Beta Office Building

Prague, Czech Republic

Photo © Radek Plíhal/ Aulik Fiser architects

Architects: Aulik Fiser Architekti

Location: Vyskočilova, 140 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Year: 2005

The Beta office building was designed to match the new development of a similar typology. It is not in touch with the highway as are some neighbouring buildings, does not relate to the existing houses on the opposite side of the street and does not have to cope with the contradictory effects of its surroundings. It may be a simple universal box offering offices to the landlord not far from looking like former premises of factories nowadays replaced by office buildings due to modern job opportunities.

Absolutely flat facades are not meant to be an abstract composition, but a structure wrapping the whole building. It introduces a rhythm to the interior by three types of natural lighting - by windows of variable heights of plinths and walls above lintels offering various types of office areas (an open space, an individual office, a meeting room). Two atriums separated by a bridge between two lift cores improve the natural lighting of internal areas. Thanks to the glazed roof one atrium becomes a part of the interior; the second one remains open to the exterior.