation of Bubny neighbourhood, source: Institute of Planning and Development

Up to 25,000 people could be living in Prague 7‘s Bubny neighbourhood, at least according to a study commissioned by Prague City Hall, whose results were announced at a press conference of Tuesday.

Visualisation of Bubny neighbourhood,  source: Institute of Planning and Development
The largely uninhabited area of Prague called Bubny can be seen as a wasted opportunity when it comes to development.

Located close to the centre, near Prague’s Letná hill, the area covers around 1,8 million square meters of brownfield land.

However, in 15 to 20 years, it could be home to a whole new neighbourhood containing residential and administrative housing, with a metro station close by. That is the vision of a study which has been presented to journalists by its authors as well as representatives of Prague City Hall and the Institute of Planning and Development.

According to architect Petr Pelčák, one of the authors of the study, the main target is to connect some of Prague’s historical neighbourhoods, which he says are currently both pointing in the opposite direction.

He says that the envisioned building project will fit in well with surrounding neighbourhoods such as Holešovice and Zátory, maintaining their unique character.

The centre of the projected new district will be centred around a park, with administrative housing on its eastern side and high-rising houses in the northern area around the Nádraží Holešovice metro station.

Around 60 percent of the total area would be covered in residential housing.

The neighbourhood would also feature a concert hall and the local tramline infrastructure would receive a significant reworking in order to fit into the newly built streets.

All the while, some historical buildings such as Bubny Train Station, the local electric plant and the waterworks would be preserved.

While this is not the first idea on how to use the large brownfield area, the head of Prague‘s Institute of Planning and Development Ondřej Boháč says that these were simply engineering plans that lacked an urbanistic vision.