Government Office

The basic prerequisite for the design of the new administrative building of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic is the park of which the proposed building is to be a part of. In a precious urban space, behind the historical representative government buildings, but almost hidden from the eyes of the ordinary passer-by most of the time. There is thus no need for a distinctive architectural gesture, the house is seen as a contemporary back office of the government office, as a cluster of discreet pavilions situated in an enclosed park.

The resulting concept represents an attempt to intervene modestly in this historically precious context. The site is characterised primarily by loose dispersed buildings located in gardens within the perimeter of the block. This dispersion of buildings is further developed, thus creating the basic architectural motif of the design – the form of four pavilion volumes mutually embedded in each other. The resulting form generates four intermediate spaces around it, intimate gardens, each with a different distinctive character. In this way, the house communicates with the surrounding outdoor space – whether through the entrance piazzetta, the living gardens or through the natural auditorium.

The façade of the building forms an important membrane regulating the fluid boundary of the safety zones, making it possible to fully open the relevant parts of the house directly out into the open garden. The staff canteen is located in the parterre of the volume, which is the most exposed to the park area. It is completely openable from all three sides in summer and thus becomes a fully integrated part of the outdoor landscape.

The basic aim was to break the rigidity and genericness of the repetitive office layout. The core of the design becomes a central corridor running across the entire building. It is seen as a sequential space, with views of the park and all four gardens gradually alternating as you pass through. The shifting geometry creates bays within this space that serve as a place to rest, meet and interact for office staff. Common areas such as kitchens, meeting rooms and sanitary facilities are then linked to this axis. The design of the offices themselves is based on a repeating module that allows for maximum flexibility in the layout of the office space.

Government Office

credits

project: Administrative building of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic
location: Bratislava (SK)
team: Ondřej Machač, Natálie Hodková, Georgi Dimitrov,
Daniel Struhařík, Paulína Závacká, Jan Urbášek, Radek Zabloudil
status: completed competition
topics: house in the park, campus, government back office,
office building, working with urban model,
intervention in a historically precious context
images: willbe studio

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