Apartment building Ostravian Gate, Ostrava

The apartment building is located in the edge of the old town of Moravian Ostrava, close to the central Masaryk's square. The building "Ostravian gate" is a modern reference of a town gate which used to stay in the same plot. The slightly rounded shape volume defines the east side of Kostelní square, behind the church of St. Wenceslas. It has a key position in the square because it gives a clear and orderly form to the square, which has not been complete. The sixth-storey apartment house is designed as a town house without any balconies and deep loggie. The exception is an inner fagade faced to the Kostelní square, which is more plastic using a red-coloured loggie. The new residential block contains 36 apartments, 7 retail spaces, café and underground parking for 30 cars. The ground floor is intended only for a commercial use, first floor is mixed with a few apartments and the last four floors is just residential - 8 apartment in every floor. Accommodation units are very individual according to a shape of a building, designed in an area from 63 m2 to 119 m2. A strong accent of the building is a northwest corner with a big console. The free space under it provides a beautiful views and vistas from the street Biskupská and makes the street Kostelní optically wider. Inside the building, under the console there is a two-storied café. In front of a large glass wall, which opens up the café to the exterior, there can be outside garden in a summer.

Basic horizontal articulation is vertically divided by a French window built-in to the flat face of a fagade, which is made from black fibre - glass cement panels. Those panels were designed especially for the building. The contrast of materials causes an interesting effect, changing of glossy and opaque parts.

source: magazine ARCHITEKT