Downtown Kerling
After sunday walk in Banska Štiavnica we have noticed that town is alive. Main central street is full of people, the are sitting on terraces, drinking coffee or they are hidden in an inner yards behind town buildings, eating their Sunday lunch together. Courtyard is one of the town specific elements, each with its own atmosphere. On the border of historic centre, as an abstract gate to the town, there is a former tobacco factory and huge area of nothing in front of it. We are trying to create a new beginning of the centre, a gate to the historical town, one big house, one long house, and toothy houses…
Our design consists of 3 basic parts: Apartment block, public and social area and raw/terraced housing.
In the first part, there is an apartment block above shopping arcade. We could find there restaurants and bars viewing the old factory as well as necessary health-medical care. On the roof, there is a part with multisport court under sky but still providing enough privacy being hidden behind wall with window shape openings. Building has an inner atrium for its residents. It is the kind of urban living that combines housing /low-cost apartments included/services, and leisure in a symmetrical mass with a grid facade and adjustable external screen blinds.
Conversion of former factory parterre could positively influence the public space ahead of it. By removing cars and creating a pedestrian zone, a new and lively street is brought to existence. From one side we can hear clanging of plates and cups and from the other side one can catch a glimpse of enthusiastic businessmen and startuppers who work in a creative co-working atmosphere. The height difference between the residential building and the tobacco house is solved by a grocery shop embedded in the slope, with only one entrance facade visible.
From the market square, public stairs lead us to the second section with info centre and a small theatre. The new theatre is a multifunctional space for organizing performances, lectures, and various social events. Behind the theatre there is an immersed platform tailored for open-air events, projection, and bazaars. A white corner building built on a stone base provides a space for an info centre, the upper floors are used for multi-age leisure time activities. The buildings roof adopts the shape of neighbouring Kerling Hotel, which passes through the whole territory. The long building of the hotel has besides the double, triple and four-bed rooms also two outdoor hotel suites, a restaurant with a terrace, a bar, and a spa centre with a gym. From the hotel foyer, which forms the core of the hotel, we can see the garden and the “concrete twins” /hotel suites/ through a glass wall. A staircase tube in the foyer comes out through the roof like a chimney and the skylight on its top illuminates the staircase. The hotel evening bar is a part of the foyer. Through a peephole on the upper square in front of the hotel, which is part of a skylight volume one can peep inside an underground gallery, whose roof forms a public garden, which is the restaurant terrace aw well. This small art gallery has a bookshop with a café at the entrance.
The third part of the project is dedicated to housing and small workshops, where it is possible to start a business. Smaller terraced houses function as family houses, bigger ones as residential homes. Small river Štiavnička is now piped. We uncover the river and create the only water element in the city.
An underground parking spreads below the whole territory. It is connected to the individual parts by several cores. Two of the exits are public and
serve to visitors and tourists. For tour buses, there is a designated area before the entrance to the underground parking, where a grid of trees provides shade and determines parking spaces. Whole area, including interiors, is designed as a barrier-free.