Club for Old Prague: The library could be less dominant

Prague - The design of the new building of the National Library in Prague's Letná, according to the Club for Old Prague, is a remarkable and original construction, but it is too dominant in relation to its surroundings. A partial reduction in the volume of the building would benefit its better integration into the local and city-wide context, states a position the association provided to ČTK today.
    According to them, the planned new building significantly intrudes upon traditional views both from the Old Town towards Letná and across the Letná Plain from Holešovice to the west, towards St. Vitus Cathedral. "Especially from distant viewpoints from Letná, its mass unfavorably competes with the slender towers of the cathedral," warns the club. They believe that reducing the building's volume would make it what it is naturally intended to be - a prominent landmark at the boundary of Letná Plain and Bubenec, which would be a sensitive and very innovative addition to the unique views of the Letná panorama.
    The design by architect Jan Kaplický, according to the association, is among remarkable and very original buildings. "It can be said that his organic architecture has found a suitable landscape framework in Letná Plain and that it is possible to speak of a contextually unique building from this perspective. However, its urban context does not end with Letná Plain," the club points out.
    The building is located at the boundary of an open plain and a villa district, which transitions into typical low Bubenec apartment buildings. The size of the neighboring villa houses represents two to three floors, about nine to twelve meters, while the more distant apartment buildings average five to six floors, approximately 18 to 21 meters. The height of the new library reaches about 50 meters, which according to the association significantly exceeds all buildings in the vicinity, evidently "in favor of the aspiration to establish a new city-wide dominant." "This deliberately exaggerated urban dominance is, from our perspective, the only serious problem with the entire project," states the declaration.
    The club also claims that the group of neighboring villa houses has been the subject of deliberate land speculation for several years, which anticipates a massive increase in further development. Therefore, they believe it is necessary to focus on this reality and prevent any purposeful interventions.
    The association believes that an institution like the National Library has undeniable justification by its social significance to desire quality and prominent architecture for its new building. "The Club for Old Prague appreciates the approach of the library's management, which decided to resolve the form of its new building through an international architectural competition. Such a responsible approach is unfortunately rare at present, even among public institutions of similar significance," the authors of the declaration wrote.
    The proposal for the new building of the National Library quickly provoked various reactions within a few days of its announcement. The Ministry of Culture and the Prague magistrate, including its heritage department, express support for the project through their representatives. The National Heritage Institute has yet to state its position. The director of the National Gallery, Milan Knížák, would like to see the building in this form in Prague, but at a different location.