National Gallery entrance reconstruction and extension, Prague
COOPERATION
DAM architekti
The principle of the reconstruction was renovation and integration of the original baroque palace's entrance hall by an architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi, where the unsuitable parting was removed and spatial arrangement disturbing openings were built up. The Gallery basic customer service (box-office, check-room and publication shop) was moved to the new building, which was built-in to the former base-court between Šternberk and Archbishop Palace. This built-in has two roof levels - lower roof over the support area (check-room, box-office) with planted greenery on it. This solution creates an illusion of real courtyard ground, when looking from neighbouring windows. From this "ground" level there arises conical mass of the small hall - publications shop with glazed roof and hanged louvre for light dispersion. The sense of embedded body is also emphasized by exterior material transition (copper profiles) into the check-room interior. The interior of this part of the building, with its large elevation accentuated by the view through glass roof, affords extraordinary space for publication selling as well as for occasional small exhibitions.
