CABLE RAILWAY Podbaba–Troja–Bohnice

The cableway connects the Prague districts of Dejvice, Troja and Bohnice, bridges the Vltava River and passes through one of the most important natural features of Prague - the Troja Valley. The design gracefully enters this fascinating natural element with compactly designed stations with roofs that continuously change and respond to their environment, but also with the design of simple pylons that elegantly integrate all the necessary technical infrastructure within one form. Prague’s new cable railway is thus a highly sustainable, fast, efficient but also pleasant connection between the city’s districts, which Prague so desperately needs.

The jury finds this proposal as the overall best in the competition. The key element of its success is the sensibility and coherency – the authors managed to connect all elements with the design while keeping their unique qualities. Iconic in its own way, the proposal presents subtlety and tactility – creating an articulated architectural family instead of a simple repetition of the design. That is the strongest point that needs to be kept during the further development. The jury also highly praised the contextual approach, urban integration and consideration of the existing conditions. The proposal uses the landscape as integral part of the design and creates very good connections to the waterfront. There is a lot of opportunity in all the stations that now needs strategic inputs. The passenger flow is worth some corrections and editing regarding the walking distances, accesses and elevations, especially in the case of Bohnice station, where functionally and architecturally too many things are happening. The choices in materials and horizontality were appreciated by the jurors, while their recommendation would be to look into and to pay attention to the actual impact of the steel roof – focusing on the connection of materiality and shape. The jury would also like to see the structural elements playing a part of the design storytelling. The pylons now seem too slender, so their further engineering could be the right opportunity for that. Out of the three proposed stations, the Troja one is the most successful and can serve as an inspiration for Bohnice and Podbaba in terms of elegance and proportions. All the stations will need to address the social safety issue. In summary, further work on the proposal is always expected and necessary in the architectural competitions and the jury feels confident in selecting this design to be finalized into a very good project and in the end turn into a successful cable car in operation.

The round design of the stations is based on the circular operation of the cableway and the dynamics of its movement. The interior environment of the stations is strongly visually connected to the surrounding environment. The traffic on the platforms enlivens the surrounding city, the building promotes clarity and visual interactivity. The cable car platforms are easily accessible via ramps and staircases from the surrounding area. The ground floor of the stations is used for shops and restaurants, cafes. The buildings of the cableway station are divided into several parts by floors so that the external scale of the building resembles the division of conventional buildings and follows the scale of the surrounding city.

The jury appreciates the functionality, passenger flow and usability in this proposal, which represent a very high level of quality. The authors are leading the routes in a smart way, integrating retail functions. There is also a very strong concept focusing on the look, brand, design, and pronounced aesthetic language. The consistency of all design elements (stations, cabins and pylons) is powerful and would work successfully for a cable car company as a universal solution. Other aspect highly praised by the jurors is the overall high level of presentation of the project. Where the design, according to the jury, shows some weakness, is in its architectural translation focusing too much on the transportation function, and therefore losing a bit of the contextual integration. As a result, it comes across as quite generic, anonymous and object-oriented architecture, almost industrial design. If there was a need to develop further this proposal, the jury is confident that it would end up very well – with more natural materials and more landscape integration especially in the case of the Troja station that already is small, elegant and compact, but lacks the same lightness that the other two stations display. The authors are quite honest in shapes and sizes of the proposal, not completely honest in the impact on the scenery; the stations are disconnected from the surroundings. Pylons are also presented honestly in a straightforward and realistic way. They are very imposing because of the round shape, which could be solved with further engineer collaboration.

The cable car will enable a new connection between different parts of the city which are right next to each other on the map but are in fact hard to reach from one to the other. It will make the daily commute or visiting friends easier and more comfortable, bringing people in Prague closer together. For those living in other parts of the city or people who are curious to discover new areas, Podbaba, Troja and Bohnice will become more attractive destinations. This project is not just about additional public transport – it is about the places and the people of Prague.

The jury sees in this proposal quite powerful and iconic approach to the design. Especially the Podbaba station looks appealing and properly transport-oriented, almost like a machine. However, using the same architectural language does not work for the other two stations – proposing very heavy volumes for greener areas, where a subtler, gentler approach would be needed. Moreover, the structures are overly romanticized, e.g. their transparency and use of the flat glass roof would undergo some dramatic changes to accommodate maintenance and Prague weather conditions. According to the jury, human element is missing in the very technological concept. It is seen in the not so great usability and passenger flow. The pylon design is again a machine. Appreciated by the jury was the clear effort to create something extra, such as the viewing platform (charming idea, additional storyline), connection of the Bohnice station over the road, or the new parking spaces in close connection to the cable car. The majority of qualities lies in the Podbaba station and it is no wonder that Prague 6 jurors praised highly this part of the proposal. While being traditionally conservative neighborhood, for this area and for the transportation hub typology, the design aesthetics was quite welcome. Overall, however, the idea of making the design permeable and light was gradually lost in the design. The impression of the stations as well as their footprint is huge, their transparency is suspicious to the jurors and the inconsistency in sustainability approach shows some elements of greenwashing. On the other hand, thinking about the future use was regarded as very a positive aspect of this proposal.

The cable car stations, and pylon design are inspired and derived from the geography and built fabric of the Bohnice, Troja and Podbaba areas. Key principles have been established to bring these factors together to provide a cohesive architectural and technical response which feels appropriate to its surroundings and provide a high-quality passenger experience.

The pylons in this design are, according to the jury, quite realistic and smartly approached – slender, with potential of passing underneath them, visually breaking down their scale. The stations are lacking such a clever approach. They are not inviting or attractive; they feel and are massive with quite an old-school design language. The main issues of the jury with this proposal is its misunderstanding of the context of the city of Prague and inconsistency of the design. The only thing tying it together is the use of wood, which again is not contextual at all, and resembles mountain resort approach. At the same time, there is no effort to work with the public space. Usability wise, the flow of the passengers at the Podbaba station works well, but the functionality of the other two stations is poor.

The project was built on the idea of a crystal - the diamond of Prague. The diamond has a main station, the top of each station. The upper part of the body is displayed each time by accentuating it. Floating in the air, shining, shimmering, bright, rarely hewn like a precious stone has a grade grade. Form through participation, as well as imposed in a test project, functional, each time, alternative, can open to the surrounding landscape - identify with and experience it. Such an approach with design solutions allows the spatial preservation as a whole to become an icon of the city. An icon that hovers over the city. There is, and every place in the city, observation and function itself. It is possible to provide new opportunities to provide opportunities to provide new opportunities.

In this proposal, the jury sees great potential and promise, but the architectural idea is under-presented. The unfinished parts of the proposal (such as description for the concept of the surroundings, more detailed visualizations, or three-dimensional view of the pylons) leave too much room for imagination, which makes it difficult to judge. The stations correspond quite well into their urban context. The use of pedestrian underpasses, however, is not a preferred solution since it increases social safety risk. Another conceptual mistake would be placing the middle station on a massive base where quite a permeable building is needed.