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The office building Corso IIa which shapes up the continuation of the already completed Corso Karlín in Køižíkova street is a truly unique project in every aspect. Its modern architecture is not just a self-focused or purposeless effort; the whole concept respects the full-ranged functionality and serviceability required from a building of this type. Corso IIa is not only a representational facility for a business seat offering a perfect background at high industry standards, but more importantly, it is also a place which provides an environment where employees and their guests can feel comfortable, relaxed and secure. This can be ascertained in practise by the employees of companies who became the first-line tenants at Corso IIa – namely Vitra, Proximity, Teliacall, Veolia Transport, JC Decaux, Alfa Management, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Training of the Czech Republic or Deutche Boerse.
The office floor space of 13 000 m2 shelters a communication core with four elevators and two stairways, a variable dimensional arrangement for an open space, showrooms on the street level, a restaurant, a supervised three-level car park with a capacity for 140 cars, a satellite and own TV antenna . The convenient situation of the building close to the city center guarantees its future tenants easy access to services, civic amenities, traffic connections and public transport routes.
The author-architect of the project, Ricardo Bofill and his studio Taller de Arquitectura, have cooperated with Real Estate Karlin Group on the revitalization of Palác Karlín and the development of Corso Karlín. Bofill alone is enthusiastic about Karlín. „Whichever city I work in, I endeavour to keep its Genius Loci. Industrial manufacturing draws away from cities – and cities undergo changes and restructuring. Karlín fascinates me mostly by its industrial architecture. Industrial districts are places which possess a specific memory. That memory has to be preserved,“ conveys the author of the structures – among other including
Congress Center in Saint Petersburg, Hotel Vela in Barcelona, South Terminal of the Barcelona Airport, residential projects on New York's 5th Avenue and many other.
According to REKG leader Serge Borenstein, a good architect is the solid prerequisite for a successful project:
„There are encounters that may have influence you for the rest of your life. For me, such a fatal moment was my first acquaintance with Prague, the city which I started to love and I where I found a new home; another moment of the same feeling came across was when I met Ricardo Bofill. It is not quite usual to have the developer's and architect's visions become so concerted and interwoven like ours. And I think it is quite visible in the projects we have already completed together.”
Corso IIa recorded its first success in having been nominated for the Best of Realty Award in the office buildings category.
The development of the next stage – CORSO IIb – shall be launched in the wake of the present success, that is by the end of this year. |
